Barely 48 hours after leaving the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Jonathan Vatsa has been handed two key roles in the Social Democratic Party (SDP) governorship campaign in Niger State.
The party’s candidate, Mohammed Ndarani Mohammed (SAN), has named the former commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism as Spokesperson and Director, Contacts and Mobilisation of his 2027 campaign council.
The appointment takes effect immediately, according to a letter signed by Ndarani. A copy was made available to newsmen in Minna on Friday.
Vatsa, the APC’s pioneer publicity secretary in the state, defected on Wednesday with more than 200 supporters, two weeks after resigning from the ruling party.
Ndarani described him as an outspoken and fearless politician whose grassroots experience will help the SDP’s bid to unseat the APC administration in 2027.
The letter praised his “towering political profile, fearless advocacy, exceptional oratory, and media management skills, profound grassroots penetration, and unmatched mobilization prowess.”
The candidate said the dual role was deliberate and strategic. “You speak powerfully and you mobilize massively. We need your voice to shape public opinion and your network to deliver the votes,” he wrote.
As spokesperson, Vatsa is to communicate the party’s five-point agenda to voters and serve as the campaign council’s official voice. He was previously special adviser to Governor Umaru Bago on media and public communication.
As director, he will run what the letter calls the “engine room” of the campaign. He is to lead grassroots operations and coordinate the state’s 25 local government areas, 247 political wards and 4,950 polling units.
He is also expected to mobilise community, traditional and religious leaders. The letter tells him to drive “house to house, door-to-door, market to market, farm to farm” campaigns.
At his defection, Vatsa called the APC government in the state the worst since 1999 and urged residents to get their Permanent Voter Cards ready to vote it out. These are his claims and were not independently verified.