In early March 2014, domestic media houses reported that the Jonathan administration had earmarked N300 million to combat damaging publicity by foreign news outlets.  The PREMIUM TIMES, quoting directly from the current national budget, reported that the amount would be spent on “external publicity/media insertions in foreign media: print media, electronic media, media forum in selected cities abroad, engagement with foreign news agencies, production of specialised publicity materials for external audience.”

I have no intention of mincing words: What this administration is proposing is an exercise in futility. It is absurd and uncalled for. What a waste of resources it’s going to be. It is a waste because negative publicity is not Nigeria’s immediate problem; it is not even her most pressing problem. And even if it were, positive propaganda in foreign newspapers and other communication mediums will not amount to anything.

No amount of white-washing or rebranding will do the country any good. Nigeria’s tattered and unsavory image, within and outside of the African continent, can only be restored by good deeds, good ambassadorship, and good governance and by living up to expectation.

When you do good and great things, the world will notice and doff its hat; when you do bad and terrible things, the world will equally take note. Therefore, no amount of money or media campaign will change the nation’s image.

Nigeria’s image is simply what it is. And what it is, and what it has been for decades, is nothing to brag about unless one wants to brag about insignificances and recklessness and indifference; unless one wants to brag about awful leadership and all sorts of political and economic scatology. Let me enunciate this point by echoing what Omoyele Sowore told Ahaoma Kanu, in November 2012: “If governance is positive, you cannot make a negative version of it but if governance is negative, you cannot make a positive of it.” He is correct!

Sowore added, “A lot of people have fallen into the baloney that you can just put Nigeria as the giant of Africa in this fake place where you can say we are doing so well but we have no roads; we are doing so well and we have no hospitals; we are doing so well and we have no schools; we are doing so well and there is no hope, there is no infant mortality care; we can’t take care of our pregnant women; we are doing so well and we have no electricity, no water. Even if you combine all these scenarios that I have just mentioned, you have to be a magician to present Nigeria in a positive way.”This is profound!

What type of press coverage does this or any other government expect when governance and leadership, by all standards, is considered subpar? What type of coverage do we expect when our private and public institutions are considered weak and ineffective? For a very long time the Nigerian judiciary was considered one of the best in the world, well, can we make the same claim today?  Come on, you tell me: What did you expect the international community to say when our political and economic elite are renowned for their manipulative and repressive tendencies?

To paraphrase Seneca, millions of us love Nigeria not because it is great, but because it is our own. Many have died for this country.  Many gave the best years of their lives to this union. Many suffered just so future generations could have a better life. But when you look at what Nigeria has become – when you consider the wickedness, the foolishness and the indifference of recent leaders at both the state and national levels, you can’t but be regretful for shedding your blood and sweat for Nigeria. You can’t but cry and cry and cry.

So, tell me: do you get good or bad press for these and other abnormalities? No! You don’t get medal or good press for mediocrity. You don’t get kudos or a warm handshake for being what you’ve been since 1985. Nobody gives you a hug for failing your people. You don’t get favourable recognition for denying the poor and the needy those things that make life and living bearable and enjoyable. Heck you don’t!

You want to see progress? Sure, look to countries like United Arab Emirates and a few other countries in the Middle East where sensible governments (not perfect governments) are judiciously using oil money to develop their societies. You want positive press? Well then, emulate the Scandinavian countries. You want the world to kiss your feet and or prostrate before you? Well, do what functional and rational governments are doing the world over.

You want good press in a country where many state governors are no better than Oyenusi? You want good media coverage in a society where hopelessness and defeat abound? You want CNN, the New York Times, BBC and other western media houses to say what about you? That your universities are as good as any anywhere in the world? That your roads and bridges are not death-traps? That your hospitals are not mere mortuaries? Or that there is sanction for those who steal and or misappropriate public funds?

You want a favourable press in a country where 40% or more of university graduates (since 1999) are either unemployed or underemployed? Tell me: favourable press for what?! Not until we are serious as a nation and as a people will the world contend with us or respect us as was the case several decades ago. We have to go back to the drawing board. We have to get rid of many aspects of our national culture – culture that honours inhumanity and grand failures and grand theft.

Any Nigerian governor or minister or president may fancy himself or herself as whatever he or she wants. Such persons would be deluding themselves, though. This is not the Nigeria our founders envisaged. Things have changed and continue to change in a nasty sort of way. This is a failing nation – thanks in no small measure to successive governments and their prowling elites.We are now jesters on the global stage. We have the capacity to be great, but spending N300 million or N300 trillion on PR campaigns is not the way to go. Do what is right and humane and the world will notice and applaud you. But do otherwise, and the world will condemn you. It is that simple.

-Punch