WHERE HAS NIGERIA RE-BRANDING PROJECT GONE TO?
Branding as the word connote, signifies a name, usually a trademark of a product or manufacturer, or the product identified by this name. It also can be said to be a distinctive type of something. The unique name for the product of a particular manufacturer is its brand name.
However, a brand is said to be re-branded when it has lost its original purpose or usefulness. This is done to enable the public look at the brand in another way so as to recognize and appreciates its usefulness to its immediate environment and beyond. Therefore, in this context Nigeria as a country is the manufacturer, while the citizenries is its by-products and brands.
Without doubt, globalisation has intensified competition not just among industries, markets, and investments but among nations. In the wake of the issues of cyber-crimes, drug and human trafficking, piracy, money laundering, embezzlement and all forms of corruption that have marred our national identity and polity, we cannot fault the idea of rebranding.
However, rebranding at any point has at the heart of it, the purpose of giving a new look to anything and changing whatever wrong perception it propose to re-address. This I believe is the brain behind the initiative of then minister of information, Prof. Dora Akunyili with the ‘Heart of Africa Project’. Despite the controversy that surrounded the projects, yet it is still regarded as the Nigerian project which in public relations is centered at changing the world’s perception of Nigeria.
The truth of the matter is that there comes a time in an administration where a change has to emerge and this is what I think gave birth to the re-branding project in the first place. It is therefore to re-enforce the nature of a true Nigeria in the public. The idea of re-branding is both critical and fundamental to any nation’s development. In the words of Dora Akunyili rephrased as ‘soldiers will go and come but the barracks will still remain’’ is punchy in the matter at hand in that in spite of whatever administration or governing style or initiative injected, Nigeria will still remain. As such, the new face has more to do with our collective interest, our image as a country, and as a people of common destiny.
But what is disheartening is that, a situation where this new Nigeria project started and another administration comes in and scrap it or pay deaf ears to the project as seen in this few years is not encouraging. This seems to me that this is another ‘white elephant’ project which we just abandon along the way and don’t see to conclusion.
What baffles me more is the attitudes our recent leaders to the project. Its either they have forgotten about it all together or that they thought the image of the country has improved around the world and they decided to rest the project. We hardly see or hear about the project again and considering the vigor and the time spent on the process during the Obasanjo’s regime, then someone could say maybe that was just an ‘Initial Gra Gra’ (IGG).
Branding cannot be conjured or invented by mere logos and sloganeering. A brand is built through an internal processing of its brand's DNA based on empirical research. As a country, what we need is a personal, corporate and institutional reformation to achieve a transformational repositioning of our national brand identity because it is the internal process that automatically reflects in the external processes.
When we talk about rebranding a Nigeria where corruption still holds sway in all segments of our individual and corporate lives. We talk about rebranding when the most basic amenities of life continue to elude government's delivery capabilities. Is it not funny that we want to rebrand Nigeria when citizens of our country cannot walk the streets safe and secure from hoodlums and sometimes even the law enforcement agents that ought to protect them? Before rebranding Nigeria, we ought to perfect the internal processes that constitute the brand DNA. A good product sells itself in the market place, but at the moment, Nigeria is still a hard sell, even to its own people. Countries of the world that ever ran successful branding campaigns did not just wake from slumber to initiate a campaign of logos and slogans.
So before we begin to rebrand Nigeria, we should first ask ourselves, what is left of our national heritage that we can first sell to ourselves, before we even talk of selling to the other world at large. Is it corruption, Infrastructural decay, Niger-Delta crisis, or the electoral malpractices?
People in government must understand that rebranding Nigeria starts from the top. Let Aso Rock kick-start the rebranding campaign by kicking out corruption, both in words and in deeds. There is still a sightless continuum in the relationship between 'Nigeria' and 'the Nigerian'. There is a loud absence of a social contract between government and the people. This is as a result of the dearth in leaders who execute the business of governance with transparency and selflessness.
We need tested leaders in our country. The effect of this will be a citizenry that looks up to its government as a reliable leadership structure that holds in dutiful trust the wellbeing of the masses. In the light of this, the citizens on their part become naturally obliged to be good citizens. Poor leadership is a by-product of a flawed character or an untutored candidate for the role of leadership. Since, in Nigeria, the role of leadership isn’t as of yet hereditary, one must accept that any Nigerian can work up to leadership. Enough of creating a picture or slogan of “good people, great nation” for the outside world, we need to start living the life not the slogan.
It is important that if the re-branding can start from within and those at the helms of affairs, a new image will emerge for Nigeria in no time. Those who must lead Nigeria and lead effectively, must henceforth acquire the rare courage required for the job, they must exhibit the true Nigerian character which is based on precepts, and must be able to say no, even to their own ‘shadows’ in moments of doubt.
The exploits of Nigerians like the Late Chief. Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe, Sir. Ahmadu Bello and presently Philip Emeagwali, Kanu Nwakwo, Wole Soyinka, etc. around the world cannot be over emphasized and therefore there is need to safe our face and create a new identity for the country in the eyes of the world. It is at the achievement of this that we can boldly say that the labour of our heroes past is not in vain.
The new Nigeria project is achievable if we all give it all it requires and properly handled. It is very true that there are miscreant among us and they say that one bad apple spoils the rest in the lump. The way it is with us here, that is how it is among other great nations of the world. So no particular nation is totally free from miscreants.
We cannot afford to wish away the good fortune God has blessed the nation with in terms of natural resources and human capital. Our collective effort and strong will to succeed is very paramount to our reaching the destined goal God has given us as a nation. Re-branding ourselves from the inward therefore is key to total re-structuring, re-construction and thorough overhauling. Nigeria is one engine that has to be regularly greased and oiled and must not be allowed to ‘knock’. It is only when all hands are on deck to make it great as a good product that it can sell.
