Upperhill News

In the days of the Late Prof. Dora Akunyili as the Minister of Information,  rebranding Nigeria was a major project that caught people’s attention. Indeed, no matter how good a product or initiative is, if it is not given an excellent branding, it is as good as the dusty book on the shelf.

No doubt, Nigerians naturally are easily noticed by virtue of our make-up. We are wired to announce ourselves even when we don’t deliberately intend to make a noise.  There some nationals that are not on the fast lane of social interactions as much as we do. In fact, our presence as Nigerians could be intimidating to some others.

We have the skills. We have the energy. We have the resilience.  Our educational status is another advantage that makes it difficult for anyone to see us as pushovers. Name any corner of the world, even the hard to reach places, you will always see Nigerians thriving there.

Our music has become a major export commodity to the world. We have quite a number of young men and ladies who are more or less idols in the music industry. These musicians tour the world, singing to the delight of the global audience.  We have some of our musicians sing at the highest stages of the world such as World Cup, Olympics and the likes.

I watched a documentary on CNN some weeks ago, where in the far away Saint Kitts and Nevis in the Carribeans, David Adeleke’s(Davido) name was engraved in their national museum. The presenter asked citizens of the country the rationale behind it, they gladly affirmed that it was their own way of honour such a music icon.

Our movie industry too is doing greatly. In fact, we have Nigerian movies being watched in the airplane by non-Nigerians. Our movies have become export commodities. In addition, the use of short videos and skits via the social media has made Nigerian artistes gain prominence globally since citizens of various nations find it interesting.

Little wonder, they say Nigerians are the happiest people in the world.  We make jokes out of every thing.  It is true that the challenges facing the country are huge but the manner we douse the tension is out of the world.  Our resolve is, “we cannot come and go and kills ourselves.” Hence, the need to laugh away our sorrow.


Nigerians in recent years have crafted and coined numerous slangs and phrases which are being celebrated and used across the globe even by people who do not know its meaning. For instance,  the famous “Emi lokan” by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

He declared “Emi lokan” during his electioneering campaign visit to Abeokuta, Ogun State before the All Progressives Congress Presidential Election Primaries.

I met a Columbian man not long ago whose nickname was “Oloso”. I was curious to ask if he knew the meaning. He confidently responded in the affirmative and expressed his love for Nigerian originated phrases.

The shout of “wahala-wahala” by the controversial musician, Habeeb Okikiola (Portable) was always what an Eritrean uses to greet his Nigerian friends at work.

There are too many examples to give in this regard. But the fact remains that Nigerians are standing on a higher pedestal when it comes to entertainment and the use of our God-given public relations prowess as a people. This is apart from the strength of our population and popularity on the African continent.

However, it is not new that there are always issues to grapple with in every human setting. As such, there is no nation without its challenges.  Mention a mega nation without a problem. It is not always as green as you think the greener pasture is. 

It is therefore necessary to ensure we channel this strength in the direction that will not demarket our nation and our self-esteem as a people by “majoring” on our strength and selling same to the world.

There is this Yoruba saying that, “it is the manner a calabash owner calls its calabash that oursiders and prospective buyers will call it.” If you give your calabash a name near horrible. you should not expect others to call it white.

According to the Bible,  the Almighty God gave Adam the permission to name creations, “…and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.”

It is not that the challenges are not there. We just have to tackle it within and not wash our dirty linen outside.  I doubt if any country in Africa uses the social media effectively as much as Nigerians.  Let’s saturate the social media with good messages about our country and what we stand for as a people.  We can make it a culture and pledge to spread only good things about our land.

Since we understand we are the center of attraction in Africa, let’s leverage our music and nollywood industries as well as social media and other means of communication to spread good news about our country.

There is a way a well branded nation attracts honour, respect and investments from the international stage and its people will be better for it.  With our collective branding efforts, our Nigerian passport will be celebrated.  We will no longer be treated as rags at various international airports or ports of entry. Our common brand is Nigeria. We can make it globally attractive. 

Femi Onasanya, a public affairs analyst, wrote via femibimboo@gmail.com.