Witnessing the Change

"Strategy is the single most important factor in a political campaign. This is the most important lesson I have learned... The right strategy can survive a mediocre campaign, but even a brilliant campaign is likely to fail if the strategy is wrong." - Joseph Napolitan, US political strategist Why did PDP decide to field Goodluck Jonathan as its candidate for 2015 presidential election? Why did APC decide to respond to PDP's charge with Muhammadu Buhari who appears to have given up hope of winning the presidency earlier in 2011? Why did Jonathan decide to accept the result of the election against popular expectation to the contrary? What are the political techniques adopted by both parties? What are the influences of both parties' agents of influence on the outcome of the election? These questions, even after the elections have been concluded, are still rooted in mystery or at best, answered on conjectures. Witnessing the Change is an intriguing story of the Nigerian 2015 presidential election told from the perspective of a participant observer. Prior to 2015 in Nigeria, no one in the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) thought the giant umbrella (the party's famous logo) could be thoroughly torn apart in a presidential election except the architects of the party. The 2015 presidential election produced the unimaginable. "Elections are won and lost on the altar of strategy," writes the author who has worked as a political specialist for several campaigns. The author analysed the "critical decisions" made by both parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People's Democratic Party (PDP) that proved to be the difference as regards the outcome of the election.