Why Re-Brand Nigeria?

Prof. Dora Akunyili, minister of Information and Communications has an uncommon passion for her profession - pharmacology and human rights.
Her tenacity and fearlessness has earned her international recognition and hundreds of awards, as well as a seat in government.
Now Akunyili is on a mission to fix Nigeria’s bruised national psyche and battered image abroad with “Rebranding Nigeria” project.
She said the campaign would also target “re-orienting Nigerians, changing the negative attitudes of Nigerians, making Nigerians to believe in themselves, inculcating optimal spirit of patriotism in Nigerians and at the same time, celebrating our very best before the international community.”
The core of this campaign would be a return to the cultural values of Nigerians as a people, as well as how Nigerians see the nation.
As good as this intention is; it appears that the woman who staked her life to save millions of lives as she battled the wicked cabal of fake drug dealers is goofing in her new campaign.
Even with brand critics’ attention to the branding basics, Akunyili appears in a hurry to fix the already traumatized brand called Nigeria.
This fundamental mistake makes the project a bad public relations campaign, and needless waste of time and scarce resources.
Already seen as dead on arrival, Akunyili’s campaign is heading the way of “Heart of Africa” project by the previous administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo, which gulped over $5.6million in one year and failed.
The latest effort is lacking in originality, it is actually a very bad copy because Nigeria has peculiar circumstances from the countries where the ideas were borrowed.
There can be no original rebranding without committed leadership as well as followership. A situation whereby government and its officials exhibit affluence and want to compel subjects to tighten their belts is not acceptable.
Look at these posers: what is the prospect of re-branding for local government full of corruption, police full of filthy practices and illiterates, army of unemployed Nigerians, bad roads, unreliable electricity supply, incurable tribalism and nepotism, inebriated government officials and wayward family life?
Akunyili and her team should focus on the family. A family built on respect is a nation built on respect.
The new campaign should have read “Family First” because it is in the family that we raise both good and bad men.
It is from the family that we have army of unemployed youths, touts, “area boys” and the likes.