Abstract
The image of a country can make or mar it.
This is the main reason leaders of many countries aim at maintaining favourable
image in their interactions with global community. There are, however, countries that have
suffered negative image within the comity of nations and this has affected-them
greatly. Nigeria appears to be one of these countries that have tremendous bad
image both within and outside the shores of the country, hence the need for
the-re-branding of the nation. With the
flag-off of rebranding Nigeriacampaign
in February 2009, the, media were perceived as veritable instruments for
actualizing the re- branding Nigeria campaign, How effective the media covered
the project is a thing of concern. Therefore, this study sought to ascertain
the extent to which the media have been able to cover the re-branding Nigeria
company. Using contents analysis, the researcher was able to analysis three
national dailies namely: This Day, the Daily Sun and The Guardian newspapers. A
sample of 216 editions of the newspapers was randomly selected for analysis.
The results revealed that re-branding Nigerian campaigns tended to suffer gross
under-reporting in the hands of the print media outfit studied. Based on the
findings of the study, it was recommended that newspapers should ensure
adequate highlight and coverage of national issues like the re-branding Nigeria
campaigns.
Chapter One
Introduction
Reputation is what predisposes parties to consider the
possibility of engaging in a relationship. It conditions perception towards
acceptability in any socioeconomic interaction; land becomes the bases for
assessing individuals and corporate entities in order to determine; their
rating before reasonable members of the human society. Therefore, each country
needs to acquire a rentable image projection in other to attract goodwill that
can boost her relationship with others: and promote national development
(Owuamalam, 2005, p.6). It is the quest for countries to promote good image
that led to the coinage of the concept county branding.
Frost (2004; p.:8) sun up the tenet of country’s
image as it affects investor and tourist when he notes’ that:
There’s no arguing that the image
we have of another country says a lot about how we view it as a tourist
destination, a place to invest or a source of consumer goods.
The above statement illustrates the weight attached to
image as it affects a country. Therefore good image is the hallmark of a country’s
favour or goodwill at the international, market. “That is why many
countries make conscious effort to improve their corporate image in order to
advance globally.
Though the term national ‘branding is not that common with
countries of the world, its tenets have come to-stay. Therefore, countries must
make effort to appreciate this new aspect of national development as the risk
of not doing so can only be imagined then experienced. Olins (1999) as quoted
by Nworah (2005, p.1) warns countries of the risks of ignoring nation branding
and predicts that country branding will become normal practice in the coming
decades, adding that the lack off interest and belief in country branding by
some skeptics is only as a result of snobbery ignorance and semantics.
A state just like a company
requires a strong brand. To rise above the chattered political landscape, a
stale must be able to define and promote its vision… No state’ must be
anonymous. The goal rather is to have a brand that makes
winnings friends and influences easy… Building a compelling brand with deep,
multi facetedattributes requires
commitment. I will require politicians and bureaucrats to understand how
identity is developed, promoted and maintained.
Nigeria, no doubt, needs the much talked about branding in
order to promote her image and win favourable reputation. The country, in most
cases, has been seen by international community as a corrupt country. According
to the 2004 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, Nigeria
still ranks as the third most corrupt country in the world in a survey of 146
countries, coming only ahead of Haiti (the second most corrupt country). The
re-branding campaign is a “reaction to the statement made in 2004 by the United
Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), at a public forum in
Lagos, which concluded that Nigeria’s poor external image was denying it much
needed of foreign, investment to accelerate economic growth” (Nworah,
2006, p.5).
j In retrospect Obasanjo’s government in July, 2004
launched an image project for the country Which was called the Heart, of Africa
(HOA) project. Planned as an information arid orientation campaign, the
Minister of Information at the time of the launching, Chied Chukwuemeka
Chikelu, said the project would be informational and would involve both the
media, advertising and public relations practitioners. Despite all action pat
in ‘place to promote the Heart of African (HOA) campaign, most people perceived
it as another; government white elephant project, conceived as a conduit for
siphoning public funds and so had continued to create dissent arid cynicism
amongst the citizens. It collapsed under its own weight (Nworah, 2006, p. 12)
However, on Tuesday, March 17th 2009 at the International Conference
Center, Abuja, Nigeria unveiled a new logo and slogan for itsnational
re-branding campaign, which the Information and Communication Minister, Dora
Akunyili, affirm signals the march towards national rebirth. The slogan selected
was Good People, Great nation’, while the logo was simply the word-‘Nigeria’
but creatively interpreted. It was normally written as ‘Nigeria! Good people,
Great Nation”.
With this development, it is expected that Nigerians will
begin to reject the negative labels and adjectives used to describe both the
country and her citizens by the western media and even by Nigerians themselves,
and strive to do good, to think of the amongst other citizens of the world. As
the slogan suggest, nation first and stand Nigeria is a great nation of good
people. The media became the major-source of the campaign for the re-branding
of the country. Alom (2008 p. 528) observes that “when issues crop up, the
press parry out the surveillance of its immediate environment and then pass on
the information regarding the situation on ground td the society11.
In line with this understanding, themedia
are expected to play a vital role in the dissemination of rebranding Nigeria
campaigns. This study, therefore, sought to review how the media covered the
re-branding Nigeria project.
Problem
Re-braiding has always been associated with products.
However, when the concept is applied to a country, it becomes difficult to
comprehend because if a product is bad, the management can decide to kill it,
reproduce an improved version or repackage it. But if a country is bad or has a
back image, the citizens cannot be killed or reproduced. Even when a good
re-branding programme has been adopted by a country, the task of selling the
idea to the people becomes a different ball game entirely.
The Re-branding Nigeria campaign was greeted with
indifference when it was launched in February 2009. Many had different reasons
to reject it; some said it was untimely, while others were of the view that the
country had more serious problems to address, definitely not re-branding.
In all this, the media were supposed to play art
active-role, in the programme. Yet, the campaign encountered high class
criticisms. As the campaign progressed, people differ in their.assessment:1bf
the performance of the media in realizing its objectives. In this circumstance,
it would be helpful to empirically answer the question: what kind of coverage
was accorded the re-branding Nigeria campaign by the media?
The major aims of this work therefore, include: to examine
the depth of medias coverage of re-branding .Nigeria campaign, to establish the
degree of prominence accorded the campaign by the media, to examine the media
strategies for the re-branding campaign, and to gauge the success, so far, of
re-branding Nigeria Campaigns as reflected in media content’.
Hence, the researcher was inspired to ask the following
questions: What is the extent of media coverage of the re-branding Nigeria
campaign? What degree of prominence did the campaign receive in media content?
Do the Media have specific strategies in their coverage of the Re-branding
campaign? How successful is the rebranding Nigeria campaign, as reflected in
media content?