Sometimes, I wonder why Nigerians no longer trust aन्योने As Nigerians, foreigners don’t trust us and we don’t even trust ourselves! More often than not, we are sceptical when dealing with colleagues in our offices, homes and beyond. Hence, I don’t know why we should complain whenever we travel abroad and people look at us with suspicion.
I could recall the statement of Nigeria’s immediate past president, Olusegun Obasanjo “The image of our country has been battered at home and abroad; more by our own mishandling and mismanagement than by anything else,” he once said at the launching of the “Nigerian Image Project” at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
So much has been said and written about the bad image of Nigeria abroad। It is true that some people have argued that much of the country’s progress and achievements have been beclouded and damaged by sheer weight of bad publicity and erroneous impression by the acts and actions of few individuals, corporate organisations and public officers whose activities have wrecked havoc on our reputation as the largest black nation in the world.
The launching of Nigerian Image Project by the Obasanjo regime raised many questions: what does the country intend to achieve? How will it be accomplished? What are the parameters for the execution and how credible are those involved in its implementation? But what we have failed to ask ourselves as a people is, how do we perceive one and another?
Sometimes last month, I was at a book launch, three books written by Imo State governor, Ikedi Ohakim. As expected, the who-is-who in the Nigerian political scene were gathered at the event and the hall was packed full of friends and admirers of the state governor. As also expected, it was a time for speech making.
After a few people had spoken, it was the turn of President Umaru Yar’Adua, who was represented by Ojo Maduekwe, minister of foreign affairs, to give his speech। Maduekwe began by extolling the virtues of the writer, praising him on the ongoing developments in Imo State while comparing it with people’s perception of the Yar’ Adua’s administration.
And of course, our dear minister like the Honourable Minister in Chinua Achebe’s A Man of the People while delivering the president’s speech, tried to indirectly boast of his personal accomplishment in the course of carrying out his duties, yet he never failed to drive home his message.
“The other day I was in Washington,” he began, “I met Mr। Bill Clinton who said favourable things about Nigeria. He talked about...” Before he could end his statement, the whole hall said: “uhmnnnnnnnn...!” A sign that they did not believe his story.
At that point, I was deeply hurt and I reflected on how much Nigerians lack faith in our leaders। It’s amazing that story of the honourable minister of foreign affairs could be termed incredible by Nigerians. Given Maduekwe’s status, his story is not out of the ordinary. His office gives him the opportunity to mingle with and meet powerful people in the world. It’s possible that Bill Clinton could have walked up to him to express his feelings about Nigeria.
For this reason, the problem of image building of a country like Nigeria, just like any other African nation, is a very arduous task if it is only intended to attract the attention of foreign media। The process of re-branding starts with us. We have to believe in ourselves.
It is true what makes news about Africa, including Nigeria in foreign media, is gory tales of war, hunger, disease, communal clashes and endemic corruption, but we must learn to trust out leaders to an extent, even if they had betrayed the trust we put in them in the past. Many Nigerians do not understand why their trusted leaders often end up in unacceptable behaviours; perhaps this sparked the kind of reaction that greeted the minister’s claim from the audience.
The effects of such embarrassment have left too many souls with no answer।
Efforts by the government to reinvent our image and correct the very grave misrepresentation of our country and people by western media may become fruitful only if they can serve us faithfully. We believe that in terms of reforms, there is a lot going on in the country.
We have a very rich culture, the warmest people on earth and we have a land that if we are to develop to our full potential, could become a major tourist destination in the world। Unfortunately, Nigeria has acquired criminal connotations over time, on account, perhaps, of the activities of an insignificant number of our compatriots.
There is no country on earth that does not have this group of people; they are just everywhere. I believe as a people with one destiny, we must work hard on our interpersonal relationship in this vibrant country that holds so much promise. However, I hope Nigerians would believe Maduekwe this time, if he says he has met Hillary Clinton, after all, he had a special meeting with her the last time she visited Nigeria!
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