NIPR and Nollywood have important roles to play in rebranding Nigeria
By Abimbola Mohammed
The image of a country is how the external publics see it and its citizens. Due to some erroneous perceptions of Nigeria and the consequent negative image equation, the need to make a meaningful change in its negative perception cannot be overstated.
In light of this, MARKETING EDGE spoke with public relations experts in Nigeria on the need to reposition the country in synergy with Nollywood.
Speaking on the subject matter, Samuel Ayetutu, Vice Chairman, NIPR, Lagos Chapter, agreed that both the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) and the nation’s movie industry, represented by Nollywood, have a mutual role to play in promoting the cultural values of Nigeria when it comes to showcasing what makes the country and its people tick.
“The issue is, occasionally you find situations where some of the work that is being produced by Nollywood does not seem to represent us well. It looks like something that falls short of expectation when it comes to how we would like or love ourselves to be projected to the world.
“I believe it is a kind of work-in-progress, the movie industry in Nigeria was not where it is now some two years ago. There has been a lot of improvement in the midst of all of the works that are coming out; we can still see some outstanding ones that we can be proud of,” he said.
The PR expert noted that whenever an opportunity presents itself to interface with movie producers in the cause of delivering services to his clients, he utilises it to engage, challenge and also encourage them to try as much as possible to raise the standards.
Ayetutu is, however, optimistic that, with time, the narrative will change as it’s a work-in-progress.
“But I believe that the industry itself has internal mechanism to continuously improve on what the practitioners do. I believe that it can only get better with time. Even in developed countries and places that we use as benchmark, they also started somewhere,” he said.
On her part, Eniola Mayowa, COO, Stepcraft Associates, noted that, for now, only client-agency relationships exist between NIPR and Nollywood.
“On an individual level, I’ll say that relationships exist because I have handled a number of clients in the entertainment space. I would expect that, as an institute, we should be working with some kind of body in the entertainment industry.
On the need for NIPR and Nollywood to partner, Mrs. Mayowa said: “For me, I see it as an opportunity for us to deliberate on. What can we do to provide solutions? I think it’s something that we can actually look at, not as individuals, but as a body of professionals.”
“Maybe a synergy will do that, but that will be consciously done. It’s not something that will just happen. We need to look at how we can positively turn the storyline around to project Nigeria in a way that the world will see us as a good people that we are,” she concluded.
Recall that the government of Nigeria launched the Nigeria Image Project in July 2004. Former Minister of Information, Chukwuemeka Chikelu, described the project as both informational and orientational in nature, involving both the media, advertising and public relations practitioners. But the project failed and was replaced by the Heart-of-Africa image project under Frank Nweke Junior as Information Minister, which also failed. Finally, came the much-publicized Rebranding Nigeria Project, championed by the former Minister of Information, Late Professor Dora Akunyili, which also failed allegedly due to poor marketing communications strategies.
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