Lagos, Nigeria – With Nigeria’s parliamentary election scheduled for April 2011 the Women’s Democracy Network (WDN) and the International Republican Institute (IRI) sponsored a two-day communication training for women seeking their party’s nomination in the primaries. Women from throughout Nigeria, representing political parties, civil society organizations and the news media, attended the training which focused on communications and message delivery. This training was the kick-off to a series that WDN and IRI will conduct for political party and civil society activists in the lead-up to Nigeria’s April elections.

Mrs. Joke Orelope-Adefulire, Lagos State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, opened the training, which featured Toni Anne Dashiell, current Chair of the Kendall County Republican Party in Texas, who has been active in politics, grassroots advocacy and leadership training for more than 30 years; and Sui Lang Panoke, the Founder and Director of Women Politics Media, a nonpartisan media training organization based in Washington, D.C. designed to prepare women and minority leaders to engage in traditional and new media.

Dashiell talked to the women about the strategies needed to run a successful campaign, including the importance of planning, organizing and executing. She outlined how successful communication skills and message development can help a candidate to increase the effectiveness of their message.

Panoke then provided participants with tools to effectively communicate their policy positions to voters stressing the importance of keeping their campaign messages positive. Panoke also led a session on public speaking and on-camera interview techniques so the participants could practice communicating their campaign speeches to a variety of audiences.

The second day of the training included exercises for the participants to practice implementing the skills they had learned. Dashiell provided participants with information on get-out-the-vote techniques, including recruiting volunteers.

Similar to trainings conducted at the Women Politics Media Training Institute, Panoke guided participants through developing their own personalized media package, which included an issue-based policy paper, a three minute taped television segment and a professional headshot which the candidates can use in their upcoming campaigns. Participants were also provided a campaign communications and message delivery workbook featuring the trainers’ presentations and various exercises to prepare for campaign activities, such as recruiting volunteers and developing talking points, to utilize as they conducted their campaigns.

At the end of the event, one participant commented on her experience, “I now have a better understanding of how to reach out to the electorate and how to conduct my campaign in a positive way.”

A media representative also highlighted the importance of the interaction she had with the politicians and said that she learned the importance of “a good working relationship between the media and the politicians. This training was able to demonstrate the role of my profession in the electoral process.”