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Rebranding Nigeria : An Elitist Sarcasm By: Tunde Ali
When the Professor of Pharmacology - Akunyuli mysteriously found herself saddled with the responsibilities of megaphonic for the President Shehu Yaradua’s government, little did she realize that her success and accomplishment in the Food and Drug Parastatal will have little or no carry-over effect on her new office and expected responsibilities. On assumption of the office of the Minister of Information and Communication, Professor (Mrs) Akunyuli did not waste time in inferring from her knowledge of Pharmaconomics to come out with what she considered to be the beginning of the solution to Nigeria multiple problems. To her, carving a new niche will mark a new beginning. Therefore, she came up with the concept of “Rebranding Nigeria” ; with the message “Nigeria : Good People, Good Government”. Let me say unequivocally clear that I have no doubt in my mind that the Minister (Prof. Unyielding) meant well for the nation and her intention is good. However, the Minister’s strategy if fundermentally flawed, because it lacks merit on basis, and possibilities of success is next to zero. It will amount to another unreasonable wastage, and an effort in futility. The fact of the matter is that Nigeria is not a product or a material thing that could be branded. Nigeria is a nation, a legal entity and a sovereign state. Unlike a branded product that belongs exclusively to a person, group of persons or a company; Nigeria is a living entity, it could not be branded or customized, It belongs to us all and can not be a possession of the few mindless scalawags who in the first instance created the problems that brought this discussion. It is not my intention to dabble into semantics on the subject of “branding” or “Rebranding” in this article, rather, I will attempt to bring the Honourable Minister down the memory lane. In 1960, when Nigeria became independence, two giant white horses half standing, facing each other from River Niger and River Benue with an Eagle positioned fairly above them; and with the motto : Unity, Faith, Peace and Progress (Check to confirm). Nigeria launched herself into the committee of nation states. It was recognized, accepted and respected by other countries on the face of the earth. Blessed with large population, abundant mineral resources, and massive land, it did not take time for Nigeria to discover herself and her role as the “giant of Africa”- A role that the country played successfully, until the recent past when the leadership of the country was vested in the hands of few ignoble individuals whose goal was to steal, to kill and to destroy. Like the hurricane Tsunami, the inept leadership of both the past and present government in Nigeria unleashed disaster on its citizens. Poverty became unimaginably spread across all and sundry. The health care system became paralyzed. The hospitals became mere consulting clinics, The pharmaceutical companies disintegrated to the spectrum of charlatans chemists. They produced, packaged and sold fake drugs for public consumption thereby killing umpteen. The old glory of our educational system was eroded, academic astuteness was substituted for mediocrity, and the tertiary institution became unglorified secondary schools that turns out half baked graduates of low mettle. Social amenities became dinosaurs, electricity became epileptic, portable water is comatose, good roads became mirage, unemployment became the order of the day; and the erstwhile nation of good and peaceful people gradually turns to a nation of bad people with indecorum lifestyle; the consequence of which negatively affect the image of the country locally and internationally. In 1983, during the regime of General Buhari and General Tunde Idiagbon, a conscious attempt were made to restore sanity to Nigeria body politics and regain international respect. The regime did not use the “Rebranding” mechanism. The military junta proclamated multiple decrees to address the problems of the political profiteers, who according to Brigadier Sanni Abacha (the then Coup announcer) have “shamelessly mismanaged the economy”. It also addressed the problems of drug trafficking by imposing death penalty. War Against Indiscipline (WAI) was introduced to instill spirit of nationalism and patriotism and to address all forms of domestic problems ranges from careless talk, destroying public properties, urinating or defecating in the public places, maintaining clean environment , orderliness in the public places or institutions, etc. It worked and worked good. The few bad-eggs realized that the regime will not compromise their agenda, hence started to adjust positively from their awkward life style. When General Ibrahim Babangida assumed the leadership of the country in 1985 through a bloodless coup, his regime initiated several image polishing policies to continue to sustain the goodwill of the people as well l as promoting the image of the country internationally. The first “maradonic” effort was the abrogation of Decree 2 and Decree 4 which dealt with press freedom and death penalty for the drug traffickers. This apart from providing legitimacy for his new regime, it repositioned Nigeria as a member of the civilized nations where death penalty is null and void. Secondly, IBB appointed the flamboyant Public Relations guru – Chief Alex Akinyele as the mouth piece of his regime. Chief Akinyele did his best to promoting the agenda of his boss and Nigeria in general. When the regime of IBB was gradually fading in popularity and the citizens were becoming socio-economically frustrated and apolitical, the government came up with the policy to establish a parastatal that will promote awareness and remind the people of their enviable history. To this end, Mass Mobilization for Economic Recovery, Self Reliance and Social Justice – MAMSER was established under the leadership of Professor Jerry Gana. Other successive regimes maintained the status quo with little or no modifications, all in the interest of improving and salvaging the image of the country. By 2004, Nigeria’s image has been significantly dented and damaged. The image was damaged by the act of different actors. At the government level, The members of the Executive arm of government became increasingly corrupt, inept and vicious. They see their position as an opportunity to amass wealth, hence they loot the treasury at will. The Legislators talks about sharing the bothies of the government, often resort to physical fighting, not to improve the welfare of the masses but to secure their greed. They allocated big salaries and benefits for themselves, legislated on regular increase in their allowances, and explored their position to exploit the electorates. The Judiciary became complacent. their proximity to the treasury put them in looting disadvantage, therefore some judges sell judgment to the highest bidder. The principle of the rule of law, equity and justice were compromised. The process of adjudication were corrupted. The fourth estate (The Press)was not abhorred of this misdemeanor, “brown envelope” clouded their vision and impaired their judgment as “the defender of the masses and watchdog of the government”. The cumulative effect of these negative behavior made the government and the people of Nigeria a laughing stock to other nations. It was an attempt to redeem the national image that the Nigeria government in 2004 through the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation launched the Nigeria Image Project (later renamed as The Heart of Africa ). Whether the image laundering project achieved its goal remains debatable. Professor Akiyuli’s model of image laundering was packaged in
a metaphor of branding. Be it as it may, The Minister need to be informed
that the success of this image laundering agenda is contingent upon the
her learning from the mistakes of her predecessors and their approaches
to addressing similar problems. Therefore, Nigeria Image branding should
address the the role played by our leaders whose recklessness and impaired
vision or lack of it has reduced our nation to an object of ridicule
within and across the boarder; it must educate all the leaders of government
business on the importance of improving the standard of living of the
people, provision of gainful employment, provision and improvement of
social amenities, adequate funding of the education system, the overhauling
of the health system, improve security on life and properties, reorientation
of the police and provision of adequate and modern sophisticated equipments
with which to perform their duties, devising mechanism to confront corruption
and fighting it to extinction. The legislators should be provided with
crash course (Legislature 101) on the business of legislation that promotes
the welfare of all as opposed to the idea that advances their selfish
interests. The Judiciary should be constituted by well paid, independent,
learned judges with the fear of God. All these concerns overlapped and
created problems that painted our nation black and conditioned us to
external ridicule and mistrust. Charity begins at home. If the Honourable
Minister will address the aforementioned, it will be easier to change
the world perception of our dear country. |
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