Mike Dada says candidates should combine data-driven digital campaigns with grassroots engagement as Nigeria prepares for the 2027 elections
Politicians seeking elective office in Nigeria’s 2027 elections should start building their public reputations well before the campaign period and develop digital strategies based on evidence about voters, marketing expert Mike Dada has said.
Dada, Managing Director of PRM Africa Marketing and Communications Limited, said politicians could no longer rely mainly on rallies, posters, traditional media and established political structures to communicate with an increasingly fragmented electorate.
His comments come as political parties and prospective candidates prepare for the next general election, with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) having set 20 February 2027 for the presidential and National Assembly elections and 6 March for governorship and State House of Assembly elections.
The election timetable means politicians are already operating within a defined electoral cycle, although some pre-election timelines have faced legal challenges. The Court of Appeal later set aside a Federal High Court judgment that had nullified parts of INEC’s guidelines for the 2027 elections.
Why digital campaigning matters
Dada said technology, artificial intelligence and data analytics were changing how political campaigns identify voters, communicate with them and measure the effect of campaign messages.
“Digital marketing is no longer an ‘alternative’ channel; it is the primary battlefield. In a world of evolving tech, digital marketing allows for micro-targeting, precision, and measurement. We can send one message to a farmer in the North and a different, tailored message to a tech enthusiast in Lagos, while maintaining the core brand essence. It provides the feedback loop that traditional media lacks. It is not the future; it is now,” he said.
His argument reflects a wider shift in how Nigerians consume information, particularly among younger citizens.
Afrobarometer research shows that young Nigerians have different political priorities from older generations. In a 2023 analysis, 70% of Nigerians aged 18 to 35 had at least secondary education, while unemployment, insecurity and economic management ranked among their leading concerns.
But a younger electorate does not automatically mean a more politically active one.
Afrobarometer found that young Nigerians were less likely than older citizens to participate in several political activities, including voting and attending community meetings. That makes simply reaching young people online different from persuade them to participate in elections.
Branding cannot replace a political record
Dada said politicians should regard their personal reputation, values, records and communication as parts of a wider political brand instead of trying to reinvent themselves shortly before an election.
“Branding is not a coat of paint you slap on two months before an election.” It is a reputation built over time,” Dada said. “Define your ‘Brand Essence’ early. What do you stand for? If you wait until 2027 to tell us who you are, the opposition will tell us who you are first.”
The distinction matters because political branding can shape how voters understand a candidate, but communication cannot by itself establish whether a candidate has delivered on previous promises.
Dada said political branding should therefore go beyond attractive posters, television adverts and social media posts.
He argued that campaigns should begin with an assessment of the electorate, followed by demographic and psycho-graphic analysis, voter segmentation and targeted communication.
Dada said his company had managed 16 elections from start to finish, although that claim has not been independently verified by Olokuns Media Network.
Data could help campaigns measure voter response
Dada also argued that political campaigns should use data to assess whether their messages are reaching and influencing the intended audiences.
“We no longer guess. We need to count the numbers for it to count. In any case, democracy is a game of numbers. Through sentiment analysis, digital footprint tracking, evaluation, consistent control, and periodic polling, we can measure the ‘conversion rate’ of a campaign. We can see how a specific message moved a specific demographic in a specific geopolitical zone. If your marketing isn’t moving the needle in the polls or social sentiment, you know you need to pivot,” he said.
However, digital data has limitations.
Online engagement does not necessarily represent the views of the wider electorate. Social media users can also encounter targeted political messages without knowing why particular content has been shown to them.
The experience of the 2023 elections also highlighted the risks.
A joint election observation mission by the National Democratic Institute and International Republican Institute documented widespread misinformation, disinformation and hate speech during the 2023 election cycle. It said false information circulated online and sometimes moved into offline media, contributing to voter confusion and mistrust.
Reuters similarly reported ahead of the 2023 presidential election that misinformation and fabricated political content were spreading across social media platforms, creating challenges for voters and fact-checkers.
That means the increased use of artificial intelligence and data-driven campaigning could create opportunities for better voter communication while also increasing the scale and speed of misleading political content.
Digital campaigns cannot replace grassroots politics
Dada acknowledged that limitation and said online campaigning should work alongside physical engagement.
“It is important I point out that political marketing needs to be married with push strategy, OTG – on-the-ground work – for success or for the campaign objective to be achieved,” he said.
That point is particularly important in Nigeria, where access to digital platforms remains uneven across age groups, locations and socioeconomic groups.
Afrobarometer research across Africa shows that social media is increasingly important for younger audiences, but older citizens and less connected communities continue to rely more heavily on traditional information channels.
For candidates, the implication is that a campaign built entirely around social media risks missing voters who are less connected to the internet.
For voters, greater use of digital campaigning could make it easier to access candidates and compare their positions. It could also expose them to more personalised political advertising, misinformation and partisan content.
Voter information remains a wider challenge
The digital debate also comes as INEC prepares for the 2027 election and works to strengthen the voter register.
INEC said in February that the register used for the 2023 election contained 93,469,008 registered voters. The commission said it had identified concerns including duplicate registrations, registration by non-citizens, deceased voters and incomplete or inaccurate records, and announced plans for a nationwide voter revalidation exercise.
The integrity of voter information will matter alongside the quality of campaign information.
A sophisticated digital campaign may help a candidate communicate more efficiently, but it cannot resolve questions about voter registration, access to polling units, election security, turnout or confidence in the electoral process.
Before the 2023 election, an Afrobarometer survey found that only 23% of Nigerians said they trusted INEC somewhat or a lot, while 78% expressed little or no trust in the commission.
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Dada asks governments to improve policy communication
Dada extended his argument beyond election campaigns, urging governments to invest more in communicating policies and programmes to citizens.
“Governments often treat public affairs communication as ‘propaganda’ rather than ‘engagement’. They use unqualified civil servants or ‘information officers’ to do the job of brand specialists.
“The result is a disconnect and miscommunication you see everywhere in Africa: a government is performing, but citizens feel neglected and distant.” Governments must learn that selling a policy is just as important as implementing it. Governments at all levels need to understand the necessity of investing heavily and building intangible assets such as reputation, perception, mutual understanding, and trust for the purpose of legitimacy and policy support from citizens,” Dada said.
Effective public communication can help citizens understand government programmes, but it also creates a responsibility for governments to provide accurate information and allow room for scrutiny.
Communication cannot substitute for implementation. Citizens ultimately judge policies not only by how they are presented but also by their effects on jobs, security, living costs, public services and living conditions.
What happens next?
With the 2027 presidential and National Assembly elections scheduled for February, parties and prospective candidates have limited time to establish their public identities and communicate their policies to voters.
Dada’s argument places digital communication at the centre of that preparation, but the evidence from previous elections suggests that successful voter engagement will require more than online visibility.
Candidates will have to combine digital communication with credible records, clear policy positions, grassroots engagement and accurate information.
For voters, the growing sophistication of political marketing makes independent scrutiny increasingly important. A polished online presence may explain what a candidate wants voters to believe about them; it does not, by itself, establish what they have achieved or what they are capable of delivering.
