By Semiu Okanlawon
I should be eager to inform President Umaru Yar’Adua, and perhaps, Auntie Dora, that I have downloaded on my telephone handsets the Good People, Great Nation logo, which I presume is the mallet the Federal Government hopes to use to mold the Nigerian image to a better shape. Having done that, I am anxiously awaiting the opportunity to meet either Mr. President or his Minister for Image-making to flash the logo on my phones before them; hoping that my patriotic act will make them consider me for one of those national honours.
But then, I think I should also add that being poor at interpreting symbols, all I have seen on the logo is the green and white colours, a pass-mark sign and the map of Nigeria sitting somewhat uncomfortably on the last “I” inside N-i-g-e-r-i-a. Permit my ignorance if there are more to this new campaign logo but which my eyes have refused to see.
Well, I also hope that someday in the distant future, whoever designed that logo would not hold us to ransom saying Nigeria and Nigerians are eternally indebted to him for designing the logo and must, on every anniversary of the inauguration of the logo, continue to prick the country’s conscience that we have all abandoned him as in the case of Mr. Taiwo Akinkunmi, who designed the national flag.
To many Nigerians, there are more questions than answers seem to be available since the inauguration of the Rebrand Nigeria Campaign project last week. I must confess, I am one of those who have continued to marvel at Nigeria’s penchant for putting the cart before the horse. There appears to be a great disconnect between those problems that rankle the majority of Nigerians –– where the shoes pinch them –– and those things the leadership considers to be of priority.
For me, the question is not only about “What is there to rebrand?” It is also about the failure in the highest quarters to realise the seemingly deliberate alienation of those who could have been Nigeria’s best brand ambassadors. Why, for instance, have we, as a people, failed to tap into the positive images created by some of our best minds scattered across the globe as a strategy for selling ourselves?
As it is, it appears those attempting to carve a new image for Nigeria have failed woefully to attract some of Nigeria’s most respected personalities in the world to identify with the marketing strategy.
How does a country sell itself? I am compelled to believe that no country can hope to be taken seriously without the unique performances of her excelling nationals. Of this, is Nigeria in such a dearth of such heroic, admirable personalities that the brains behind the rebranding campaign have not identified one to be part of the image-making task?
I presume that very soon, we shall see the campaigners take the messages to some of the world’s most notable media. But each time I watch South Africa’s message to the world on the Cable News Network, I see the country’s undisputable symbol of national pride, former President Nelson Mandela. I also see that country’s songstress, Yvonne Chaka-Chaka. I stand to be corrected if these two are not enough positive faces of South Africa that have been etched on the psyche of the global community. With those images, what else do I need to believe that in “South Africa, it’s possible?”
A country’s image campaigners who fail to convince the nation’s only Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka; her world renowned novelist, Prof. Chinua Achebe; esteemed robotic engineer, Prof. Barth Nnaji; her computer whiz kid, Phillip Emeagwali, and many others in that category to identify with the rebranding business should know ab initio that they would end up worse than the previous similar efforts which they have sought to rubbish.
Even other countries of the world know how to celebrate, as young as she is, the literary whiz kid, Ms. Chimamanda Ngozi-Adichie.
Now, without all these people, who, indeed, are Nigeria’s brand ambassadors?
From the configuration that I can see, it appears the whole business of rebranding Nigeria has been reduced to a Nollywood task in which some of the recurring faces on those home videos are what we need to tell the world we are Great People, Great Nation.
By the way, have we honestly resolved the knotty issue of nationhood? Is Nigeria a nation or a collection of nations? I do not agree that a country where quota sentiments must be resorted to in deciding virtually everything, including, of course, those who form the national soccer team, is a nation yet. On that premise alone, many have seen an illusion of grandiose proportion, which is built on emptiness in the campaign’s Great Nation concept.
Pondering over why Nigeria’s image has been so battered, one needs to be convinced that the creation of a mere logo and campaign slogan, backed up with costly media blitz across the world, are what we require to obliterate the mess created by the deepening socio-economic and political complications which we live with as a people.
For instance, what is the contribution of Nigeria’s army of frustrated youths to the negative image we suffer? When they resort to self-help in the day-to-day survival strategies through one fraudulent means or the other; when they travel abroad and many engage in criminal acts to beat the hardship in their country, have the campaigners addressed the image headache based on the influence of the country’s socio-economic and political predicaments? What programmes are there in place to address youth unemployment and the attendant complexities? Many questions, indeed, with no answers in sight.
I am not one of those incurable pessimists; but I must add here, using the words of that late playwright, Ola Rotimi, that “We have left our pot unwatched, and our food now burns.”
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