Political Maturity As A Rebranding Tool

Nnanke H. Willie
To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.  -Confucius.
February, 2010 will go down as a month of monumental watershed in the chequered history of Nigeria’s political development. Two great political landmarks were recorded; one on February 6 with the violence-free, relatively free and fair governorship election in Anambra State and the other on February 9, when against all odds the Nigerian Senate and the House of Assembly jointly took an action that changed the face of Nigerian politics for the better.
Both incidents viewed individually or jointly point to a new direction for Nigeria, a new vista of hope, courage and determination to respect the will of the people and act in accordance with good conscience. Both incidents add up to edify the Nigerian brand and truly position the nation as a master in conflict resolution whether it is internal or external.
This piece will for now focus on the second event i.e. the official recognition of Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan as Acting President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
On November 23, 2009 our beloved President Alh. Umaru Musa Yar’Adua made a rather unceremonious exit from the country en-route a hospital in Saudi Arabia. His Senior Special Adviser on media was to later inform the nation that our president suffered a heart condition known as pericaditis and was receiving specialist care in the Saudi Kingdom, adding that His Excellency was expected back soon.
A few weeks later the rumour mills got busy with all manner of tales, intrigues, subterfuge and even “news”. There was first, rumour, then “news” of the President’s demise, brain damage, and incapacitation etc. Concurrently the social and political turf got abuzz with calls for the President to transmit or not to transmit a letter informing the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives that he was on medical vacation so that the Vice President could effectively take charge of national matters. While all this was going on it was reported that no one except the wife of the President knew for sure the real state of the ailing President.
Chief Rotimi Akeredolu, President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) vehemently pushed for the President to do the right thing. Some elements within the NBA countered that Akeredolu’s stance was personal and not that of the NBA. The NBA Executives later disowned the dissidents and threw their weight behind their president and approached the courts to compel Yar’Adua to transmit the letter.
Mike Aondoakaa, at that time Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, did a yeoman’s job of fighting-off attempts from many fronts at changing the status quo. Till his last day in office, Aondoakaa insisted that no vacuum existed in the power structure of the country. Initially he was not alone. The Nigerian Governors’ Forum, South East Governors’ Forum, Senate, House of Representatives, Federal Executive Council and a good number of other political gladiators insisted that there was no vacuum and would usually go on to commend the Vice President for doing a good job in the President’s absence.
Prof. Wole Soyinka, leading the aptly named Save Nigeria Group and other civil society groups however insisted that a power vacuum did exist and requested that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan be made Acting President. In the heat of all this Umar Abdulmutallab, a silver-spoon Nigerian kid jolted the world when he attempted to blow-up a US airline. Probably having no one to relate to both at the presidential level and at the consular level as there was no substantive High Commissioner in the US, Nigeria was put among the list of terror nations by the US, even when it was clear the misguided Nigerian kid was indoctrinated on UK soil, trained in Yemen and operated from Yemen. Though there was a lot of hue and cry over this, the US action was probably predicated on their fears that without a substantive President, Nigeria could pretty well drift into a rogue nation or at best slip into the hands of a maximum leader.
Yet another crisis erupted in Jos with hundreds of precious lives lost. This time a new twist was added as state governments began to arrange for the evacuation of their indigenes.
A fuel cartel held the nation by the jugular as they made the commodity scarce and fed fat on our sufferings. There was a surge in kidnapping, MEND called-off its ceasefire. All tiers of government were in dire need of extra cash as the economic meltdown bit harder on the citizens. There was so much motion but no movement all because Mr. President was in abeyance and a small but privileged group of Nigerians failed to see reason why this state of affairs could in itself cause an implosion in the country. They fought hard and sometimes desperately to maintain the untenable status quo. Things however began to take a new turn as some of the groups and individuals began to soften their hard-line stance and eventually did a volte-face.
On February 3, 2009, Prof. Dora Akunyili did what many thought was unthinkable when she distributed a memo to her colleagues at the Federal Executive Council detailing reasons why the VP, Jonathan, should be made Acting President. She noted among other reasons that her Ministry had been without a Permanent Secretary because 32 Permanent Secretaries who had been appointed since last year had not and could not be sworn in due to the absence of a substantive or Acting President.
As would be expected, her submission that FEC should install the VP as Acting President drew the ire, odium and even threats from not a few Ministers present. She was made to withdraw and re-present the memo through the Council’s secretariat so it could be discussed at the next session. Though she withdrew the memo, a crack had been established. She did as she was told and routed the memo through the Council’s secretariat but it was never discussed at the next session. There was no need. Dr. Jonathan was already Acting President before the next session!
Suddenly some major stakeholders seized the momentum and began to fast-track things to achieve the desired change. Nigerian Governors’ Forum, groups of elder statesmen and state legislators changed their previous positions and in fact began to work actively on consensus-building to make the VP, Acting President. Amazingly the feat was quickly achieved within days on January 8, as both houses of the National Assembly endorsed, sealed and delivered the deal by unanimously voting to make Dr Jonathan the Acting President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria.
While many Nigerians, the US, UK, EU and other nations have hailed the action of the National Assembly, some (obviously a minority) believe that the action was unconstitutional or extra-constitutional. However, anyone who held the opinion that a power vacuum did not exist this past 79 days of the absence of a president should explain why there is a sudden flurry of positive activities in the governance sphere since Dr Jonathan’s ascension. The congratulatory messages to Nigeria from the international community on its peaceful resolution of the political logjam echo the discomfort and perhaps trepidation with which the outside world viewed the scenario while it lasted. Anyone who loves Nigeria understands that this is the victory of mind over matter.
The rebranding benefits for Nigeria over this incident are legion. The message to the outside world is loud that Nigeria’s democracy is evolving in the right direction and that given the necessary commitment, we can solve our multifarious problems by ourselves as no one else will do it for us. The commitment, zeal, passion, and respect for the rule of law employed in resolving this logjam will hopefully be deployed in resolving our many other pressing problems including power, roads, infrastructure, electoral reform, security and attraction of investments. I have no doubt that we can do it if we really try. All we need do is to imbibe the necessary paradigm shift and begin to build positive consensus and strong institutions instead of building strong men (apologies to Barrack Obama), then our rebranding effort will have revved off to a good start.
It is also critical that the leadership of the country continues to provide quality leadership through words and deeds as they have done in this case. Conversely, all of us smaller leaders must complement the efforts of the big leaders. For those who do not know it yet, leadership comes at different levels as many of us are leaders in our small corners: our homes, offices, clans, associations etc. If we emulate this sense of purpose and urgency to do that which is right and eschew corruption and acrimony, we will be moving Nigeria many steps towards the Promised Land by doing the right things at the right time. Robert Green Ingersoll captured my point in his words: “Happiness is not a reward, it is a consequence; Suffering is not a punishment, it is a result”
Our dream nation will not just drop down from the skies. Rebranding will witness the rise of good over evil and it will not be easy either. According to renowned Chinese American artist and architect, Maya Lin “To fly, we have to have resistance.” We should therefore not despair and get despondent when the odds seem to favour the saboteurs. Someday soon we shall have our day! I look forward to many more successes in our real-life rebranding efforts. Thereafter the cosmetic rebranding will be a piece of cake.
The US President, Barrack Obama emphasises the need for eternal vigilance by leaders and citizens in his saying: “I always believe that ultimately, if people are paying attention, then we get good government and good leadership and when we get lazy as a democracy and civically start taking shortcuts then it results in bad government and politics.” Nigerians will be very happy to welcome back a fit and proper President Yar’ Adua but in the interim, there must be no power vacuum ever again even if it is for one minute. I join millions of Nigerians in praying for Mr. President in his recovery efforts. God bless Nigeria!

NNANKE H. WILLIE (Branding Specialist) is CEO of HQSC Ltd, a Lagos based branding and integrated marketing communications company. He can be reached on  harry.willie@hqsconline.com or nnawillie@yahoo.co.uk