| YOUR LETTERS
The Image Project and shadow chasing
Recently, the minister of
information disclosed
that re-branding of Nigeria will expose our rich cultures, economy and showcase notable Nigerians that have excelled in various fields and continue to excel all over the world.
If this is the focal point of the government’s image-making project, I believe that it is a mere shadow chasing. Yes of course, because Nigeria’s image problem is a bye-product of cumulative government policies over the past years. Secondly, I believe that, to project that image, it must be anchored convincingly, on whether the rots of the past have been changed to the desired good of the people.
South Africa today is being cultivated all over the world not through any marketing gimmicks, but as a result of the qualities of governance exhibited by her leaders from Mandela to Thabo Mbeki. Countries like Malaysia and Indonesia are what they are today because they have been able to address their economic problems, which were reflected in the standard of life of its citizenry.
If things are done rightly, this country doesn’t need another 600 million Naira taxpayers’ money as initial budget for government’s image making project. This is because Nigeria is blessed with population, geography and economic resources, which are required for our nation to be great and command a better image in the world. Unfortunately, this was not of bad political leadership.
To begin the image project therefore, is to probe into our political system and see if we have been able to put it right once again.
I think, rather than brandishing the names of those notable Nigerians as Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Gabriel Oyibo, Philip Emeagwali whose names do not need the megaphone of anybody, government should rather focus on whether its various policies have brought the desired impacts to the society.
Thus, if the truth must be told, we must be able to support our image project with genuine statistical data of changes if there is any. We need to answer such questions as to how far, we have been able to reduce poverty level? Have there been any decline in unemployment rates? Similarly, how far is the issue of corruption being tackled?
Unless, of course, all these form the starting point of government’s new-image project, we might be wasting people’s resources, as globalisation and advancement in telecommunication have made information easily accessible and processed all over the world. Wrong information in the name of image making can easily be detected and thrown back to its originator.
Therefore, before drawing up any plans on the new image project, government must bear in mind that our image problem does not start and end with such vices like the famous advance fee fraud, drugs peddling, women trafficking and so on, but has to do with corruption at the highest level. It has to do with the volume of unemployed youths and graduates who have become a security threat to the nation. It has even more to do with the lack of transparency in governance both at the centre and other tiers. The more the government fails in its social responsibilities, the more the so-called image project is brought to mockery and ridicule.
Malam Yekini Abdullahi
Postgraduate student,
International Diplomacy,
ABU, Zaria.
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