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Rebranding Nigeria : An elitist sarcasm
By Tunde Ali
Tundeali1@sbcglobal.net
When the Professor of Pharmacology – Dora Akunyili accidentally found herself saddled with the responsibilities of
megaphonic for the President Umar Yar’Adua’s government, little did she realized that her success and
accomplishments in the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) will have little or no
carry-over effect on her new office and expected responsibilities. On assumption of the office as the Minister of
Information and Communications, Professor (Mrs) Dora Akunyili 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 image
problems. To her, carving a new niche will mark a new beginning. Therefore, she came up with the concept of
“Rebranding Nigeria” ; with the slogan “Nigeria : Good People, Great Nation”. Let me say unequivocally clear that I
have no doubt in my mind that the Minister (Prof. Dora Akunyuli) meant well for the nation and her intention is good.
However, the Minister’s strategy is fundermentally flawed, because it lacks merit on basis, and the possibility of its
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, customized or possessed. It belongs to us all and can not
be reduced to 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 Honorable Minister down the memory lane. In 1960, when Nigeria became independence,The
perceptive image of Nigeria was encoded in a shield, with two giant white horses half standing, facing each other from
each of the sides of River Niger and River Benue with an Eagle positioned fairly above them and some plants at the
foot of the shield; and with the motto :Unity, Faith, Peace and Progress. Nigeria, through this message 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 an endless rain . The health care system became comatose. Hospitals became
mere consulting clinics, The pharmaceutical companies retrogressed into charlatan chemists. They produced,
packaged and sold fake drugs for public consumption thus killing umpteen. The old glory of the educational system
was eroded, academic astuteness was substituted for mediocrity, and the tertiary institutions became unglorified
secondary schools that turns out half baked graduates of low mettle. Social amenities became dinosaurs, electricity
became epileptic, portable water became luxury, 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 late 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 and
moral decadence. 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 and 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 enjoy the goodwill of the people as well as promoting the image
of the country internationally. Ironically, his Napoleon agenda began with the abrogation of Decree 2 and Decree 4
which hitherto suppressed the Press Freedom and imposed Death Penalty on 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 began to fade in popularity and the citizens were becoming socio-economically frustrated and apolitical,
the government came up with the policy to develop a program that will promote awareness and remind the people of
their enviable history and the need to prevent wrong signal to the outside world.. 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. However, the prevailing socio-economic conditions coupled with the
corrupt political leadership that was created by an almost incongruent political system forced the people to result into
the state of nature. Greed overtook communalism and survival is of the fittest. Young, educated, unemployed,
underemployed or terminated able body began to decipate their energy and knowledge on wrong and negative
inventions. You have the “419’s”, The yahoo-yahoo guys and gals, Fraudsters, Kidnapping, Prostitution, and others
who explores the internent options to extort their victims as a survival strategy. It is this ignoble subculture that
criminalize the erstwhile good name of the country in the international arena.
Nigeria’s image has been significantly dented and damaged. For instance, in 2004 United Nations Conference on
Trade and Development (UNCTAD) at a public forum in Lagos Nigeria stated that Nigeria’s poor external image is
denying it of its much needed foreign investment to accelerate its economic growth. The poor image is a product of
multiple actions 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 as their share of national cake. The Legislators “talks” about sharing the bounties of the government,
often resorted to physical fighting, not to improve the welfare of the masses but to secure their greed. They allocated
big salaries and fat 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 was corrupted. The fourth estate (The Press) was not abhorred
of this misdemeanor, “brown envelope” enveloped their conscience and impaired their mission 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 The Heart of Africa ). Whether the image laundering project achieved its goal remain debatable.
The incontestable fact however is that the multi-million naira project (as usual) ended creating another set of multi-
millionaires while the nation continue to languish in its search for an improved image.
Professor Akuyuli’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 for education, overhauling of the health system,
improvement in security on life and properties, reorientation of the police and provision of adequate and modern
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 notion that advances the selfish interests of few . 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. The
appropriate person to head the Ministry of Information and Communications should not be a Pharmacologist but a
professional whose knowledge base is rooted in either Journalism, Public Relations or Communication Art. Having
square peg in a round hole has been Nigerian government’s model, and it has always resulted in near success or
outright failure. The Honorable Professor of Pharmacology have the option to begin her image laundering in-house
(Ministry Of Information & Communications) by stepping aside for a seasoned and tested professional with the relevant
academic background and experience to sail the nation out of the turbulent ocean of image peril. But in the interim,
The Minister should remind her boss that Nigeria’s poor image is a bile product of poor governance of which Mr.
President is equally guilty.
Tunde Ali is a Social Worker, and writes from Chicago USA