Nigerians are the Best Image Makers for Nigeria

It is a truism that Heaven helps those who help themselves.  Some of us may start re-examining this statement, but from whatever angle the re-examination may follow, the facts remain that he or she who must be assisted must make the first move.  Nigerians must resolve to assist themselves, in other words, Nigerian rulers must come to their bitter realization that it is the helpless Nigerians who will repair the image of Nigeria battered by their (rulers’) inconsiderate and faulty policies.

I want to thank my friend, Dr. Femi Ajayi for his analysis of the Nigeria’s image making problems.  We cannot continue to tolerate without resisting while pointing out in good faith some of the ugly policies and decisions being made by many of our Nigerian policy makers on behalf of the people.  The decision to give out a contract to the foreign, but famous Cable News Network, CNN was made by some Nigerians who believe that CNN is a better image maker for Nigeria.  To many of our rulers particularly, and to some extent, almost every Nigerian is with the false and faulty notion that everything foreign, including thoughts and ideas, is better than made in Nigeria.  This is not to be misunderstood as a claim that everything Nigerian and made by Nigerians is better while everything foreign is bad for Nigeria.  All we are trying to say here is that we are living in an over politicized world and in an era in which the love for “Self” and interest, in terms of nation state, is the order of the day.  Self-interest, and Self and interest take precedence over other considerations in relations amongst and between nations in our time.  Call it what you may, it is the truth and a fact that national interests are the driving force that move nations in recent time in political policies and decisions.  The national interests (the Nigerian peoples’ interests in all aspect and matters) should be uppermost in the minds and hearts of the Nigerian rulers and policy makers. This is very important because there lay the survival of the Nigerian state including the image that must not be allowed to be tarnished by others.

We cannot continue to blame others for what they have not done right for us when we have the means and the human resources to do for ourselves that which must be done and done right.  The Nigerian media or press has succeeded in making the CNN very popular among the so called elites in Nigeria; it is probably the reason the urge to give out Nigeria’s image making contract to CNN.  Most of the people asked as to why the CNN was permitted air space and room space to broadcast in Nigeria have always explained that the Nigerian Press does not correctly inform the people about the goings on in the country and does not perform its functions and roles.  To put it in another way, they are claiming that the Nigerian Press has failed in the performance of it duties which are to inform, educate and entertain.  Can one blame the people when it is the same foreign ill-motivated and undeserved news and information circulated by foreign missions in Nigeria that the media in Nigeria report to the people; the same news and information which CNN help to amplifies?  CNN itself has nothing good to say about the people of Nigeria and the country when reporting to its home country, the US. Most, if not all of CNN reports on Nigeria are when something has gone wrong in Nigeria.   Again, should one really completely blame the Nigeria press for not performing its functions in Nigeria when one considers the climate under which they are performing their duty?  The fact that Dele Giwa was murdered with a letter bomb during the regime of Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, Nigeria’s worst military head of state cannot stop to be the harbinger in the way of the press in Nigeria.  Dele Giwa, an interpretative journalist who studied in the United States of America, was performing his duties as a true journalist when he was murdered by Babangida and his agents.  Dele Giwa had said that the people have the right to know who Gloria Okon was caught with smuggled illegal drugs (cocaine) at Kano Airport in Nigeria during that time.  So again, the pendulum still point to the rulers of Nigeria as those who are blocking the reparations of our country’s image including that of our personal individual embarrassment and humiliations in the hands and presence of other non-Nigerians.

There are many patriotic Nigerians abroad who alone on their own have been on the vanguard to preserve the integrity and image of our country.  Our policy makers ought to have recognized these illustrious sons and daughters of our country as those who will ensure the correct reparations of our country’s image, and not the CNN, not “Bad-works” international or any other foreign contractor or propagandist. There are many local newspapers operated by Nigerians and other Africans in the United State; could one, two or three of these talented, but striving individual patriots have been given the contract to publicized Nigeria’s Heart of Africa Project? Credit must be given to whom it is due.  The President may not be perfect, but he has taken to heart to recognize Nigerians abroad and had called for the tapping of the egregious abundant energies of these Nigerians.  President Obasanjo may not be perfect.  Some other misfit and misplaced Nigerians see Nigerians abroad as a threat to their greedy urge to acquire undeserved material gains at the expense and regret of the country.  Hundreds of millions of the hard foreign dollars has been paid by Nigerian policy makers to foreigners for the reparations of Nigeria’s image abroad without any success.  Where is inward-looking for which most conscious nations and individuals do to succeed and for which our General Tunde Idiagbon of blessed memory died?

It is high time Nigerians who have shown reasonable concern for the image of our country to be given half of what has been given out to foreigners for the recreating of our country’s image.  This author can say that directly and indirectly, Nigeria’s President has been approached for collaboration in the promotion of Nigeria abroad by Nigerians.  The president’s response has been that “we should bring the dollars home, and not the other way round,” meaning that Nigerians abroad should not expect money from our home government in what some Nigerian entities in the US, public and private are doing abroad in the name of Nigeria for Nigeria.  Yet, CNN and other foreign contractors in and outside Nigeria are paid in dollars to continue to do what they knows how to do best - damage and smear Nigeria’s image continuously.  Onima Institute for Tradition USA, Inc is one of such entities promoting the good of Nigeria in Nigeria and the US.  Foreign contractors should not be preferred over the indigenous.   

At times one is tempted to say that colonial mentality may be the problem of many Nigerians and Nigeria.  If Nigerian policy makers are thinking consciously and conscientiously as it ought to be, the interests to Nigeria and Nigerians will be foremost in their minds in the formulation and execution of any project concerning Nigeria.  Our policy makers and our country’s rulers need to be thinking Nigeria or whatever name we come to decide to call our country because balance of power cannot be achieved through such behaviour in which someone or country subjugate itself to others.  In where little North Korea is shaking the Might of the world, Nigeria should be able to trust its people,  manage them, and make millionaires out of them to its own advantage and that of the world community.   The rulers of Nigeria should attempt to circulate the wealth of the nation among the subjects of the state; the country will be better off as the wealth of the people is also the wealth of the nation.  Many Nigerians abroad are ready and willing to contribute to the development of Nigeria in the way they are able because one of the main reasons some Nigerians abroad are away from their home country in the first place, has been the mismanagement of the national resources by some misplaced and misfit individuals within the ruling class.  And many Nigerians abroad know that home is home which is why they have continued to remit money home to members of their families. 

The country belongs to all of us and not to some of us.

Thank you