The All Progressives Congress (APC) has chosen Mr. Lanre Issa-Onilu as its substantive national publicity secretary.
He takes over from Mr. Yekini Nabena who served in acting capacity since the exit of the former spokesman, Mr. Bolaji Abdullahi resigned on August 1 and defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Issa-Onilu’s appointment was ratified at the party’s national working committee (NWC) in Abuja on Friday.
He ran for the position at the party’s elective convention that held in June but lost to Abdullahi.
They are both from Kwara State.
The new spokesman was said to have been backed by President Muhammadu Buhari and the national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu at the convention but however he lost, coming second.
Issa-Onilu has worked as journalist for 15 years and is a specialist in strategic public communications planning.
The new spokesman is a graduate of mass communication from the University of Lagos and holds a master’s in integrated marketing communications from West Virginia University, US.
He was an assistant editor of Sunday ThisDay newspaper.
Before he joined ThisDay, he was news editor at the Comet Newspapers.
Issa-Onilu is a corporate member of the International Communications Conference (ICC) at the Baruch College State University of New York, US.
He is also an associate member of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) and an associate member of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).
He has written many papers on crisis communication and public communication among other topics.
