The cabal led by General Mamadou Buhari used by the Britain and the West to overthrow the best government Nigeria ever had since independence could not have chosen a better name. The APC (Armored Personnel Carriers) is the most destructive force to have hit Nigeria and by proxy the entire African continent. The nation Nigeria is a brand, and Buhari, Lai Mohammed, Adams Oshiomhole, and the other destructive elements of the Western sponsored APC were expected to defend and expand the Nigerian brand.
On the contrary, Buhari announced to the world that Nigeria is a bankrupt country; Oshiomhole continues to make unsubstantiated stories of fraud and mismanagement, and the many misguided statements from Lai Mohammed are very harmful in the effort to market Nigeria as the largest economy in Africa and the best place to do business. These misguided statements aimed at demonizing President Goodluck Jonathan’s impeccable job records, while hiding the inadequacy of the APC in leading Nigeria has destroyed the Nigerian brand identity, brand image, brand positioning, and brand equity built by Jonathan and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for over 15 years.
How a country is perceived by prospective investors, tourists, international non-profit organizations, and other interested parties depend greatly on how the country’s government enhance the reputation of their nation. President Jonathan successfully repositioned Nigeria favorably as a respected nation that commands respect from other nations, big or small. He supported the African Union’s Chair Dr. Dlamini Zuma’s campaign that Africa should find answers to African problems. Buhari on the other hand, is head boy to number 10 Downing Street in London – a British puppet.
Furthermore, Jonathan and his team of technocrats imposed strategic import substitution policies in key sectors like agriculture and automobile imports to make local firms use their locational advantages to becoming local giants. It is a well known that for a nation to produce companies that can compete globally, and it has to choose winners and develop them into local giants. These companies can then use their home strength to expand regionally and then globally. Dangote Cement is an example of a winning company created by the PDP through selective trade policies that gave it advantages over foreign rivals. The USA does it, France does it, and every country in the world does it. Free trade is just an illusion and does not exist in a real world.
In a world where competing nations like those in the in EU, USA, Japan and Canada have systematically and successfully promoted stereotypical images and perceptions of Africa as a place of hunger, poverty, disease, war, violence, wild animals, and corruption and lawlessness, the last thing a President can do is stand behind those who hold such views. The generic negative images promoted by Buhari, Oshiomhole and Lai Mohammed, do not help Nigeria and Africa in our quest to create an informed and balanced view of Nigeria and the continent.
While France is marketing itself as the world’s best fashion and design destination, Brazil as a place of beautiful beaches, carnival and happy people, and Germany as the best engineering nation in the world, Buhari and the APC are happy to market Nigeria as a corrupt and bankrupt country. In the United States, more than thirty thousand (30,000) people are killed every year by gun violence but yet, the U.S does not market the country as an unsafe place. In fact, more people are killed by gun violence in the USA, than the numbers killed by Boko Haram in the same period. The U.S still markets itself as the safest place to do business.
Instead of the many rhetorical blemishes from Buhari and his coterie, the APC should be at the forefront to enhance the Nigerian value system, improve the quality of live for all Nigerians, improve Nigeria’s business environment, market Nigeria’s great heritage and culture, and market Nigeria as a premium destination for tourism, talent attraction, and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Only through a coherent and consistent national image, can Nigeria live up to and be proud of the brand image and brand positioning as conceived by Jonathan and his savvy technocrats. If Nigeria fails, then Africa as a continent fails because 5 in every African is a Nigerian. Nigeria’s problem is the ethnic and religious loyalties that plagues and weakens Nigeria’s polity. Buhari is the biggest beneficiary of such ethnic and religious loyalty and has no desire to confront it.
Augustine Enow Agbor
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