Re-Brand Nigeria Project

"Re-Brand Nigeria Project" is irrelevant; only the real meaning you bring to it that counts. Whether it is "externally-driven" and "not people-oriented" or "home-grown" and "people-orientated" is not the core here; provided it is focused towards actualizing its objective. Until the real issues militating against Nigeria is properly addressed, it does not matter the nomenclature attached to such make-over effort; as the stigma shall remain, hanging around the neck of Nigeria like the sword of Damocles! What an albatross? According to David Mark, "No nation can make progress unless it can keep to time", to which Icheokuretorts that the better phraseology should be "No nation can make progress until it starts electing her leaders and such leaders who are not state-thieves, while also putting those looters of states parastatal like NITEL in prison"! What ground does David Mark have to be speaking about "re-branding Nigeria" when NITEL has never recovered from the comatose which David Mark's pillage forced it into? Nigeria is equally to regain consciousness from the repeated dislocations David Mark criminality of coup d`etat vandalism perpetrated on her? Simply put, David Mark is one of the reason why Nigeria has fallen off the wagon in the eyes of the world and should, if he cannot do right by leaving the scene, just hush!

The government in Nigeria must through its policies and actions make every Nigerian feel wanted and have a sense of belonging to the entity called Nigeria. A situation where some group of people are marginalized so wantonly that they begin to feel unwanted in Nigeria does not make Nigeria's emancipation any easier. What is needed is a reality check towards a meaningful integration of all the peoples of Nigeria into patriotic citizens with equal rights to any office in the land including choice and juicy government ministries and institutions.Icheoku says, other countries do not brand Nigeria negatively but are merely reacting and reporting on what they are witnessing in Nigeria, such as the $16 billion dollars spent to provide a non-available power? Where on earth, can it be told that a president spent a whopping sixteen billion dollars on a white-elephant project and it is ok with the society? The authorities in Nigeria usually forget that other countries of the world have ambassadors and attache-es` in Nigeria whose job is to monitor political and social developments in their host country and report accordingly to their home-countries. So how does a "re-branded" Nigeria fair in these circumstances of gross idiotic looting of state funds by state officials? Also the world is now a global village and with just the click of a mouse, a person in Greenland can monitor what is going on in Nigeria and/or how Olusegun Obasanjo stole his heart's delight from Nigeria's coffers, without suffering any consequence as a result.

Icheoku says, no one appreciates a thief and if Nigerians desperately want to be appreciated by the comity of nations, they should first wash themselves clean; starting first by electing their own leaders and not allow some cabals somewhere to impose a sick leader on them. Nigerians must take back their government and chase away the likes of the thieving David Mark out of government. Admitted that the leader of this effort, Dora Akunyili is a woman whose beauty, brain and industry is every-body's delight, but this task is one heck of an impossible one to take on and hope to accomplish. Our fear is that it will fail and become yet another still-born, the way of so many other purpose-driven meaningful endeavours in Nigeria, such as the Nuhu Rubadu's EFCCattempt at sanitizing the very corrupt Nigeria polity! Icheoku says, cosmetics alone will not cut it!

Icheoku says, until the fundamentals are changed, eliciting a complete exorcism of the internals of Nigeria and Nigerians in general, the current effort at re-branding Nigeria will be merelyputting a lipstick on a pig! The trouble with Nigeria is that there is no continuity of policies or programmes by succeeding government no matter how lofty the idea. For instance, take a look atJerry Gana's MAMSER andIdiagbon/Buhari's WAI, two very noble goal-directed programes that paid off while they lasted; that were they to have continnued till today, would have taken Nigeria to the promised land of a disciplined society.These programmes should be reinvigorated and reinvented immediately, if the effort at "re-branding Nigeria" is ever to remain focused; they went a long way in introducing discipline to Nigerians. They also proved that Nigerians are governable people awning for a directed leadership. Nigerians' biggest albatross is lack of discipline, which is the central hob upon which every other thing revolves. So let the re-branding start here, get discipline back to the Nigerian society!

Former vice president Atiku Abubarkar while lamenting the problems with Nigeria recently, urged Nigerians to live an upright life whenever they travel abroad as a way of building the image of the country. To which Icheoku adds, it must not only be when they are abroad that upright life is required of them, they should also do that while at home because charity begins at home. There must be a complete soul-searching among Nigerians in order for this re-branding effort to stand a chance. Nigerians must not wait until they travel overseas to be "good" citizens in their host countries, since the world is now a global village and people peek into other countries to see for themselves what is really going on there. Icheoku suggests, in addition to the preceeding, the renaming of Nigeria just like Gold Coast became Ghana, Ivory Coast became Cote-Voire; Dahomey became Benin Republic, Zaire became Congo etc. That way all the stigmas currently attached or associated to the name Nigeria will completely disappear with the defunct name. Also justice must be done and seen to be done to all Nigerians and this includes in several government policies such as the census. For instance, there is no way in hell Kano can be bigger or more populated than Lagos so this anomaly of a fuzzy-census must be corrected as part of the re-branding of Nigeria effort; from a country where figures are doctored by the government to where fairness reigns supreme. Once every Nigerian is made to feel Nigerian again, then the job is one third done as together what is left can easily be finished.

via: rebranding@nigeria.gov.ng