It gladdens my heart that my fellow blogger friend Oz has written a piece on his blog, Mootbox.com, titled “Good People…Great Nation“, the slogan of the re-branding endeavor of the Nigerian government, launched on March 17 in Nigeria.
If one goes by Oz’s statement: “Brushing aside unflattering discussions on blogs, twitter and especially Facebook, I say lets do this. Home country has spent too much money on this effort for us to tear it down on launch day,” he’s in support of the re-branding project obviously. And this is fine, because it makes room for some interesting conversation on the matter.
I have written earlier to present my opinion of the exercise, and my comment on Mootbox speaks even more to that. It is my hope that more bloggers will join the conversation and present additional insight.
I close by presenting some excerpts from Banji Adisa’s article on Guardian titled “Re-branding the south west“, published on March 18. The excerpt speaks volumes to my position on the branding project:
Managers of the Rebranding Nigeria at the national level – Prof. Dora Akunyili and others – have some lessons to learn from the Lagos experience. This thing goes beyond a mere slogan of ‘Nigeria – Good people, Great Nation’…
The only interpretation of the concept to an average Nigerian will be and improvement in his lot, and the government can be assured of a citizen who sees himself first as a Nigerian, ready to sell the brand to the best of his ability to the rest of the world. I am not too sure anyone would be ready to re-brand Nigeria on an empty stomach and certainly not one without gainful employment. A very corrupt society where a small percentage of the population holds all the aces and the touted war against corruption is being fought half-heartedly cannot be a selling point.
Banji Adisa’s article definitely does speak volumes in terms of giving correct advice. Rebranding is not always by name alone. No matter how much you try to repackage a smelly piece of work, the stench will always seep past the fresh new packaging. Re-branding by name is not just what we need and I doubt if the foreign media are doing what we are not doing worse to ourselves. Like Adisa rightly pointed out, get going with the job at hand and spend all that extra money and effort on the change process and not some fancy rebranding excercise.
I love Dora Akunyili to heart and was very supportive of her when chosen as Minister of Information. But mine is not blind love, we need to get to nitty gritties. Tell the sleeping head to wake up, tell the thieving top to desist, tell the cheating upper to repent, tell the sycophantic, lying and stupid sounding middle, to get a grip and face facts, then finally we can tell the suffering, crime driven and unenlightened bottom to have hope. Hope for food, hope for education and training, hope for a better life and hope for a brighter future. This is what I expect of Dora Akunyili and her counterparts in the faculty of wisdom and drive. Thanks.
March 18, 2009 at 10:40 am
AfricanLoft has a article profiling how Rwanda went about branding its national image.
March 18, 2009 at 11:06 pm
Thanks for the link to the South West re branding article. I skipped it yesterday. Nevertheless, just linked to this post and AfricanLoft’s take. It made for very good reading.
March 19, 2009 at 10:40 am
Thanks for mentioning my stuff. We have no choice than to support this effort. We really do not have a choice. I will send a personal email tomorrow.
March 19, 2009 at 11:49 pm
You are welcome Oz.
I think it will be easier to support a project that has clear goals and objectives.
What is the role for you and I, or the blokes in Ajegunle slum?
And how is the government working to ensure our image comes out cleaner from the wash 12 months down the road?
See the lastest post on the Nigerian brand
Cheers!
March 20, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Thanks for the link to GP, Solomonsydelle!
March 20, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Dora Akunyili speaks out in passion, but note the last three paragraphs of the interview. The Sun reports:
http://odili.net/news/source/2009/mar/29/516.html
March 30, 2009 at 7:22 am
Sorry, I’m not impressed with the interview. Madam Dora came across as a naive administrator and her arguments were weak; the interviewer too didn’t do a good job, no tough or probing questions asked.
The Minister kept mentioning Angola and India that have re-branded, but theirs is more of action than words. Even Rwanda has been rebranding, but they don’t go about the business the way Nigeria has.
Call me a bad-mouthing Nigerian, but I know deep down I’m not!
We just have to address some issues about our nationhood, and this is one area where it needs to start from the top — the leadership should take the lead first on this re-branding exercise, then the people would follow.
Madam Dora needs to take her fight and ideas to the big boys in Abuja and state capitals first, when they are on board, then she can start talking to the common men of the street. That is how this can work.
March 31, 2009 at 9:30 am
You are very correct Imnakoya and I for one will never even consider the word “bad mouthing” when the candid truth is spoken about Nigeria and how wrong things are. Even to the non professional the interview sounds more like a collusion between madam Dora and the interviewer and both sounded like novices scratching the surface of intellect in questioning and answering the rebranding issue in Nigeria.
Dora Akunyili has proved me wrong when I thought that given a chance she would prove her salts as Information Minister. There was this other interview she did in front of the camera last week or thereabouts. She sounded unrefined and unconvincing in that one also. Sorry but we still have a lot of problems and a long way to go.
If Dora believes Nigerians in the Diaspora are not helping matters and not potraying Nigeria in a positive light, my question is this: Are our leaders not doing a worse job of promoting the positive side of Nigeria?
I rest my case again.
March 31, 2009 at 6:03 pm
[...] Therein is the analogy I made at the beginning of this review and it has Grandiose Parlour saying the concerns of the people in the main are about survival, with his byline – Re-branding Nigeria? Yes, but not on empty stomach! [...]
August 18, 2011 at 12:46 am