Rebranding Nigeria? Check This Out!!!

"What are you rebranding?"
"Nigeria, we are rebranding Nigeria."
"Who are the "we" involved in this rebranding project?"
"The Federal Government of Nigeria and the people of our dear nation."
"Yar'Ardua, his ministers and the rest of the nation, you mean?"
"Yes, it is the people and government who must do it together."
"Oh, they must do it together? Are they stealing it together as well?"
"Yes, do it together and as one nation, not steal it together, common!"
"But what is there to rebrand? Is it the looting, the greed, the easy life, late budget, or the all-you-can-eat way of government leaders that is being rebranded? I know the leadership need a culture change, a new shared values and a more pragmatic approach to serving the people; in fact a reverse of the way things are today, which means the leaders should be serving the people and not the other way round."
"It is Yar'Ardua who is rebranding the nation and not you, chief lecturer and watch dog!"
"Don't let us get emotional here."
"I will get emotional because you are already calling the president a thief."
"I did not say he is a thief. I said he needs to be engaged in actively serving the people on a daily basis."
"He is doing that already. He recently signed the 2009 budget and was unhappy the National Assembly did not get the budget vetted early enough and ensure it was ready in good time for his signature."
"That is what I am saying. Alhaji Yar'Ardua should not be signing the 2009 budget into law almost at the end of the first quarter of 2009. That was how Sani Abacha was doing it in those heady days, so what is the difference?"
"The difference is that the president needed the cooperation of the National Assembly."
"But his party, the PDP -I will call them Pathetic, Disgraceful Plunderers - is in control of the National Assembly. You know Yar'Ardua took a vacation in the middle of his perpetual vacation and mastered go-slow pattern even when the national budget was still a work-in-progress."
"The president is doing his best."
"He is not rebranding enough and he should work hard to gain the respect of the people. I am sure he knows what the people call him."
"What do you mean, what the people call him?"
"His brand name with the people."
"And what is that?"
He is Mr. Reverse. He is no longer Baba Go-slow, because he is no longer seen to be slow, but perceived to be on the reverse, taking us years back into the dark ages. He needs to work hard and correct that impression rather than trying to rebrand a damaged good."
"He wants to rebrand so that we can imbibe a culture of moral values and counter the negative images of the nation."
"And you guys think speeches, advertisements and jingles will create a new image for Nigeria and its greedy leadership?"
"It is part of it. At least it is something."
"It is something alright; it is a drain on the nation's purse. What you need is a new attitude from the president and his ministers and a National Assembly that is not all about looting and grabbing; a people-centred government and a legislative arm that will put the people first and ensure that at least 85 per cent of the national budget is spent on programs and projects that directly benefit the people."
"The president is working for the people. He means well for Nigerians and he wants them to have a good life. He wants Power Holding to provide stable power supply, but...."
"But he is never there to do the job and he is not decent enough to discontinue the attitude of living off the state and voting billions of naira for feeding, presidential travels and needless expenses at Aso Rock. A good and responsible leader will not make the satisfaction of his personal needs central to state service. He seemed to care more about his own medical condition than the conditions of the people when he sought foreign medical treatment and spent the state's money to buy medical equipment for his personal use at a time when the nation's hospitals have no equipment."
"The president can't do these alone. As for the things he bought when he went to Germany, you should know that he require them on a regular basis and he just had to get them. Don't forget he is the president.
"I have not forgotten he is the president, only I do not see why he cannot use the teaching hospital at Idi-Araba, ABU Teaching Hospital or UCH in Ibadan."
"You know those teaching hospitals don't have the latest medical equipment and I am sure you don't want the president to go and die at LUTH, ABU or UCH?"
"But you don't mind citizens dying daily at LUTH, ABU and UCH and those poorly equipped state hospitals? How nice, how rebrandingly nice that is."
"I am sure you know that rebranding is targeted at re-orientating Nigerians towards believing in themselves and their country once again. Mr. President made that clear."
"He did? He wants Nigerians to believe in what? He wants Nigerians to believe Power Holding is fine and well? Does he want Nigerians to think positively of hunger and poverty? He wants the Ogoni people to see the positive side of unemployment and accept that oil degradation has its own merit in oil wealth, which is not getting to them? He wants the unpaid retiree to accept hunger as inevitable and pension delays as part of life?"
"You are just too argumentative, just too unpatriotic."
"Do you consider truth and the purveyor of truth to be unpatriotic? Mr. Yar'Ardua should be told that he is wasting his time and the nation's money if he refused to change his ways and obdurately continue to focus on rebranding Nigeria, an empty program. The Nigerian brand is nothing but deceit, denial of truth, deliberate falsehood, looting and greed. For as long as these are the things we are seeing and observing, along with the endless purchase of luxury cars, SUVs and limousines, we always accept the evidence before our very eyes. Only fools will accept to the contrary and let rebranding and repackaging of falsehood change their views. The day the looting stops, the over-invoicing, the waste of state resources, the unemployment, the homelessness and the delay in the payment of pensions and gratuities, will be the day we will accept that any branding or rebranding is taking place in Nigeria."
"I have told you that the president is serious about rebranding. He wants to move the nation forward. He wants to reverse the negative mindset of our people about their fatherland. He is determined to turn things around."
"How does he plan to do that? Is it by telling us to disbelieve the evidence before our very eyes? As long as Yar"Ardua continue to delude himself, referring to facts as perceptions and truth as impression, then the nation will not remain stagnant; it will regress and go backwards while more billionaires are made by a nation that is not manufacturing anything and has no production line or farming enterprises of note. I think Yar'Ardua needs rebranding also"
"You are not being fair to him. He is ready to make personal sacrifice and prepared to lead by example."
"He will start making personal sacrifice tomorrow and we look forward to his leadership by example strides. But I tell you one thing: no rebranding will take place in a presidential environment where more money is voted to feed people in Aso Rock and at the National Assembly than what is voted to help create jobs, to pay gratuity and pension and to support health care and child education."
"The government plan to feed school children and properly equip teaching hospitals soon. You can see we now have a new minister of health and aggressive ministers of Information and power. Mr. President wants to bring about a lot of changes."
"I hope so. If what I see now is anything to go by, I think the president is trying to persuade the whole world to be positive about a thief, a fraudster, an irresponsible presidency, a corrupt and downright greedy National Assembly, and that will not happen in his lifetime."
"He is working very hard to achieve rebranding."
"I know and I guess that was why he was not personally present at the launching of the rebranding Nigeria project. What a shame."
"You don't know what you are talking about."
"It is you who do not know your right from your left. I will rather Yar'Ardua calibrate the way he and his men are doing things, but I suggest they do not reprise anything from the chief calibrators of the Nigerian banking industry, those who overused the word 'calibrate' and ended up running their banks to the ground. Let the calibration begin, let the rebranding gimmick commence. All liars will go to hell and all deceits will end in shame."

Source: http://nigeriaworld.com/feature/publ...yi/031909.html