The Nation Newspaper

Tag: rebranding

  • Fed Govt urged to review rebranding campaign

    The Lead Consultant, Above Media, has advised the Federal Government to review its rebranding campaign.

    Yusuf, author of Appraisal of the Rebranding campaign of the Federal Government of Nigeria stated this ahead of the launch of his book.

    The book examines the image crisis in Nigeria and the attempts at branding and rebranding the nation. Also analysed are the kind of reactions that the rebranding elicited and a prognosis on what could be done.

    According to Yusuf, a doctoral student of Public Affairs and Administration, Walden University, the image crisis between 1993 and 1999 was attributed to the country’s lack of democratic progress.

    While arguing that the rebranding campaign seemed to be more of a cosmetic remedy, the author recommends, among other panaceas, that beyond sloganeering, the government should address the issues that led to the image crisis.

    In the 123-page book,  Yusuf, traces back the crisis of the country to after independence.

    The book will be launched in Lagos next January.

  • BrandNotes: Does PDP need rebranding or a change of name?

    Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)  is a political brand that has existed for 18 years, and was the ruling party until 2015 when it lost the  presidency to All Progressive Congress (APC). That loss was followed by allegations of corruption against the PDP-led regime and also internal crisis within the party. Now that the internal crisis is over, some still believe that PDP as a name does not have the goodwill to attract votes come 2019.

    This reminds one of Obama’s dilemmas in 2008 when he was aspiring as the President of the United States and his PR Consultant advised him to change his name, because his surname and the first name of the late terrorist, Osama Bin Laden, are homonyms. The PR Consultant saw the 9/11 attack as a basis of sentiment against Barack Obama’s name. However, Obama proceeded to campaign with his name and won the election.

    PDP as a brand will survive, if the brand statement can be redesigned. The tagline of “power to the people” may no longer get traction, as the public perception of the brand does not match that statement. Thus, the party may look into finding a brand statement that will resonate with the masses, current challenges of governance and aspirations of the populace.

    The APC brought broom as the brand meme and it easily communicated the mission of the party while it was in the opposition. It practically swept off the incumbent and birthed a government which is spearheading anti-corruption fight. That party really knows how to sweep! LOL. In the same way, we expect PDP to look into the umbrella meme and decide whether to retain it or change it to something revolutionary.  Once PDP get its brand, brand statement and brand meme all together in alignment with its strategic mission for 2019, the brand will get interest and desire of its target citizens. The change of name is not a necessity.

    As a contrarian view, the best brand strategy for PDP may be to “let PDP be PDP”. This will mean that the name, brand statement, and brand meme will not be changed. President Donald Trump’s campaign was hinged on the principle: “let Trump be Trump” and it worked! As long as PDP can present candidates with acceptable personality brands, does the brand of the party really matter?

     

  • NFF REBRANDING: ‘Amaju Pinnick on right track’

    NFF REBRANDING: ‘Amaju Pinnick on right track’

    Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) under Amaju Pinnick has been commended for restructuring Nigerian Football.

    Kwara State born Sports philanthropist Babatunde Saliu Afase who gave the admonition while addressing journalists in Ilorin praised the present NFF administration for their outstanding restructuring of Nigerian Leagues.

    He urged them to bring more innovations for total transformation of the country’s football.

    “The positive change in our football is as a result of good leadership and hard work Amaju Pinnick and his members are putting into practice and I think they need to be commended and acknowledged for this,” said Afase.

    “The standard of our Leagues and football has changed tremendously and there are better opportunities when a country’s football is properly managed and structured. The Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) has improved and we are all happy that we have a league that we can call our own, officiating of matches are now perfect and handlers of our various national teams are all competent and experienced, what we need to do now is to give them support and pray for them to succeed as it will be a collective praise,” the business man cum football enthusiast added.

    He, however, urged the present NFF to continue with their transformation and developmental agenda of improving football and creating standard football structures in the country.

  • Rebranding Okagbare

    Blessing Okagbare needs help. She must be educated on the traits that distinguish winners from losers. She needs a psychologist, a starter’s bloc expert, a career advisor and a sprint great to repeatedly take her through the rudiments of winning the sprints.

    For Okagbare or any other Nigerian to stand on the podium at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, the government must stop giving cash to sporting bodies. In other climes, they operate a four-yearly budget meant to train athletes, sportsmen and women the moment one major competition ends. If we continue to operate the yearly budgetary system, which most times don’t turn to cash until the middle of the year, no Nigerian will be an Olympic Games medalist, except he or she goes the way of Chioma Ajunwa, who was guided to glory by Segun ‘Mathematical’ Odegbami. Odegbami took Ajunwa on a guided training session in London after which Ajunwa won the gold medal in the women’s long jump event at the Atlanta’96 Olympic Games.

    It is about time we asked the government what happened to all the funds sourced by the sports lottery body. Elsewhere, cash from this kind of initiative goes a long way in helping sportsmen and women achieve their dreams of being kings and queens of their sports.

    Countries that plan for big events identify models that they think can help their athletes improve. They either send their wards, coaches and officials to such countries to be trained or get the good coaches to come to their home countries to prepare their teams.

    I always laugh whenever Nigerian athletes promise us medals before big competitions. I pinch myself to find out the type of facilities that they train with. I wonder how athletes who train with obsolete facilities expect to beat the others. It was a big shame watching our boxers at the London Olympics being taught the new rules of the game. They lost the bouts even before the fights began. Boxing officials stood morose as their wards fell to the modern tricks of the game which they would have known, if they had attempted to undergo refresher courses.

    Sadly, our attempt to model our National Institute for Sports (NIS) after what the Australians have has failed. We have been unable to raise the level of the NIS to achieve the goals set for it – train our coaches etc. Coaches from the NIS have been highly handicapped because of the deplorable conditions of facilities around the country. Need I talk about the state of facilities at the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos, which houses the NIS? With coaches whose studies are restricted to theoretical work, it shouldn’t come as a surprise when our sportsmen and women lack the basics of their sport. For instance, we have been talking about Okagbare’s poor start since ‘God knows when.’ Nobody has provided the panacea. Nor has anyone been able to get Okagbare a coach whose specialty is teaching athletes how to explode from the starter’s bloc. I digress.

    Branding Okagbare, I dare say, doesn’t have to be through the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), that is if Nigerian firms don’t trust the body. They could deal directly with her manager which is the norm. Of course, Okagbare and her manager come from a system where contracts are respected.

    Loading Okagbare with huge government cash without the requisite technical support won’t help her grow. Sports business is big with global acceptance. Okagbare’s antecedents are such that would attract corporate partnerships, if companies are told the benefits to them. Such private sector support for athletes such as Okagbare should not be restricted to Nigerian firms. Let Nigerian companies face the embarrassment of watching Okagbare celebrate her gold medal wearing foreign firms’ colours. May be that will be the elixir to push Nigerian firms to support sports.

    The former sprint star in Okagbare’s support team would share his/her experiences with her through visuals and pep talks, preparatory to big tournaments. She has the talent to be the greatest woman athlete, only if she has backroom staff to school her on events she should attend and those she shouldn’t.

    Okagbare appears to be interested in what she can get for herself in all the races largely because we don’t care for her, not what she would be remembered for after she would have left the game. Okagbare doesn’t need to compete in all the races seasonally.

    She has no point to prove in the sprint business, having beaten all the top runners in the past. Yet she needs to ponder why those she dusts in smaller races embarrass her in the big races. Except Okagbare gets a renowned manager who would plan her races based on the athletics calendar, she won’t get any big title (World Athletics Championship and the Olympics).

    The World Athletics Championships and the Olympic Games signpost how athletes are rated for other meets. Equally important are the Commonwealth Games, the All Africa Games etc. But the Olympics and the World Championships determine how athletes are rated for the new season.

    It is laughable for anyone to blame Okagbare’s poor show at the Beijing 2015 World Athletics Championships on the lane in which she ran. Okagbare is exposed enough to know that how you finish in the semi-finals determines your lane for the final race. What this means is that Okagbare should strive at all times to be placed in-between those tipped to beat her in the finals. Their presence will galvanise her to explode out of the blocs. Being on her marks in-between her rivals will pump her adrenalin to match them as they leave the starter’s bloc.

    It is unfair for people to insinuate that her marriage could be affecting her. Okagbare has been in the relationship with her husband for over one decade. Interestingly, her husband is a sportsman who certainly met her during a sports competition. He has been Okagbare’s pillar. They must have agreed on the future, including making babies. We have also seen female athletes give birth and return to the sports to continue from where they stopped.

    Today the Jamaicans are the benchmark to measure athletics. They didn’t sit at home in Jamaica sermonising like some of our administrators are doing. The Jamaican authorities took their team to the United States to understudy the Americans, who were the kings and queens of the tracks. It took the Jamaicans time, resources and support from their government to replicate an improved template of the US model. Today, the Americans watch in awe as the Jamaicans stride ahead of them on the tracks.

    We must commend former Delta State Governor Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan for supporting Okagbare. Uduaghan has left office. It appears Okagbare has been marooned. Governance here isn’t a continuum. She needs more enduring structures to succeed. It has taken the League Management Company (LMC’s) threat to deduct points from Warri wolves’ league matches before the Delta State government reacted. Warri Wolves never lacked under Uduaghan’s administration.

    Okagbare didn’t appear for the 200 metres race – no thanks to a hamstring injury. Is anyone surprised? I’m not because she has been participating in too many races in the last two years. It could also be that she was devastated by the laughable last position she took in the 100 metres finals despite clocking one of the best times in the semi-final race.

    Okagbare has behaved like the proverbial masquerade who danced himself lame before the real dance. She must learn from Usain Bolt, who stylishly dodged small races this season to be fit for the big ones, such as the World Athletics Championships.

    I won’t join the motley crowd deriding Okagbare for shunning the 200 metres race. I’d rather ask AFN chiefs to sit down with her to discuss her problems. Okagbare can be the poster girl for Nigeria at the Rio’2016 Olympic Games, but she needs to be handed over to a new team of experts to repackage her training.

     

    Let Mikel be

     I didn’t want to dignify John Mikel Obi’s refusal to pick Sunday Oliseh’s calls with a comment. I honestly felt that Oliseh had done the right thing by dropping Mikel. The coach didn’t need any prompting to know that Victor Moses would have told Mikel that he got a call from the Eagles coach. Besides, Moses would have told Mikel that he was attending a meeting with Oliseh.

    I maintained stoic silence on Mikel’s tantrum, until I read his manager John Ola Shittu confirm that Mikel indeed saw Oliseh’s text message. I didn’t have any doubt that what Mikel did was deliberate. I appreciate the uncanny manner in which Oliseh has moved on without making it an issue.

    Oliseh should leave Mikel alone. If he wants to play for Nigeria, he can pay his way down to the country to show us that he truly wants to play. Mikel should be ignored in subsequent invitations to the Eagles, more so if Oliseh wants Nigerians to take him seriously on his vow not to invite benchwarmers, including those who perpetually come into matches as dying minutes’ substitutes. Any Nigerian who plays less than one hour regularly for his European side shouldn’t be invited to the Eagles.

  • Don seeks African rebranding

    Don seeks African rebranding

    A professor of Sociology  and Criminal Justice, Virginal State University, Nana Derby, has advocated a rebranding of African identities to free the continent from Western domination.

    She spoke on the theme:  ‘A deconstructionist alternative in post-development Africa at the 42nd public lecture of Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State last Friday.

    She said Africa must embrace the developmental philosophy of the founding fathers that fought for her freedom.

    “I do not in any way advocate the secession of African nations from the world system,” Derby said, adding: “rather, I endore the optimism of the African-centred growth and development that the men and women who spearheaded our freedom instigated.

    “How do we establish the foundation so proclaimed several decades ago, and what identities do we project for ourselves. Who speaks for Africa? And how do we build that Africa capable of managing her own affairs?”

    She continued: “The attainment of political independence and the choices of dependency and modernisation plunged us deeper into the world system, not as equal partners, but as dependants and champions of the periphery noted for subservience, deprivation and vulnerability. In economic terms, our dependency and peripheral locations were suggestive of long-term trade imbalances, deficits, and limited foreign exchange earnings, Derby added.

    “To deconstruct, the continent need to decontextualise our identities, celebrate our differences, and critically reappraise the identities that processes of exploitation, colonisation, enslavement, post colonialism, and economic dependence bestowned on Africa.”

    Derby noted that over the last 50 years, Africa’s dependence on Western aids has done her more harm than good, despite that she can tap on her inner deposits to better her lot.

    ” For over 50 years, Africa’s dependence on foreign aid has been detrimental: yet the continent failed to advocate locally acquired programmes fitting valuable tour citizens and judiciously centred on our unique characteristics,”  the don said.

    To add more salt to the injury, African leaders made themselves tools for the emergence of sustenance of African’ s negative and poor economic performances which are detrimental to  the continent’s growth. She lamented that heavy dependence of African nation on Western countries had been attributed to dysfunctional Institution, bribery, mismanagement and misappropriation of state funds.

    ”Unfortunately, the funds are misappropriated or siphoned illicitly into personal venture, leaving the states with very little to show for their mounting debts,” she said.

    “African nations need to step out of the perpetual modernisation and dependency-driven development to usher herself into the post-development era of self-reliance,” Derby concluded.

  • ‘Why Rebranding Nigeria project failed’

    Pioneer secretary and former  Chief Executive Officer,  Rebranding Nigeria, Mr. Lolu Akinwunmi, has identified paucity of funds as the major reason for the failure of the project.

    The project was anchored on attitudinal change, re-orientation, revival of our beautiful old cultural values and instilling a renewed spirit of patriotism and hope in all Nigerians against negative perception.

    As the secretary of the committee, he said the government was in a better position to account for the failure of the project.

    “Even though my letter of appointment was silent on tenure, I think the government is in a better position to answer the question. I was the Secretary of the Ad hoc committee and was later appointed the CEO. Finance was a key issue,” he said.

    On the relevance of the project, Akinwunmi said most Nigerians misunderstood the concept of the rebranding effort, interpreting it to mean advertisement because of its rebranding nomenclature just as some of those past interventions which include Ethical Revolution, Green Revolution, War Against Indiscipline (WAI), and most recently, Heart of Africa.

    “Unfortunately, many Nigerians believed it was all about advertisement because of the ‘Rebranding’ nomenclature; they simply imagined it was the same as the previous similar projects. But ours was different; it was more of a social mobilisation programme.

    “We found out from the ad hoc level that if we did not put in place a programme that would change the way Nigerians think, then all the money spent on advertising locally and abroad would amount to a waste. We agreed on a social mobilisation programme that would even affect and influence teachings from our primary schools etc. It was a great programme. And it was structured to run over a long span, not some six months campaign. Is it still relevant? Of course, it will always be, for as long as we need to go through a social reengineering programme,” he noted.

    The former governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, traced the failure of efforts at rebranding Nigeria to value deficit and the inability of successive administrations to articulate a strategic national vision and calibrate institutional realities to match the vision.

    Fayemi who stressed that Nigerians have not adequately and firmly framed the values that will drive our institutions, asserted that the institutional transformation that the country needs to restore values to the front burner include leadership by example.

    “In the words of Gandhi, we must become the change we want to see. Transformation cannot be imposed from above. It can only be generated by exemplary leadership which not only elicits emulation but inspires the conviction that the proposed path of change is the right road,” he had said.

    He stated that if concerted efforts are not made, the younger generations would be affected and discouraged from treading the path of meritocracy to mediocrity since our heroes say far more about our values and our image than we imagine.

    “Our heroes are symbols of the national brand. When we serenade fraudsters, ex-despots, ex-convicts and other assorted persons of dubious reputations with national honours and appointments, we are sending a terribly unedifying message to the world.

    “No kind of public relations blitz can undo the damage done to the national image by the sort of people that have become our symbols. We are also sending a dangerous signal to the young about the relationship between competence and honesty on one hand and promotion and recognition on the other,” Fayemi noted.

  • Obiano orders rebranding of agency

    Anambra State Governor, Willie Obiano has ordered the rebranding of Anambra State Traffic Agency (ASTA), even as he suspended the activities of the agency in Ihiala, Nnewi, Onitsha and its environs, except Awka.

    The agency will now bear Anambra Road Traffic Management Agency (ATMA).

    This was revealed in Awka by the Commissioner for Transport, Chuma Mbonu, while he led the traffic decongestion team at Aroma during the gridlock.

    According to him, the bad eggs in the old agency, which had been identified, would be sacked after what he described as rescreening of the workers.

    Mbonu said: “We are re-organising and re-branding the agency. It will come in a new form and new shape for greater efficiency as ordered by Governor Willie Obiano.

    “Those of them who are good will be retained after the re-screening exercise while the bad eggs will go. We have the data of all of them.

    “Already, we have suspended their activities in areas such as Ihiala, Nnewi, Onistha, Ekwulobia. We have retained their services in Awka for close supervision.

    “The new agency will be made up of men and women of integrity. You know their reputation before now had not been wonderful. Obiano has a passion for road transport matter,” Mbonu said.

    Again, he said the state government would rely on additional information from the public to act accordingly, adding that Anambra State was no longer for miscreants.

     

  • NOHP: Towards rebranding Nigeria

    NOHP: Towards rebranding Nigeria

    A group of individuals has teamed up with the Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation as well as some corporate bodies to creatively engender a positive global perception for Nigeria under the banner: Nigeria: Our Heritage Project (NOHP).

    A member of the group, Prof. George Obiozor, a former Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, NIIA, said  the new project would change the perception of Nigeria, especially to the outside world.

    Obiozor, who until recently was Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States of America, USA, said NOHP was conceived as an enduring movement to engender a positive global perception change for Nigeria such that Nigeria would be enabled internally and externally to realise her full potentials.

    “It will be activated by 100 proudly Nigerian public and private organisations that will catalyse the strategic repositioning of Nigeria as a more welcoming nation. With the official endorsement by the Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, this project is better poised to achieving a positive perception change through a well-coordinated exposure of our heritage and the legendary Nigerian spirit for a proper appreciation of the world,” the erudite scholar said.

    According to him, part of their programmes includes the Fascinating Nigeria documentary series. “This documentary series shall highlight Nigeria’s rich heritage, enchanting scenery and potentials through syndicated media networks to a wide global audience. All these are created to keep Nigeria constantly in the minds of people across the world for better appreciation of what she is all about,” Obiozor revealed.

    Other programmes include publishing a book titled Nigeria: Our Heritage -The Past. The Present. The Promise as well as the National Heritage Medal Awards, a yearly reward platform for partner organisations.

    Other individuals involved in the project are Prof. Sam Oyovbaire, Prof. Tunde Adeniran, Prof. Isawa Elaigwu, Prof. Jide Osuntokun, Prof. Bukar Bukarambe and Prof. Collins O. Gardner.

  • 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.

  • Olanipekun’s rebranding of judiciary

    Olanipekun’s rebranding of judiciary

    Chief Wole Olanipekun, (SAN) is a veteran of many wars. As student leader, he fought against Gowon who at the end prayed for him. As NBA president he confronted Chief Obasanjo and came out unscathed. As a resourceful lawyer, he has secured victory after victory for his clients usually the high heeled in our society. For him water has no enemy. He approaches all cases with passion because according to him “We as lawyers must appreciate our calling as a covenant with God.”

    In this regard, On November 21, 2011, he defended Bola Tinubu, the ACN national leader before the Code of Conduct Tribunal. “I led his very formidable team to ask the Tribunal to discharge and acquit him. By 2.30 pm same day, I was in the courtroom of the Court of Appeal in the same Abuja to as part of defence team of the Jonathan election petition”. This did not stop him for also defending Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) governor in Nasarawa against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    It is therefore not surprising that Chief Wole Olanipekun has brought his usual passion to bear on his current defence of Ifeanyi Ubah against Access Bank. He is capitalising on Access Bank’s decision to file “documents before a London High Court, wherein the bank alleged that part of the reasons it avoided instituting an action against Capital Oil and its Managing Director, Ifeanyi Ubah in Nigeria was because the Nigerian judiciary was corrupt.”

    Such action, the chief insisted, amount to the denigration of Nigerian judiciary and dragging its image in the mud in the United Kingdom. Contrary to Access Bank’s deposition before the London court, no one person according to the chief can have “the judiciary in his pocket” in Nigeria.

    The judge, Justice Abang in a bid to uphold the integrity of the judiciary and the judicial process, agreed with him and ruled that “by supplying information which scandalised the Nigerian judiciary, the bank’s Corporate Counsel, Fatai Oladipo and Deji Awodein one of the bank’s Deputy General Managers were guilty of criminal contempt”. This may win a case but will unfortunately not win the battle over the minds of Nigerians who have come to see the judiciary as our major problem.

    Chief Olanipekun who has indicated he is uncomfortable with the situation of things in the country, whereby “we are running people’s affairs like a game of chess” however did not see anything wrong with the judiciary. If the third tier of government has any problem at all, it is because it has been overwhelmed by those created by the executive and the legislature.

    First, I am sure the outside world is amused by the chief’s attempt to exonerate the judiciary from the current problems bedevilling the nation, chief of which is corruption. In a globalised world and with the ascent of the new social media, everyone is a witness to history as it unfolds. The macabre dance between the senior members of our judiciary (SANs), some corrupt judges, thieving members of the political class, criminals as bank owners and oil fraudsters are daily documented for the world.

    Besides, UK of all places is a wrong choice for a rebranding effort of our judiciary. This is a nation that has just jailed James Ibori proclaiming him ‘a thief in the state house’ along with his counsel, long after the Nigerian judiciary had found him not culpable of the same set of charges. Besides, Britain is one place where some of our judges and SANs, would have been disrobed and banned from practice for life.

    A few sickening events that are currently playing out in the judiciary which make Nigeria feel like throwing up and unfortunately shared with the rest of the outside world will suffice.

    Recently, after a long deafening silence in spite of calls by Nigerians that erstwhile chairman and secretary of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on fuel subsidy probe, Farouk Lawal and Boniface Emenalo, be taken to court, their very resourceful SANs, to satisfy all righteousness brought them to court where they were detained. A week later, trial Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi okayed their release.

    This followed a ‘profound’ argument of the SANs that the’ ‘court should take cognizance of the fact that prior to his (Farouk) arraignment, he had ample opportunities to run away, having travelled outside the country four times since investigation into his alleged complicity in the bribery scandal began.’ Thus a man caught by video camera receiving bribe from Otedola in a sting operation master-minded by government will now attend trial from home and have the rights to attend to health issues abroad.

    The globalised world is also watching with keen interest how our resourceful SANs have effortlessly secured relief and shield their high profile clients such as Mahmud Tukur, son of the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Bamanga Tukur; Mamman Ali, son of the former national chairman of PDP, Ahmadu Ali; and Abdullahi Arisekola-Alao, the son of Ibadan based businessman, Abdulazeez Arisekola-Alao facing a ‘nine-count charge of conspiracy, fraud and forgery,’ of N1.8 billion from the Petroleum Support Fund.

    The suit first fixed by judge Onigbanjo for November 13 and 14, 2012, for trial has again been ‘fixed for the 6th and 7th of May 2013. The defense SAN, has already persuaded judge Onigbanjo to grant his clients bail while Abdulazeez Arisekola-Alao also got his impounded international passport back to enable him travel and take care of his sick son in the United States.

    The prosecution of Erastus Akingbola, the former owner and Managing Director of Intercontinental Bank for an alleged stealing of N47.1 billion has dragged on for three years. This is despite his indictment by a London court which directed him to refund about N164b back to the new owners of his former bank. The case against Akingbola who had earlier been discharged in another case at the Federal High Court for what the trial judge, Justice Clement Archibong, blamed on “lack of diligent prosecution.” has according to Human Rights lawyer, Femi Falana(SAN) now been ‘technically resolved in his favour’ because of the new appointment given Justice Abiru, the presiding judge.

    In 2010, Cecilia Ibru accused of a 25 count charge of money laundering and mismanagement of depositors funds totaling over N160 billion, was aided by her celebrated SANs to sign a plea bargain deal. Two years after she was sentenced on 25 counts of fraud and ordered to reimburse $1.29 billion in assets and cash, Anti-Corruption Network executive secretary Otunba Dino Melaye has alleged that many properties in the United States and United Kingdom claimed to have been forfeited are still in Ibru’s custody directly or indirectly.

    The SANs that negotiated on her behalf probably know where “these properties, monies and aircraft are since there was no evidence they were “deposited with the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Company (NDIC) and AMCON for onward transfer to the shareholders of Oceanic Bank”.

    Corruption may be another name for the executive and the legislature. The press might have been greatly compromised according to Sonala Olumhense whose views count for much in the media, but a failed state beckons when the judiciary is turned into the last bastion of the privileged scoundrels by its SANs and some corrupt judges while lonely petty thieves or vagrants arrested for wandering spend years in prison awaiting trials. These are facts not lost on Nigerians.