Nigeria Good People, Great Nation! I have watched , listened and read about this exercise with great skepticism about the desired outcome. Recently, I watched a couple of youth discuss the pro and cons of the rebranding exercise.
While basking in euphoria of their enthusiasm and sentence construction, my brain kept raising questions about the sincerity of our government towards the achievement of the rebranding goals.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
As a responsible tax paying citizen of the federal republic of Nigeria, I am irked by the various avenues through which our commonwealth are spent.
In the first place, this rebranding exercise will not be necessary if our leaders have been responsible and responsive to the task of governance. It is general knowledge that the way a country is perceived (both internally and externally) has a lot to do with its economic development. Hence, a country with a more developed economy has a better perception internationally than a country with a less developed economy. A quick question, who are the key players responsible for charting a road map for the development of the economy?
Now, as a graduate who took a course in marketing, I know unequivocally that branding deals with perception, and in empowering a country perception, one needs to focus on developing a strategy that is aimed at creating an economic and social developmental plan and that cannot be achieved by developing a logo, a Tagline or even redesigning the coat of arms.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });
We should recall that the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo, had a rebranding exercise tagged Nigeria; the Heart of Africa, which started up with over $8 million(USD) and as at 2009 it was reported that the project has cost the Nigerian tax payer about $10 million (USD), which I believe is just a mild official estimation.
The guiding philosophy for setting up the heart of Africa project, was the country's not so favorable image in the international community which is not really different from that of the rebrand Nigeria project.
It is common knowledge that doing the same thing will not produce a different result, so why do we go about doing the same?
Really, my score against the rebrand exercise is hinged upon the fact that the procedure is totally faulty! What do I mean?
In the post civil war era, there was a pseudo rebranding exercise that brought about the much talked about development…That rebranding then was tagged the "3R's" i.e Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction….Now government capital expenditure was channeled in the area of building infrastructure which invariably lead to employment…that was on the local scene. in the international arena, the government acted as a leader to other African countries, which earned us the name of Giant of Africa…We even went ahead to pay the salaries of Greek civil servant!…..
Now, am not suggesting that our government spends our common wealth in distant borders all in the name of rebranding, what am saying is that rather than purchasing umbrellas and baseball hats with rebranding insignias , our government should channel those funds into maintaining the roads, improving power supply, create jobs, improving the public academic institutions etc…
But above all, for there to be any successful rebranding exercise, there is a pressing need for our leadership to be disciplined, determined and focused on the matters of state.
In being focused, the right people( with relevant educational experience and professional exposure) must be put in place ( this is to say Prof. Dora is the wrong person for the office of Min of info..though her intentions are right…But she's the totally wrong person! She's should rather be in Min. of health).
In being disciplined, our leaders should not be lured into pilfering public funds meant for development and should not be hesitant in dealing with any transgressor without no, and I repeat NO exemptions.
Thus, it is my strong valid opinion that when we have duly elected leaders, we can say Nigeria; Good People….and when we have a developed economy with low rate of unemployment and social vice we can then say Great nation!
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });