An old African proverb says, ‘He who wants to cross the river must first understand the current’. Public policy is that river. Citizens are the current.
In a viral Facebook video circulating amid rising public anxiety over impending tax reforms, the warning ‘Tax is coming’ flashes repeatedly, reinforced with urgent emojis and alarmist calls for attention. Beyond its theatrics, the video captures a deeper and more familiar governance failure: policies announced without adequate explanation, leaving citizens bewildered, suspicious, and vulnerable to misinformation.
As I wrote in my book Teaching Without Teaching, ‘if the arrow does not hit the bull’s eye, we don’t blame the arrow, we blame the archer’. This metaphor captures the tragedy of modern governance. When citizens misunderstand, resist, or reject government policy, particularly one as emotionally charged as tax reform, blame is often shifted to misinformation, social media, or opposition propaganda. Yet the more uncomfortable truth is this: misinformation thrives where governments refuse to build communication into policy execution.
A substantial body of academic research consistently demonstrates that effective public policy communication is directly linked to higher rates of successful policy implementation. For instance, empirical studies show that when citizens understand not only what a policy entails but why it exists and how it works, resistance diminishes and cooperation increases (See, Sianturi & Megasari, 2023; Intemann, 2023; Brick et al., 2018; Cairney & Kwiatkowski, 2017). The emphasis across these studies is consistent: clear, strategic, and transparent communication is not optional. It is foundational.
Misinformation Is a Policy Failure Before It Is a Media Problem
Communication scholars have long established that information vacuums are never empty. They are quickly filled by rumours, half-truths, political spin, and emotional manipulation. Where understanding is low, resistance is high, regardless of the policy’s economic logic.
Borrowing from medicine, a drug may be clinically effective, but if its dosage, side effects, and benefits are not clearly communicated, patients will abandon treatment or worse, spread fear about it. Public policy operates the same way. This dynamic becomes even more pronounced with tax reform.
Tax Reform: A Technical Policy With an Emotional Audience
Tax policy is not merely fiscal engineering; it is psychological negotiation. It touches survival, trust, fairness, and deep historical grievances. Announcing tax reforms through policy documents, press statements, or elite media briefings is akin to teaching physics to a farmer using calculus. The information may be accurate, but the method is exclusionary and arrogant. For tax reform, communication is not an accessory; it is the engine of adoption.
A familiar Dance: The 2023 Fuel Subsidy removal policy
The 2023 fuel subsidy removal illustrates the dangers of executing policy without embedding communication. While government officials debated fiscal sustainability and revenue leakages, the average Nigerian encountered the policy through overnight fuel price hikes, transport cost explosions, and social media outrage. There was no sustained pre policy communication campaign, no structured grassroots engagement, and no narrative that addressed the emotional question on citizens’ minds: why must I suffer again. The result was predictable anger, misinformation, protests, and deepened distrust. The arrow was released, but blindfolded.
The lesson we ought to have learnt then was that ‘people do not resist policy because it is bad; they resist it because it is poorly explained’.
The Rwanda Experience: Communication as Policy Infrastructure
Rwanda offers a contrasting lesson. Across health insurance reforms, agricultural transformation, and post genocide reconciliation, communication is treated as policy infrastructure rather than public relations. Community leaders are briefed and empowered as policy interpreters, local languages are prioritised over technical jargon, and visual storytelling through radio drama, charts, and community dialogue translates policy into lived reality. According to the World Bank, Rwanda’s community based health insurance achieved over 85 per cent enrolment largely because of deliberate grassroots communication and trust based messaging. The lesson is simple: when people understand, they cooperate.
How Governments Can Build Communication into Policy Execution
The implication is clear. Refusing to integrate communication into policy execution creates a vacuum for manipulation. For a policy such as tax reform, several elements should be non-negotiable.
1. A Deliberate PR and Public Education Campaign: focus not on propaganda but explanation.
Why the reform is necessary
What problem it solves
What happens if nothing changes
Paraphrasing economist John Maynard Keynes, “The difficulty lies not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones.” Communication helps citizens escape fear-based thinking.
2. Opinion Leader Buy-In: In African societies, trust is relational, not institutional.
Community leaders, religious leaders, and traditional rulers are:
Interpreters of meaning
Validators of intent
Bridges between government and the grassroots
Ignoring them is governance arrogance. Engaging them is strategic humility.
3. Visual, Localised, Digital Communication: Modern policy communication must meet citizens where they are:
Infographics
Animations
Short TikTok and Instagram videos
Local languages and Pidgin
Research by MIT (2020) shows that visual information is processed 60,000 times faster than text. In the attention economy, clarity beats complexity.
4. Two-Way Communication and Feedback Loops: Communication is not a monologue. It is dialogue. Town halls, radio call-ins, social listening, and feedback mechanisms allow government to:
Detect misunderstanding early
Adjust messaging
Correct misinformation before it metastasizes
Borrowing from engineering: feedback is what stabilizes systems. Without it, collapse is inevitable.
Conclusion: Governance Must Stop Whispering and Start Explaining
Misinformation is not the real enemy; silence is. Disinformation does not defeat governments; communication neglect does. When policies fail, leaders must look inward before blaming outward. The archer must examine his aim.
As Africans say, wisdom is not sold in the market; it is shared in the community. Policy succeeds not when it is announced, but when it is understood, accepted, and owned by the people. Leadership, at its core, is communication. The enduring lesson is clear: misinformation is a policy failure before it becomes a media problem. Communication is the bridge between intention and acceptance, and when that bridge is missed, the bull’s eye is missed as well.
Ishola, N. Ayodele is a distinguished and multiple award-winning strategic communication expert who specializes in ‘Message Engineering’. He helps Organizations, Brands and Leaders Communicate in a way that yields the desired outcome. He is the author of the seminal work, ‘PR Case Studies; Mastering the Trade,’ He can be reached on ishopr2015@gmail.com, 08077932282
