By TONY USIDAMEN
Every government has two responsibilities. The first is to govern. The second is to help citizens understand what it is doing and why it is doing it. Success in the first does not automatically guarantee success in the second. Examples abound of governments that implemented difficult reforms but failed to carry the public along. There are also those that communicated difficult realities so effectively that even people who disagreed with specific policies understood the rationale behind them. The difference was not always the quality of policy. More often than many governments realise or acknowledge, it was the quality of communication. That distinction matters more today than at any other time in recent history.
Public opinion is no longer shaped primarily by official statements or newspaper headlines. It is shaped minute by minute across television, radio, online publications, podcasts, WhatsApp groups, X, Facebook, TikTok and countless other platforms where competing narratives constantly vie for attention. In this environment, communication is not a support function of governance; it is an instrument of governance. Yet governments frequently misunderstand the role of spokespersons. Many assume that their primary responsibility is to respond to critics, defend decisions, and win arguments.
