RE-BRANDING NIGERIA, A LIPSTICK ON A PIG?

The government in Nigeria recently embarked on a make-over, project "Re-brand Nigeria"! Icheoku asks, is this necessary since it is not the name of the product or its packaging that is the problem. No, the problem is the product itself, which is not good! Hence, no amount of make-over or dressing up, absent a total gutting of the entire system, will ever make it palatable!

Dora Akunyili can try all she may to re-paint a painted-sepulcher, but still within its bowls, lies very stinking morbidity. Icheoku has written severally on the "problem" with Nigeria and possible solutions thereto; but until there is some seriousness of purpose by the coordinators of the Nigeria-Project, to look inwards and see that the thing eating the kola-nut is inside of it, there can never be any meaningful resolution of the myriad of problems militating against Nigeria. Regrettably most of them, if not all, are self-inflicted by a rudderless leadership leading a highly aloof and desensitized populace.

Nigeria is like a dilapidated house being put up for sale by this new effort; but for there to be any serious buyer, it has to be put in a saleable condition. It has to be completely gutted-out and re-fixed, starting from the top down. Merely putting a coat of paint of "re-branding" on it, will not suffice to cleanse Nigeria and Nigerians. What image is still left of Nigeria/Nigerians when a South African common-criminal, shot and killed the reggae-artist Lucky Dube, and in a confessional statement, said he shot him "because I mistook him for a Nigerian"? Icheoku asks, have Nigerians descended to such rock-bottom that they are now used as practice-ducks for targeted shooting? Has it gone so bad that they are now fair-game to be simply wasted and even by a South African petty criminal? And Nigeria is still wasting money maintaining an embassy staff at Pretoria or Johannesburg? From the smallest country in the world to the biggest, Nigeria and Nigerians are treated with the same levity as a nation of crooks and a people with high penchant for crimes? Today it is either Singapore executing a Nigerian in a firing squad, then tomorrow it is Saudi Arabia's turn to cut off the head of another Nigeria; next day it is an African country killing and maiming Nigerians; and prisons and jails around the world have their fair share of Nigerian inmates. But what does one expect from a country whose president was imposed on the country, hence never prepared for the challenges of governance? Whose governors are bandits being arrested all over the world with millions of looted dollars belonging to her citizens? Whose former heads of states and presidents are billionaires without any meaningful source of their sudden wealth? Whose police Inspector Generals are criminal master-minds with some of them being paraded in hand-cuffs? Who in Nigeria, especially the leadership that is not a thief? Admitted some of them who have not had the opportunity yet, pretend otherwise to be a Mother Theresa? Nigeria is re-branding? What a breaking news indeed!

The ineptitude of various Nigerian administrations since independence has not helped manage the crisis of confidence facing Nigeria and Nigerians; instead they respectively exacerbates the condition. Leaderships stealing unabashedly from the public coffers that they have become the poster-boy of corruption world-wide, with many of them seen as quarries to be nabbed by many countries of the world criminal justice system. If it is not Atiku Abubarkar and William Jefferson in the United States, it is Olusegun Obasanjo and KBR or James Ibori and Scotland Yard and the list goes on. Nigeria is known as a nation whose leadership is made up of criminal and fraudulent people; and the current administration is not an exception. The headship of the senate, David Mark's brigandage at NITEL was so damning that were Nigeria a decent society, he would be in prison rather than leading the senate of the most populous black country in the world. And what will a re-branding do to correct this anomaly of a senate president who is a thief? A country being led by a bunch of thieves might as well be assumed to be populated by thieves? The most recent $579million dollars bribery-scandal involving three past heads of state/president of Nigeria with America's KBR is still smoking-hot, but the authorities in Nigeria, instead of prosecuting the implicated fellows, are trying to sweep it under the carpet, yet they want to re-brand Nigeria? Elections in Nigeria is a glorified selection where the nastiest and the most callous always have their way and an Umaru Yar'Adua who did not win an election was imposed on Nigeria as her president; yet Nigeria wants a re-branding? Virtually all past governors stole their states' money and the only meaningful attempt at holding them accountable was sabotaged with the removal of the nemesis of corruption, chief investigator Nuhu Ribadu; yet Nigeria wants a re-branding? A once siting attorney general and minister of justice of Nigeria Bola Ige was brutally murdered by the state and no serious investigation has been made to uncover and hold accountable the murderers; yet Nigeria is itching to re-brand? Icheoku asks, what type of re-branding is this, being sought by the authorities in Nigeria? The more you look, the less you see type of re-branding?

The task these apostles of "re-branding Nigeria" should rather occupy themselves with is to put their Nigerian-house in order. Prove yourself and people will love you; earn your respect and people will respect you. Icheoku says, no one ever respects a thief, especially when the thief is a thief of state who steal entrusted peoples' money. The first order of business should be to find out the root-cause of the Nigeria's skunky-image? Rephrasing, why does the mention of Nigeria draw such a flak or revulsion among the peoples of the world? How can a country be respected when her heads of government regularly fly into Switzerland in their private jets with loads of dollar-bills to deposit in some private coded safe-deposit boxes while her citizenry are dying of common malaria and starvation? It is this thievery of state resources by the state managers that has cost Nigeria the respect of the world! It is the endemic corruption which has metastasised through every fabric of the Nigeria society that is costing Nigeria her image? It is the lack of security in Nigeria that is tasking Nigeria's image; - as security votes meant for security personnel and weapons-procurements are hijacked by the leadership of the various security outfits without question. Icheoku recalls that a former Inspector General of Police Ehindero made away with over 23 million Naira meant for the police and the matter has since been swept under the carpet, Nigerian style; yet a re-branding is the song of the present? It is the over 61 percent jobless rate in Nigeria which has forced its so many of its population to all corners of the earth and doing whatever it takes just to survive that calls for re-branding? It is the incessant military interventions and banditry in Nigeria wherein the generals loot the treasury dry that calls for re-branding? Look at Babangida's Minna mansion? Look at Obasanjo's Hilltop mansion? Look at Abacha's loot? And Babangida also has a private jet? These abnormally is what calls for re-branding and not necessarily Nigeria.

It is looting-unlimited amongst the ruling class with every leader trying to out-loot its predecessor that calls for re-branding! It is the inability or lack of the will to provide power in Nigeria that calls for re-branding! It is the lack of motor-able roads that calls for re-branding! It is lack of medical care in Nigeria which makes her leadership to fly to other countries of the world in search of cure for simple headaches while the average Joe Nigerian dies of illness which an ordinary procedure would have cured; that needs a re-branding! A country with such a putrid resume does not need to burnish her image for the rest of the world as the drove of her citizens trying to escape such a hell-hole, will be her biggest nightmare. So those countries in the cross-hair of this re-branding effort will ask, if Nigeria is all that, why then are her citizens running away from it? Therefore, Dora Akunyili and co, your job should be addressing some of these enumerated internal problems instead of wasting resources trying to baptise Nigeria for the international community. As they say, charity begins at home, so instead of embarking on an un-win-able obtuse project, do some introspection and start today by meaningfully fighting corruption, the root-cause of everything that is wrong with Nigeria. Should you succeed with this, then the world will stop seeing Nigeria as the unsafest place on earth or the riskiest place to invest or do business or where the leadership demands and receives a $600 million dollars bribe before they can sign a $6billion dollars LNG contract?

To show the unseriousness of this effort, the thieving Senate President David Mark is proposing a re-launch of the national flag? Icheoku says, such a pedestrian suggestion shows how shallow this Oturkpo midget is. Is the Nigeria national flag the problem? What did the green white and green color do to tarnish the image of Nigeria? It is rather the David Marks of Nigeria who dragged the image of Nigeria to the gutters! It is David Mark who bought an 18-hole 33 million pounds sterling golf-course near Dublin Ireland, with money he stole from NITEL that is bleeding Nigeria's image? Who has not passed through an international airport immigration desk/counter and see the opprobrium the green passport attracts? Sometimes these people wonder the constitution of an average Nigerian who does not see evil in the likes of David Mark to not only elect him a senator but tolerate his senate presidency. Icheoku says to David Mark, there is nothing wrong with the flag as one can only be proud of a flag if what that flag represents is good and inviting! Icheoku says, may be Nigeria should start this "re-branding" effort by putting David Mark away in prison for looting NITEL dry and for all the coups he participated in. That way the international community will start to see Nigeria as no longer tolerant of a criminal senate president? What about that for a start?

Also, the name you call the effort whether "Heart of Africa Project" or "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 Icheoku retorts 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 EFCC attempt 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 merely putting 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 at Jerry Gana's MAMSER and Idiagbon/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.

FYI:- However if there is something you will like to contribute to this dead on arrival effort, you may contact the protagonists via rebranding@nigeria.gov.ng