Last week, I started a discourse on the demarketing of Nigeria. My argument was in response to the outburst of many Nigerians over what they perceive as the demarketing of Nigeria by comments made outside Nigeria’s shores. In that piece last week, I used the reality of business closure in Nigeria between 2015 and 2023 to show that what anyone says about Nigeria and its leadership style outside our shores, does not demarket Nigeria as much as the economic indicators do. These financial indicators are also outcomes of the actions, or, inactions of governments in the country. In other words, all the businesses that have closed shop in our country in the past ten years, and increased the unemployment and poverty index, decided to quit in response to government action. Together, they have messed with Nigeria’s image much in the same way that terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, and official looting of public resources have done.
I want to advance the argument here to indicate that nothing demarkets a country as much as the actions of its government operators and political leaders. Government officials and political leaders who fly abroad to get the best medical care demarket their country in no small way. This is worse with those who claimed to have built world-class hospitals in their home states. Government functionaries who ferry their children to the United Kingdom, and United States of America etc for education, demarket their country even when they do not intend to do so. Government officials, and political leaders, who prefer to holiday in Asia, Europe or America because of superior and effective infrastructure, demarket the country too.
For several years, Muhammadu Buhari punched the air with a clenched fist, in opposition to the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He critiqued the party for the misgovernance of Nigeria, especially, for not developing the sort of infrastructure that would make the Nigerian happy attending to his health within the country. He won the 2015 election on the sentiment that he would be a radical departure from the PDP. And, indeed, he was; but only to the effect that he radically changed the narrative and made London his medical home. For eight years, the man did not build any medical facility that had the equipment to attend to his health as president. He also did not retrofit any such facility to make it good enough to attend to his health needs. His choice of medical destination was London.
His successor has continued the trend. His choice of medical destination is France. Some of his supportive aides prefer to fly to Frankfurt Germany for medicals. In other words, it is 10 years, this month, of the All Progressive Congress government in Nigeria, and none of the allegations they held against PDP has been radically changed. So, after 10 years, Nigeria still does not have a hospital that is capable of attending to the health needs of its president and ministers. It is my argument that government officials who jet out to London, France or Germany for even complications arising from excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages and food, do more with their actions to demarket Nigeria than whatever any Nigerian says about the country. After all, actions speak louder than voice, as they said.
Also, we have had government officials and leaders, even those from states that are blessed with aquatic splendour, sneak themselves out to attend birthday parties in some island countries like Grenada, and talk about the demarketing of Nigeria. They do so forgetting that merely attending such lush birthday parties impugn the integrity of the country and the states they govern. For one, a state like Lagos, blessed with beautiful coastal landscapes, can become a tourist haven in the style of Cala Goloritze in Italy, Elafonissi in Greece or, Bang Boo in Thailand. But for deficiency in leadership insight, strategy and plan, Grenada was the preferred destination. That action demarketed the capacity of Lagos. It also made nonsense of efforts by governments in Nigeria to develop the tourism industry.
While many people are worried that someone’s comment demarkets Nigeria, they overlook the fact that crime and criminality get a huge reward in the country. And, they care less about the destruction of the national image of the country by the fact of selective administration of criminal justice in Nigeria. A look at high-profile case files before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and the progress their prosecution has made over the past 20 years, will leave one with no other conclusion than that the destruction of Nigeria’s image begins within. How else does anyone explain the discovery of N80 billion in the personal accounts of a former official of the NNPC? This is even against the fact that the refinery that was publicly and officially celebrated to have been fixed and returned to production state, had packed up a few months after the fanfare.
If we must begin to fix Nigeria’s image, we then must make deliberate efforts to do the right things rather than lip-glossing issues. You cannot harass people out of talking about the ills in Nigeria while shutting eyes and mouths to the fact that high-profile cases at the EFCC, especially those initiated since 2015, have not made any appreciable judicial progress. This mocks the country in no small measure. It tells us that we cannot be taken seriously because the statistics about Nigeria are out there for everyone to see.
Foreign countries, and businesses, that need to trade with Nigeria do not need to read what any Nigerian has said about the country. They look at the statistics, including those released by the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS). They examine figures from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). They read statistics from other international agencies that feed on data. They relate directly with their embassies and High Commissions in Abuja and Lagos. They also analyse Nigeria’s media, both the traditional and the social media. They read, they analyse and they make investment decisions. So, whatever we say about our country while abroad is immaterial to the facts as gleaned from available statistics. Those stats are the actuals that demarket Nigeria and in fact, they are derived as outcomes of government policies and actions.