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Dora Akunyili; Re-Branding A Bad Product By Abdu Isa Kofarmata 29th March, 2009
If we are honest and sincere to ourselves, Nigeria’s leadership as it is today and may be tomorrow is a very bad product to market not even among its impoverished and economically strangulated citizens but even among the comity of nations. In this dynamic world and re-positioning era, the single and most important marketing decision is branding a product. In recent years the subject of branding and re-branding has become one of the most widely discussed in marketing domain and of course political domain as it is happening in Nigeria today. The question that continues to beg for an answer is what are we re-branding? Is it the country as an entity or the leadership that over the year held their people to ransom and subjected them to all economic difficulties, deprivations and hardships? Tom Cannon in his book titled Basic Marketing defines a “brand as a name, term, symbol, design or combination of these which is intended to identify a goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from other sellers.” Therefore re-branding is re-doing some or all of the combinations listed above again with a purpose of changing the product features or benefits so as to attract new customer and ensure retention of the existing ones. In his further submission, Tom asserted that for the overwhelming majority of firms (Nigeria in this situation) prosperity is based on a balance between skilful management of existing product (leadership in this case) and search for a new or improved product. Many believe that changes in the general attitude, behaviour and approach to governance among the ruling class is what is required to turn around the agony and desperation of citizens which will in turn project a positive perceptions to the foreign countries and their people toward Nigeria. A patriotic zeal and strong political and economic will devoid of corruption, nepotism, and favouritism is what is needed to turn around a country not eloquent slogans and deceptive propaganda like that of re-branding a bad product will successfully deliver the desired image at home or abroad. Optimistically, the re-branding strategy as employed and pursued vigorously by the Honourable Minister of information, Professor Dora Akunyili is just another facade that will definitely fail spectacularly and ended up as wasteful spending of public funds. The re-branding charade will never change the minds, beliefs and attitudes especially among the thieving elites from siphoning public resources anytime the opportunity suffices for them to hold public offices. It is indeed a hoax to attempt a holistic approach in re-branding Nigeria as an entity rather than the leadership that is bad. The slogan of Nigerians are good people is undisputable, they are also tolerant enough to live peacefully in hunger, starvation, deprivation and extreme poverty amid plenty and abundance. They are good people that choose to accept election rigging instead free and fair election that will guarantee genuine and enduring democracy; they are good people for accepting to send their children to rotten and dilapidated schools while their leaders send theirs to Europe, America and Asian countries. Nigerians are good people for accepting to remain in perpetual darkness after their leaders squandered billions of dollars without corresponding result in electricity generation and distribution. Nigerians are good people for cheering and conferring titles and honours to criminals who daily steal from their treasury. They are indeed good people for accepting unpopular and imposed candidates instead of following the path of their African contemporaries in Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Ghana. In managing a product life, the ultimate strategic decision is to abandon a bad and unmarketable product; this according to William Stanton will save firm’s resources and subsequent collapse. Therefore, Professor Akunyili should do herself a good favour by abandoning that product so that she can save her energy and experience for her choosing profession. It would also save the entire system from total collapse under her watchful eye. Professor Akunyili should by now know that corruption is responsible for all our economic woes and it has painted a bleak picture of our national image beyond redemption. Any strategy or government policy that could not provide our teeming unemployed youth with jobs, functional education system, comprehensive healthcare delivery and above all security of lives and property, it is definitely a wasteful venture which can only promote and institutionalise corruption at the end. Our learned Professor should note that a great deal of brand’s reputation is based upon perceptions that have built up overtime. This in effect makes it difficult for re-branding Nigeria’s leadership which is yet to show any sign of improvement through its policies, actions or inactions. In conclusion, it is rather imperative to advise the pharmacology Professor to as a matter of importance try to understand the president’s 7-Point agenda before embarking on this difficult but impossible assignment. This is because watchers inland and abroad could not differentiate clearly the differences between the useless national re-orientation policy of Babangida’s administration under MAMSER and what Obasanjo did under the so called reforms vis-a-vis the current re-branding brouhaha. Our fear in this unholy campaign is whether Akunyili’s pet project is not another avenue for siphoning and stealing from public resources. Our fear becomes imminent when one considers the financial implications associated with campaign in print and electronic media as well as the text messages been sent through some telecommunication outfits.
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