The Nation Newspaper

Tag: national

  • Unified Payments gets nod to process National eID cards

    Unified Payments said it iscommitted to the processing of payment application in the new National Electronic ID Card (eID) issued by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).

    Unified Payments is a payment transaction processing company owned by Nigerian banks.

    In a statement, the Unified Payments said its role in the project is to further demonstrate its leadership position in the e-payment industry.

    It explained that with the eID card, Nigerians will have the ability to deposit funds, receive social benefits, pay for goods and services at merchant locations within and outside the country, as well as draw cash from Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) around the world.

    Under the processing arrangement, Nigerians identity data would be hosted and managed exclusively by NIMC while payment data would be hosted and managed by Nigerian banks and Unified Payments.

    The firm’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Agada Apochi, commended NIMC for the bold step and the technological achievement, adding that the initiative would help drive financial inclusion as well as stimulate economic activities in the country.

    NIMC Director-General and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chris E. Onyemenam said Unified Payments was selected as the pilot processor of the payment aspect of the card based on its exceptional track record.

    “Being the first processor in Nigeria certified to process EMV chip cards, the first to achieve the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) certification as well as its ownership by Nigeria banks, we have to entrust them with the role of processing the payment application in the National Identity Card,” he said.

    Unified Payment Services Limited otherwise known as Unified Payments is a card-neutral and option-neutral payments service provider founded in 1997 and owned by a consortium of Nigerian banks.

     

  • National Spelling Bee to begin next year

    Some April next year, the maiden edition of National Spelling Bee Competition will kick off in Africa’s most populous nation-Nigeria. Interested states willing to enroll their wards would be allowed to participate by formally applying for the forms, which will be available in November. Twenty five pupils, each representing 25 schools, will be taken from each state, said Young Educators Foundation (YEF), organiser, of the event.

    The grand finale, according to its organiser, has been tentatively fixed for April next year in Calabar, Cross River State.

    Explaining to reporters what the event is all about, YEF Country Director, Mrs. Eugenia Tachie-Menson, said the contest is targeted at primary school pupils between ages eight and 14.

    According to her, YEF is an NGO that promotes literacy and education, noting that the foundation is also a franchise holder of Scripps National Spelling Bee, United States.  Ghana is the only African country to participate in Scripps National Spelling Bee in partnership with two consulting firms, PDR Media Service Nigeria and Business Interactive Consulting International.”

    She said the major objective of the competition in Nigeria is to encourage pupils to improve on their knowledge and application of the rules guiding the use of English Language.

    According to her,  YEF, last year, underwent the trial version of the contest in Osun State to understand the challenges and prepare better this year.

    “We are very pleased with the overwhelmingly successful implementation of The Spelling Bee in Osun States, where the eventual winner, Zainab Olawale of Unity School, Osogbo was rewarded with an all expense-paid trip to the 87th Scripps National Spelling Bee of the USA, as a guest.  We remain grateful to the State of Osun and the office of Sheri Care Foundation (a foundation initiated by the wife of the State of Osun, Alhaja Sherifa Aregbesola)  for welcoming this programme into Nigeria,” she said.

    Mr. Emmanuel Afful, a Linguist and Lead Trainer of the competition, said selected teachers from the 25 schools would undergo one-week training to be led by Linguistics trained officials from Ghana. After this, the teachers, she added, are expected to impart their newly acquired skills onto their pupils before presenting them for the competition.

     

  • JUSUN threatens fresh national strike

    JUSUN threatens fresh national strike

    The Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) has accused the Federal Government of breaching the agreement it signed with the union which led to the suspension of its recent strike.

    The union threatened to resume the strike without any notice.

    In a statement at the weekend in Abuja, JUSUN alleged that the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Forum of Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) commissioners refused to implement the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) they signed with the union.

    It said this was the reason it recently suspended its strike.

    JUSUN also accused the government of not respecting the provision of the constitution on the financial autonomy of the Judiciary by making it a first line charge, as directed by the court.

    The statement by is National President, Comrade Marwan Mustapha Adamu, said the union had summoned an emergency meeting of its National Executive Council (NEC) next Saturday.

    It said the meeting would deliberate on the issue and ensure that the rule of law is respected.

    The statement said it was unfortunate that despite the MoU by all stakeholders, which led to the suspension of the strike, the government has said it lacked the resources to meet the union’s demand.

  • Bill on juvenile offenders for National Assembly

    Bill on juvenile offenders for National Assembly

    Will the adjudicating and sentencing guidelines produced by the Nigerian Law Reform Commission  (NLRC) for juvenile offenders serve its purpose? ADEBISI ONANUGA reports 

    Stakeholders converged on Makurdi, the Benue State capital  last week to fine tune a draft adjudication and sentencing guidelines for child offenders.

    The guidelines are based on the provisions of the Child Rights Act 2003. It is intended for use by judges and magistrates  to enable them operate uniform process in adjudicating  and sentencing erring child across the country.

    Mainly, they are meant to create platform for child offenders at pre-trial and after trial stages.

    The stakeholders, drawn from selected states, had representatives from ministries of justice. The judiciary was represented by  judges and magistrates; states’ ministries of women affairs; representatives of the Child Protection Network (CPN) among other NGOs; social workers; the Police and Commissioners of the Nigeria Law Reform Commission (NLRC).

    The three-day conference which held in collaboration with the NLRC, the United Nations Children Education Funds (UNICEF) in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and funded by the European Union(EU) at Smile View Hotel, Makurdi, between August 11 and August 15, was considered a critical part of  Justice sector Reform programme for the country. It is a five-year programme initiated to  provide support to key stakeholders at various governmental levels and in nine focal states and the FCT. The nine states include, Imo, Anambra, Benue, Yobe, Katsina, Lagos, Osun, Cross River and Bayelsa.

    The guidelines reflected the legal and social protection requirements provided in the Child Rights Act.

    At the conference, professionals in justice delivery sector and other participants committed to justice sector reform and the protection of child rights, carried out a comprehensive  critique of the draft guidelines, with a view to improving  and finalising  the document.

    Once finalised, the guidelines will be forwarded to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice and states’ Attorneys-General before it is placed before the National Assembly for an  enactment of necessary law to back it  usage by the judiciary across the country.

    In reviewing the draft guidelines, participants were grouped and given specific tasks, using specific formats to arrive at decisions that would be in the best interest of the child. This is to ensure that the final document comes out in simple, specific and unambiguous language.

    Examples of offences critiqued include stealing of food of low value from a local shop; stealing of high value items like mobile phones on the street (pick pocketing); planned stealing of lady’s handbags by groups or gangs; assault (single blow) with lesser harm and lower culpability; sustained or repeated assaults with greater harm and lower culpability. There are also planned assaults with a degree of premeditation or group attack and or with use of weapon with greater harm and higher culpability; terrorism; possession of explosives or weapon courier; terrorist attacks including failed attacks and use of psychotropic substances- first incident and very small amount, where the child is a regular user, where the child repeatedly use drug and failed to respond to previous orders.

    Other offences include rape-sexual intercourse involving child offender of similar age, who consented; penetration involving a victim of similar age, who did not consent and penetration involving a victim, who didn’t consent and at least one aggravating factor among other specified offences enumerated in the draft guidelines. The various groups made their suggestions and recommendations as appropriate, and the specifics were agreed on in the interest of the child by participants.

    Participants  shared their experiences on the field. One of them, Lilian Ekanem, said the role being played by Child Protection Network (CPN), other non-governmental organisations and traditional institutions must be recognised and supported by government for the protection of children in Nigeria.

    Ekanem, who is the Chairperson, Cross Rivers State chapter of CPN, said her suggestion was as a result of her experiences on the field. According to her, whenever there are issues of children against the law or rape among others, the organisation is always the first to be called, even by the police, to give assistance because of their experience and knowledge on child related issues. She said in spite of her organisation’s lean resources, the police depend on them for funds for transportation and investigation of abuses. She said they also bore cost of laboratory tests and medications in the case of rape.

    Taiwo Akinlami, who is Executive Director, Child Protection Solution (CPS), Lagos, said the organisation discovered disparities in states that have domesticated the CRA 2003. He lamented that in spite of the high crime rate involving children against the law and large number of police stations, only two stations, Alakara and Adeniji-Adele, have specialised units for child protection. He noted that efforts to include child protection in the curriculum of the Police College have proved abortive to date, including lack of budget for police training.

    Benue State Chief Judge, Justice Iorhemen, Hwande, described the conference as lively saying that most of the issues thrashed by participants are very important in the CRA and in the interest of child offenders.

    Justice Hwande said Benue State has domesticated the Act and is at the stage of implementation. Efforts, he said, are in advanced stage to get the family courts in operation in the state. He said when this is done, judges and others from the state, who came from the Ministry of Women Affairs, would be of great assistance in the implementation of the Act and the guidelines.

    UNICEF Programme Coordinator, Vernice Guthrie, said the forum provided opportunity to talk about a practical framework to give the CRA a firm footing and complete implementation for use in the court and by other key institutions.

    Vernice described the development as a critical begining and part of a much neeeded multi-purpose process for the courts, adding that UNICEF is committed to making the CRA and the guidelines to work for the courts in Nigeria and in the interest of the child offenders with the support of the EU.

    She said participation at the conference has been fascinating, but according to him, there is still a lot to be done to change participants’ mindset and imbibe the new information process to ensure delivery in all areas of the CRA and in the scheme of things.

    On how to reach the states that have not yet domesticated the CRA, she said the programme  would serve as templates for other states.

    Vernice said UNICEF is committed to providing technical services and support to other states to domesticate the CRA into law.

    Chairman, Nigerian Law Reform Commission (NLRC), Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor  said the essence of the conference was to evolve guidelines for bodies involved in handling cases of child offenders. He noted that the conference was well attended as it had in attendance, not just commissioners of the NLRC, but also UNICEF representatives and other stakeholders  involved in advocacy on the right of children.

    Osunbor said it was heart warming that   participants are well informed and  have been working as specialists on child protection and rights, including lawyers and non-lawyers, the police with vast experience on matters concerning the rights and protection of children.

    He stressed that the quality of their contributions reflected their cognate experience on the field, adding that their contributions enriched deliberation and would impact positively on the outcome of the exercise.

    He said the project emanated from the first stage of the sentencing guidelines project embarked upon by his commission in 2012. “It is one of the project directed at introducing the draft bill for purpose of giving legal effect to the use of sentencing guildelines by judges and magistrates in Nigeria.                       ”It is one of that project, in the sense that that bill which would be passed by the National Assembly (NASS), hopefully at some future time, would lead to the establishment of the Sentencing Guideline Council under the headship of the Chief Justice of Nigeria(CJN).

    “And the responsibility of the council is to come up from time-to-time with a guideline of the sort that we are doing now and of the such that we would be in phase two of the project which was directed and devoted to some specific offences”, he stated.

    UNICEF consultant on the implementation of the CRA , Leila Nazarali had earlier taken participant through the draft guidelines and appropriate approaches to developing corrective measures. She said the adjudicating guidelines would serve as practice direction for judges and magistrates and other institutions that are going to use the document. Leila explained that the most important aspect of the Act is to ensure that the child offender is not seperated from the parents and that detention is used only as a last resort.

    Leila said in the course of her tour of the states in Nigeria, she discovered widespread disparity and disproportionate sentencing because of unfettered discretion enjoyed by those adjudication. She said the guidelines would help to ensure that children are given uniform sentences for same offence in all the states of the federation.

    Chairperson of Federation of International Women Lawyers Association (FIDA) in Bayelsa State, Mrs. Pere Egbuson said cases of child offenders are most of the time reported to and handled by the association. Egbuson said they have had to contend with issues of ages of the child offenders particularly onn criminal offences. She said plans to domesticate the CRA has reached advanced stage following their particiapation in the UNICEF workshop on the implementation of the Act in June, this year.

  • Falconets aim to lift national spirit

    Falconets aim to lift national spirit

    Nigerian football fans in the past few weeks have really had nothing to smile about. They have been miserably sandwiched in between the embarrassing soap opera of infighting unfolding between the federations managers, as well as the very public oft absurd contact negotiations with the Super Eagles current gaffer Stephen Keshi.

    Add to the fray that the Rwandans are now calling Calabar unsafe and don’t want to come here in September because of the dreaded Ebola, one can see why it’s been pretty much all gloom and doom and a lot of tsk tsking. But that has now finally ended. Because in addition to the NPFL restarting, taking place in  Canada,the U-20 Women’s World Cup has been unfolding and Nigeria’s Falconets have slowly been gathering steam and finding their form and have moved into the knock out stage.

    In as much as the games so far have given us many scores – example the 10 goal thriller between Germany and China – these goals have not been duplicated by Nigeria who  had to labour hard and often from behind and has just five goals in three games. They did’nt come for Ghana as well so despite their brilliant start the only other African team invited has headed home while Nigeria has almost played timid till poked in the eye.

    Nevertheless they are yet to lose any game so far and their come from behind grit and determination has seemingly made up for the lack of high scoring games. Granted the defensive lapses continue as with Sangonuga against England and Coach Dedevbo openly admits that the tinkering continues. He also warns that his team is just a step away from going ‘ballistic’.

    He may have more than a point there because Courtney Dike’s fastest goal in the history of FIFA women’s tournaments ever seems to have ignited the ‘birds’ attack as only the woodwork saved the Three Lionesses from sustaining more damage than the 2-1 loss.

    Well, we know that the team they next face is New Zealand who in turn flattened Costa Rica in their last game 3-0 and reached the knockout stage of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup for the first time.

    Regardless of if the goals come in droves or not, Dedevbo expects a tough game from the Kiwis and wants to give Nigerian fans and Africa something to smile about. He knows they need it and aim to deliver. The game is on Sunday at 9 pm (Nigerian time) and will be carried live on SS9.

  • ‘National Conference platform for Nigeria’s future’

    ‘National Conference platform for Nigeria’s future’

    The National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Chief Victor Umeh has described national conference as a veritable platform for deciding the future of Nigeria.

    Umeh said the conference would afforded Nigerians the opportunity to interact and chart the way forward for the nation, even as he described the membership of the conference as a good thing for the Igbo nation.

    Speaking in Umuahia while commissioning the party secretariat Umeh said that though the conference did not agree on all the issues raised but that some fundamental issues of national importance were discussed which would help the country navigate through it turbulent and challenging period if implemented.

    Umeh said that the issue of special fund for rebuilding the North  East was rejected because it did not consider the fact that the civil war victims in the South east were not compensated, adding that the fair and just thing to do will be to accommodate victims of the war and other conflicts across Nigeria.

    He maintained that the conference could not agree on derivation but believes that whatever would be decided eventually would be based on equity and justice.

    The APGA national boss called on the Igbo nation to remain united in order to make impact in national discourse saying that APGA slogan is unity.

    He said the party was poised to take over Abia State government House in 2015 and transform the state as it did in Anambra state.

    Umeh said that the legacies of the late Premier of the defunct Eastern Region, Dr Michael Okpara were still unparalleled in the annals of the state noting that it was the former Premier’s UPGA that transformed to APGA. He described the party as the Igbo identity and the symbol of Igbo unity.

    He said, “Next year, 2015, APGA is the party that will take the lead and we will do more than we have been doing now; Abia State will be like Anambra state.”

    The national chairman of APGA reminded the supporters that Ojukwu’s dream for the Igbo was for unity “because he believed that when we are united nothing shall be impossible for Ndigbo.”

    The APGA chairman said the transformation the party was promoting would be total touching every aspect of life including infrastructure development, employment and qualitative education.

  • Winners of 11th Okonkwo national essay emerge

    Miss Patience Brown of Apapa Senior High School Lagos has emerged the overall winner of the 11th Mike Okonkwo National Essay Competition for Secondary School.

    Brown scored 68% to beat other contestants at the prestigious competition.

    Precious Nwaigwe of St. Francis Catholic Secondary School Idimu, Lagos scored 66% to emerge second while Master Akinwande Akinboluwarin of Greater Tomorrow International School, Arigidi Akoko Ondo State was third with 65%.

    Master David Oluwasoromidayo of Roshalom International Secondary School, who scored 64%, was the fourth best candidate.

    The Chief examiner of the competition, Professor Akachi Ezigbo of the Department of English, University of Lagos, said: “In assessing their entries, we looked out for how much they know of the issue, their capacity to express that knowledge in Standard English usage and their ability to follow tested methods of expressing knowledge acquired through observation, reading and experience.”

    She explained that four of the more than 2,000 submissions were outstanding.

    Brown will get N100, 000, a laptop and plaque while her school gets three set of internet-ready computers and a printer.

    Amarachi wins N75, 000, a plaque while her school will get two internet-ready computers and a printer.

    For emerging third, Akinboluwarin will go home with N50, 000 and a plaque while her school gets an internet-ready computer.

    Oluwasoromidayo will get a consolation price of N20, 000.

    The prizes will be presented at the Mike Okonkwo annual lecture, which holds on September 4 at the Shell Hall Muson Centre Lagos.

    The theme for the lecture is the power of your vote: A catalyst for a stable and united Nigeria.

  • Building consensus for national development

    The ongoing National Conference is approaching the terminal stage. Very soon Nigerians will know whether the conference was a worthwhile political master stroke by President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration as observed by Bishop Mattew Hassan Kukah and many others following its inauguration. Alternatively, Nigerians will know whether the convocation of the conference was an ultra expensive gimmick by the administration to tamper the political convolution that was then threatening to torpedo it. No doubt, the Jonathan administration has had time to regain its breath since the conference started, with a sizeable number of the critical elite bogged down by the intricacies and the spoils of that political engagement.

    However, to the consternation of many of those who have invested hope in the conference, there is yet no courageous proposal by the conference to alter our country’s suffocating rent economy for a productive one. Indeed to the chagrin of many, the conference had turned the important requirement of political restructuring of the country for our nation’s survival to a huge joke, with the hideous recommendation for the creation of 19 new states. With a substantial number of the conferees distinguished beneficiaries of the rent economy, the conference by that recommendation merely sort to expand their clan, even as they have spared no thought as to how such an expansive expansion of the national bureaucracy can be maintained.

    So instead of concentrating their effort to hammer out a consensus on how the existing 36 states, with the creation of just one more state for the south-east zone, will be re-structured and empowered for greater economic activity and bureaucratic efficiency, the conference has rather opted to further muddle the pond. I was thinking that despite the misgivings over the benefits accruable to the country from the conference by a critical segment of the country, that the members will understand the urgent need to work out modalities on how to devolve greater economic powers to either the existing states, or a proposed zonal arrangement. With the claim and counter-claim by segments of the delegates over a proposed new constitution, let us wait to see if there will be a redeeming benefit from the conference which no doubt has given a huge dent to the national purse.

    As the conference turns on the last lap, the challenge before the conferees is to find the requisite sagacity to build the required consensus to hammer out beneficial proposals for our national rebirth, however minuscule. In making that move, perhaps the guide provided by late Ikemba Nnewi, Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu in his book, Because I am Involved, may be helpful to the representatives. In that book, he late Ezeigbo wrote,“I am humbly of the opinion that the true beginnings of our loss of direction as a nation can be traced directly to the fabrication and installation of what I had earlier called east/west dichotomy. It is this phenomenon that has created and multiplied the imbalance in our body public. It is this that betrayed our struggle against colonialism. It is this that has created the situation which has been ably exploited and which continues to be exploited to our mutual detriment…. I am firmly of the opinion that the beginning of wisdom in Nigerian politics is the removal of this imbalance which constantly distorts everything.”

    I am confident that nobody will accuse the great Ikemba of talking ignorantly; neither will any from the East accuse him of being a sell-out, as many uninformed critics glibly assert, when some people push the position that there is the need for a strategic alliance between the old east and the old west, if Nigeria will ever have the chance to make any form of progress. As Ikemba asserted in his book first published in 1989, when he wrote “I do believe that the search for a new understanding begins willy-nilly with the east and west finding a common ground. This need is so urgent that I do not believe it affords us the luxury of apportioning blame. We all are at fault to a greater or lesser extent. What the situation demands is courage; courage to chart a new course and speak new truths and the will to install new understanding. In saying this, I wish to state categorically that my proposal is not and can not mean the replacement of the east/west dichotomy with a north/south dichotomy. Rather what I propose is that east/west understanding is a prerequisite for a north/south understanding without which the pan-Nigerians of our dream and aspirations cannot be installed.”

    Propounding his assertion that one of the problems buffeting the progress of Nigeria is the lack of unity, Ikemba referred to the Holy Bible’s assertion that ‘If a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand’. He then enthused: “In a nutshell, this is the problem of Nigeria. If Nigeria is divided against itself, Nigeria cannot stand.” He continued, “What then is unity? Unity, in a political unit, is a state of affairs where the entire polity is completely reconciled with itself: a state of affairs where fear, reasonable or unreasonable is diminished or reduced to manageable proportions, a state of affairs where the entire society maintains confidence in the institutions that bind, a state of affairs where man can confidently seek and find his due place in society…. Unity does not mean that differences cease to exist. Rather, it means that differences are recognized and accommodated to the satisfaction of all concerned. Unity means that both privilege and handicaps are not automatic.”

    Personally I guess Ikemba is right on this score. The challenge however remains the lack of will among the divided elites to appreciate this template as the antidote to the motion without movement that has bedeviled our nation’s political trajectory, and work for a change.

  • Don makes case for national agric census

    A don, Dr Ademola Adeyemo,  has called on the Federal Government  to   conduct a  census of agriculture to provide a direction on what the nation has to provide the base on how  it can  achieve the dream of becoming  the food hub of West Africa.

    Adeyemo, the Deputy  Director, General Management Division, Agricultural and Rural Management and Training Institute (ARMTI),  said  a census would  provide data on agricultural holdings, such as farm size, land use, land tenure, livestock numbers, and the use of machinery, as well as crop and livestock distribution nationwide.

    With  the government urging  the  private sector to partner it to implement the agricultural transformation agenda (ATA),Adeyemo  said  the information provided by the census would  have many uses. These will  include information on agricultural produce that can be raised in Nigeria and where, how and by whom they were grown.

    The data, according to him,  will help the national, state and local government, farmers, ranchers, agribusiness and others make decisions.

    Compared to others, the don  said  the  census will provide  a uniform, comprehensive and impartial agriculture data down to the local  governments, adding that  it  would   help to shape programmes and initiatives that benefit young and beginning farmers and ranchers; expand access to resources that help women, and help farmers diversify into new markets, including local and regional food systems, specialty crops and organic production.

    With the government’s  effort  to boost food production, he said   there  is  need  for agricultural statistics to  monitor  and  reflect  current agricultural and food supply conditions and to provide information to help governments and others in short-term decision-making. To this end, he said agricultural statistics has  to  be  produced on a regular basis.

    One feature of a census of agriculture, he  explained, is that it involves the collection of data at the individual holding level.

    On crops, he  said the  census  will  provide data on where crops are planted, the number of holdings with each crop, the distribution of crop area, and the average crop area planted, among others.

    He  said  the census  provides the most reliable data available on production of crops and  a base for estimating crop area and production in the following years.

    He said a census of agriculture is one of the largest national statistical collections undertaken by a country.

    Right now, he  said, livestock production statistics are weak because of inadequate data, adding  that a  census can help in this regard.

  • National rebranding not funded by govt, says APCON chair

    National rebranding not funded by govt, says APCON chair

    The Chairman of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), Mr. Lolu Akinwunmi,  said the failure of the rebranding was due to resistance from several quarters and attacks.

    Akinwunmi, who was the secretary to the Federal Government-led Good People; Great Nation rebranding campaign team, spoke  while addressing members of the  National Institute of Marketing Nigeria (NIMN) during the unveiling of a new logo for the marketing body.

    He said the project became a subject of attack because of the feeling in some quarters that it was another jamboree of the Federal Government.

    He said the government did not fund the project. “Being a part of the Good People; Great Nation committee, especially one that worked tirelessly with the former Minister, the late Dr. Dora Akinyulli  to make the project a success, the rebranding was met with stiff resistance and suffered severe attacks and probe by Nigerians as well as foreigners alike. It was assumed wrongly to be another government’s jamboree to pilfer and waste media funds, especially when the country was plagued with infrastructural, economic, security and corruption issues.

    He said: “It was never funded by the Federal Government and was therefore enmeshed in several controversies and criticisms throughout its short lifespan. And like other rebrand projects that had been attempted in the past, it ended untimely before it saw the light of dawn.”

    With the stalemate, Akinwunmi wondered if any Nigerian would back the idea of any rebranding project now when the nation is faced with several challenges that undermine its image globally. He said the country needed rebranding now more than ever before as many investors had continued to come in spite of all the challenges.

    “Now the question arises: Does Nigerian still need another rebranding project given the spate of negative developments we have experienced in our polity and social environment over the last two years? We have been plagued with an upsurge in poverty, kidnappings, robbery, intense corruption, weakening of our constitution, collapse of infrastructure, Boko Haram and others. Is there any opportunity for a rebranded and repositioned Nigeria against these backgrounds?” he asked rhetorically.

    “I think so, in fact more than ever. Interestingly despite these crippling challenges, Nigerians have continued to attract an unprecedented number of foreign investors which have in turn grown and expanded our economy significantly which has led to Nigeria being the fastest growing economy within the continent. Though we may be a country of good people a number of social, political and security issues strongly suggest to the outside world that we are not.” he said.