“This is the man with the golden
touch,” Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo excitedly told a guest in full glare of
jubilant supporters and an observing press. “Anything he touches turns to
gold.”
Adebola with President Buhari |
He is talking about Adebola Williams, chief executive officer of StateCraft Inc, the communication agency that helped power
Ghana’s three-time presidential aspirant to a victory this time, becoming
President in January.
He is not exaggerating. Williams, only 30 this year, has turned
out to be the continent’s leading authority on winning elections, running a
governance communication company that won the presidential elections in Nigeria
in 2015 and then won the presidential elections in Ghana in 2016.
Both elections are eerily similar. Both incumbents, as
Vice-Presidents had stumbled into public office based on the deaths of their
principals. Both entered into office on a wave of wild popularity. Their
opponents had run at least twice each before (three in the case of Nigeria’s
Muhammadu Buhari) – and both had won in the years that they brought in
StateCraft Inc to manage their political communication. Both campaigns ran on a
‘Change’ message.
“Because the conditions were so
similar, it was easy to replicate a message of ‘Change’,” Williams says during
an interview. “Not every election and every context will require a message of
change, even though it’s a global movement. “But many countries in West Africa
and across Africa are ripe, even desperate for change.”
Williams is co-founder of RED, which is the 11-year-old parent company that houses
StateCraft Inc. It’s a network of four media companies focused on Africa’s
youth: Red Media Africa, a Public Relations company working in West Africa for
Facebook, Uber, Union Bank and Heineken; Generation Y!, a TV and online content
company with one of Nigeria’s most popular online newspapers and The Future Project, a
social enterprise that hosts Africa’s biggest youth social change event, The
Future Awards Africa.
His career began first in film 16 years ago and then in the media
began 13 years ago, working for a youth counseling company and soon
co-presenting two shows on Nigeria’s National Television Authority. He parleyed
that into a thriving career as a TV producer, working for Nigeria
International, a syndicated TV show in three continents; and Living it on South Africa’s Mnet.
Culled from FORBES.com
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