A leaked Public Relations strategy paper to prop up the image of President Lazarous Chakwera has acknowledged that the President’s popularity is declining fast across the country, just a year after being voted into office.
The private and confidential document titled ‘ Brand Identity Strategy Concept Note:says the wide support and love that Chakwera enjoyed last year is waning and the direction of the country remain unclear.
The strategy attributes the sudden turn of events to delays in decision making, failure to honour promises, and reversal of decisions as some of the reasons and a general lack of strategists and strong media team to sell the presidents agenda and fan off criticism and propaganda.
But unprecedented rise in corruption, scandals in government and nepotism in the appointment of officers are some of the reasons to Chakwera’s loss of popularity, which have not been highlighted in the strategy paper.
However, the strategy paper boldly admits that MCP’s alliance partner, UTM is fast and better at political spinning and presence on social media.
The document has also acknowledged that Vice President Dr Saulos Chilima is professionally and well covered on social media and in mainstream media during the visits he makes to various development projects across the country.
The strategy has also noted that Chakwera has also lost the support and influence of renowned social media commentators who supported him on his way to state house.
In order to improve the image of the President and regaining the support, the strategy proposes to embark on several strategies which include use of “resonating” chiefs to promote Chakwera, enlist commentators to promote the image of the President.
The strategy also proposes to ” poach some big fish” from the opposition and alliance partner UTM to join MCP, implement a youth care strategy and launch a stimulus package to empower people economically.
The strategy paper has been authored by one of MCP’s well known operative Fredreck Changaya who is also a marketer by profession.