The Nigeria Image Project
By Kingsley Osadolor
I WATCHED and listened last Thursday as the Information Minister, Chukwuemeka Chikelu, made a media presentation of the Nigeria Image Project at the MUSON Centre, Lagos. The more he unfolded the scope of the image project, the more I saw a congruence with the very issues on which most public affairs commentators often sound like broken records. But rather than a feeling of disappointment and cynicism, I came away with the distinct impressions of an opportunity for introspection, of an inner healing process, provided of course others also see the larger picture. The Minister announced that the Federal Executive Council had earlier seen and approved the project. In particular, President Olusegun Obasanjo was reported to be enthusiastic about it all.
What the Minister did not say at the presentation is the significance that the Federal Executive Council attaches to the image project. In other words, he did not tell the audience the government's understanding of what inheres in the project. But in stressing government's partnership with the private sector, which is supposed to be the primary driver of the project, the Minister let out a mindset that is unlikely to be helpful to the faithful implementation of the project and the realisation of its otherwise laudable goals. As a first step towards getting the private sector hooked on the image burnishing idea, some key influencers of that sector had a prior viewing before last week's presentation to the media and image managers' community.
Yet, the strongest impression that one can come away with after watching the presentation is that, essentially, the Nigeria Image Project ought to be re-christened, Agenda For Obasanjo's Underachieving Government. The subtitle would be: A Wake-Up Call For Nigerians. That is why I raised the point earlier about the attitude of the Minister's colleagues to the project. The much he said tended to convey the feeling that this would be other people's business. But even that alone will not fully describe the attitude. Rather, what emerges is that the Federal Executive Council looked more at the bottom line, the cost of executing such a project and thought that it would be prudent to corral the private sector into being the major financiers of the idea.
On the contrary, most of the major planks of the image project are matters within the province of all tiers of government to handle. And this would not require any external borrowing to finance. The primary and secondary challenge that this poses is for us a country to husband our resources for the common good. Put in another way, the obligation is on the government to fulfil the very conditions that are precedent to the actualisation of the goals of the image project. The maxim that you cannot build something on nothing couldn't be truer, although it will not be correct to assert that our national profile is bereft of positive attributes that will be a boon to the image project. Yet, what is true is that those sterling national traits will even appear to stink once they are erected on our current rotten state of affairs. If the Information Minister's cabinet colleagues will oblige him one more time, let him play back the presentation and each Minister will certainly find a key role for himself or herself in terms of the prevailing shortcomings in service delivery, which if not obviated will make nonsense of the image project.
One way to scuttle the image project is to fail to introspect and see beyond the surface of the surfeit of examples of transformed societies that are today the object of positive imagery. For instance, the Information Minister listed Taiwan and India as two countries which a couple of decades ago had unflattering images. Taiwan represented substandard goods, while India stood for overpopulation, squalor and, I might add, talisman. Today, their profiles have changed dramatically. No longer do our spare parts dealers deride fake goods as Taiwan, because Taiwan is now located in the higher and respectable frontiers of technology. India is still overpopulated, but its own Silicon Valley and Bollywood have become world-beaters and the whole wide world is beating a path to India.
Unfortunately, the Nigeria Image Project focuses on the successes of these countries, more typically like Nigerians who admire somebody in sudden wealth without bothering about how he came about the wealth. The key to our being able to benefit from and indeed surpass the examples of Taiwan and India would lie in our knowing and dissecting the crucible through which both countries passed before they arrived at their present respectable positions.
It was interesting listening to the Minister as he cited some iconic brands that have also boosted the image of their parent countries. Among these are Toyota and Sony for Japan, Mercedes for Germany, Coca-Cola and several others for the US. The sober truth, however, is that these brands did not fall from the skies. They are the result of an inventive spirit, determination, refinement and a commitment to excellence, all anchored on an enabling environment. The Minister probably is not aware that some half-a-century ago when Japan was struggling to break into the global scene with its manufactured products, their goods were as caricatured as Taiwanese products over a decade ago. How did these countries later achieve the wonderful results that have impacted positively on their national brand and image And why have Nigerian companies not been able to attain similar results The answers can be found, as I indicated earlier, in the many grumbling pieces crafted by public affairs commentators, who often times appear like men and women talking to stonewalls.
What all of this points to is that a national image project that attempts to deny both the objective and subjective conditions of its domestic environment will ring hollow and ineffectual. Yet, at this stage, the principal benefit of the image project is to signpost the country's destination. The image project should be seen as a blueprint, a template of a national public relations agenda. In this sense, the Information Ministry and other implementers of the project will function in a milieu in which most of the factors are well beyond their control, very much like a PR operative in a manufacturing concern who has no direct say over quality control. But for PR not to be reduced to fire fighting, the operative should have an advisory role and opinion in guiding the enterprise.
At the presentation last week, the Information Minister did not provide details of the implementation plan. The only generalised statement that was made in that regard was in respect of the project having domestic and foreign components. But here is a piece of advice: Never attempt a wholesale implementation of the Image Project, whether in respect of PR or advertising. What is advisable is a piecemeal plan. For a holistic result, I had made the point about satisfying the conditions precedent to the success of the image project. To ignore those conditions is to merely replicate the various hopeless image laundering programmes that reached a nauseating crescendo during the Abacha years. Assuming the President and his cabinet do not take offence for being badgered, the achievement of some of the critical success factors could very well become a polite source of blackmail in the hands of the image project implementers. Take, for instance, the proposed institutional reforms of the Police, Immigration and Customs, which are the organisations that foreigners first encounter and in whose hands Nigerians also suffer. Undertaking these reforms alone is a major exercise, but one that will serve the image project well.
Furthermore, the image project should be a tool of evaluation, before belching saccharin statements about how well we have become. No where is this more important than in gauging the state of the so-called image eroders. It is one thing to have the EFCC planting billboards all over town and seeking to dissuade people from partaking of 419, it is also another to see real 419 kingpins face trial, go to jail and restitution offered to their victims. Here, there should be a database. For example, how many 419 cases were reported from period x-y; and at some time in the future, how many cases were reported How much did victims lose during the period Has there been a decline or has there been an increase But more importantly, are there faces to these crimes and are they being punished remorselessly
In his prefatory remarks last Thursday, the Information Minister said that the audience was being asked to critique the presentation and that the ideas gathered from the process would inform subsequent decisions on the fate of the project. As it were, the image project is a useful tool for governance, a source of free ideas for manifestos in polities where voters are respected because their votes count. Requiring as it does, the development of infrastructure and the maintenance of law and order, the sanctity of contracts, the certainty of life and limb and a future that is open-ended and not mortgaged by political idiocy, the Nigeria Image Project is more a challenge to the rulers than the misgoverned.
