General Buhari: A Damaged Brand

Posted: May 7, 2013 - 02:45
By Bamidele Ademola-Olateju
General Muhammadu Buhari is a damaged brand, he cannot win the Presidential election on any platform unless his brand equity is restored. Any people or group of people who wants to do this will have their work cut out for them, it is a lot of work but it can be done. Buhari has the best brand equity any human being would wish for until religion was used against him. He is upright, disciplined, honest, devout, frugal and patriotic among other superlatives.

Who damaged his brand?
A. The political elite
B. The educated elite

What damaged his brand?
He is disciplined: Those of us who were old enough, knew how we all fell in line under Buhari/Idiagbon's War Against Indiscipline (WAI). The spectacle of civil servants who were publicly humiliated for lateness is still fresh in our memory. When he was in charge, everybody observed decorum at publics spaces by taking their turns. It was unprecedented in a country populated by oversized egos. Little wonder, the "do you know who I am" crowd do not want a return to an orderly Nigeria. They benefit from the chaos and indiscipline.

Buhari is frugal: Buhari instituted counter trade and improved Nigeria's balance of trade by curbing imports. Oil thieves, subsidy thieves, and rogue importers who gets free money from NEXIM will have no where to turn. Generator and transformer importers who pay people to steal cables and vandalize transformers will go out of business. Everyone in this country is an importer of something. How many of those emergency importers dare manufacture when trading is there and yields quick money? If Buhari is elected, how will they launder proceeds from drugs, gun running and conversion of public funds? The elite are neck deep in a culture of waste and loot for too long, they dont wan to be weaned from easy money. They no go gree lailai...tufiakwa!

He is honest: Buhari is as clean as a whistle. How many properties does he own? How much investment has he to his name?

A patriot: Buhari is a dedicated patriot. When he was called to serve on the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) we got results. Today the Anenihs use such funds meant for projects and road construction to cater for themselves and fund their party - the PDP.

He is devout: Buhari is a devout Muslim who obeys the central injunction of compassion in his daily life - his albatross.

Buhari committed sacrilege when he came to power and jailed politicians without due process, executed drug peddlers with a retroactive law and enacted decrees gagging the press. I do not in any way condone the excesses of Buhari's reign but even his detractors will agree he is a saint compared to the treacherous and murderous types we have and have had after him. Buhari knows Nigeria and her issues cold. He is not under any gauzy lens of delusion and he is prepared as always to dive in at the pool's deep end. That for me is the difference. Buhari is the leader that can save Nigeria from the evil of herself, he is the leader we are afraid to have. I know the Jonathans and the anti-Buhari crowd will come after me with their senseless and scattered rhetoric but you are forewarned to arm yourself with facts. Some of us are witnesses to history and are objective with facts.

How was his brand damaged?
Enemies of Nigeria damaged Buhari's brand by using religion against him. Buhari is a good brand because of the qualities I listed earlier, his enemies and enemies of Nigeria knows it. Actually, most Nigerians know it. How did they do it? During his regime, counter trade and restricted imports gave rise to unprecedented inflation. Purchasing power nosedived and Nigerians became despondent. In despondency, they embraced religion than never before. Pentecostalism and its posterity now doctrine gained ascendancy in Christendom and Salafism and Shia Islam gained currency among Muslims. The Universities embraced both with zeal. Money flowed into Christianity from the United States. Saudi Arabia and Iran struggled for the minds of young Muslims on University campuses. The Nigerian religious extremism hitherto unknown by previous generations was born, brewed fresh from the stables of academia and the elite; potently aided by the Iran/Iraq war. Inciting leaflets and literature saturated the campuses and the government as usual took no notice. A Christian America was seeing as aiding the decimation of Iran by Iraq. A symbol of the times, was the controversy of the cross and crescent at the University of Ibadan. A non-issue that dragged on for years.

Buhari's tarnish project began immediately Obasanjo was elected. The schism that began with ascendant pentecostalism and fundamental Islam was carefully exploited to Buhari's detriment. He was labeled an unrepentant and fiery fanatic on religion and nomadic education. We were reminded about purported Islamization of Nigeria and membership of the OIC. The Northern elite fed and funded the misinformation especially those whose only industry is the government. Access to the racket of federal gravy bound them to religious bigots in the South. The truth is lost on southerners that Buhari is an outsider among the power elite in the north. His only bastion of support is among the Talakawas, the Northern elite have nothing but thinly veiled hatred for him.

By the time Buhari declared his intent to run, the extensive ground work for their campaign of calumny has been laid. During Buhari's tenure at the PTF, the South benefited immensely but the message was lost. Unfortunately, in a country beset by bread and butter issues, conscience counts for nothing. The Talakawas alone cannot win anyone an election, the power elite controls the vote. Buhari does not have the resources to run against the establishment and counter their smear campaign. Most importantly, his campaign was enmeshed in hubris based on his anti corruption credentials alone. They were astoundingly shortsighted as they virtually ignored the south during the campaigns and that further cemented Buhari's reputation as a religious zealot in whose eyes the Southern electorate meant nothing.

Since then, Buhari has continued to contest without any reasonable attempt to repair his brand. He cannot win. He cannot win on his record. He should study the failures of Chief Obafemi Awolowo another man whose brand was damaged by the civil war. Whosoever tells him he can win is deceiving him. I was at my ward's polling booth on Lagos Island during the last presidential elections. I was almost lynched for talking about Buhari. Religion does not encourage reason, religion is faith nurtured by unreason. In Nigeria, all you need to win is to kneel in front of a pastor and the subliminal message is sent to millions of faithfuls to vote their faith. The religious divide in Nigeria is very wide and Southerners are now super sensitive to it. The treatment meted out to Jonathan under Yar'adua was the breakpoint, this must not be lost to any northerner interested in presidential politics going forward.

In marketing, good brands can have the damage done to them repaired if the brand equity is persistent, has strength and heritage, if the damage is not central to the brand’s value proposition, If the solution has credibility and if there is any change in prevailing context that can make the damage irrelevant.

Buhari is a good brand with remarkable equity and persistence. unfortunately, his persistence is viewed as zeal for islamization. Lately, his persistence has been interpreted as a call to arms and insurgency against the state. Jonathan has tried many times to link him with Boko Haram, religion exploits human fears.

His brand's strength and heritage is derived from his military background, religion and northern origin. In most quarters in the south, that amounts to triple Jeopardy. The negative publicity of the strength and heritage is too large with respect to its equity.

The seriousness of Buhari's religion and anti-corruption problem with Nigerians is central to his brand’s value proposition and electability.

What is the solution? I will propose that later, but the credibility of the proposed solution will determine if lost brand equity can be restored. Can Buhari convince a confused audience that he has solved his religion problem with so much distrust in the land? I don't know.

Has the Nigerian context changed such that the specifics Buhari's "past" now seem irrelevant? No.

What to do?
If any party must field Buhari as its presidential candidate, they must look hard and be prepared to do a lot of hard work, wining hearts and minds. Buhari is the only leader we have subjected to the exhausting task of being nice all the time. Obasanjo, warts and all does not have to be nice, we even invent excuses or his lack of polish. Buhari and those of us who believe in him have our work cut out for us. If the resources are not there, I suggest the hunt should begin for a fresh mind. Here is my proposed solution:

A. Buhari should take full responsibility for himself and failures of his reign and apologize where necessary
B. He should welcome change and get outside help
C. Leverage his record as Head of State and PTF chair
D. Be honest and transparent on his religious beliefs and his faith in humanity
E. Call Nigeria to action and spell out the dangers we face collectively.

That is all.



Bámidélé Adémólá-Olátéjú

This is an impounded commercial bus by the officials of Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) at the Ojuelegba end of the state.

The message here is that Nigerians should, at least, be placed on warning measure before the enforcement of any law, especially stringent traffic laws of the Lagos state.

As shown in this picture, the vehicle was impounded because it developed a mechanical fault at the middle of the road; hence instead of offering a helping hand, the bus was impounded and taken to the nearest LASTMA office where exorbitant fee will be paid to secure the release of the bus.   

 Maritime Safety: NIMASA Losing the War

Director-General-NIMASA-Mr.-Ziakede-Akpobolokemi

In this piece Babalola Yusuf Abiola examines how the nation’s crude oil are being stolen with impunity, transported through the high sea for sale in foreign land and how vessels are hijacked in the middle of the sea without any form of challenge from agencies of government that are to ensure safety in the country territorial water

Of all the troubles facing the country, Oil- theft has been the most challenging of them all as it has caused a significant drain on the economy of the country, Nigeria loses about N2.5billion daily, and over N900billion annually to this menace.

Recently, in an interview with cable network news (CNN), Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-iweala admitted that Nigeria loses over 150, 000 barrel of crude oil to theft daily, according to her “We have — Mexico and Nigeria suffering from this problem, you can check.”

The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has also said Nigeria loses about $1.23 billion (N190 billion) due to drop in crude oil production in the first quarter of 2013, January to March, caused by the incessant theft of crude oil.

In a statement issued by the corporation’s acting Group General Manager, Public Affairs, Tumini Green, the corporation attributed the drop to incessant crude oil theft and vandalism along the major pipelines within the Niger Delta.

He said, “On a daily basis, crude oil production during the period fluctuated between 2.1 and 2.3 million barrels per day (mbpd) compared with the projected 2.48mbpd.

“Expectedly, this fall between actual production and forecast in first quarter 2013 has resulted in a drop in crude oil revenue of about 1.23 billion dollars ,’’ which should have accrued to the Federation Account.”

The Corporation explained that the NNPC/SPDC JV (Shell Petroleum Development Company Joint Venture), recently declared a force majeure on Bonny Crude, due to incessant crude oil theft.

The theft are believed to be done in collusion with top government and security agents which made transportation out of the country to an already made market in foreign communities easy.

Admitting the failure of the government and relevant security agencies to nip in the bud crude oil theft, the minister of finance in her interview with CNN’s correspondent Christiane Amanpour, called on international community to come to the rescue of the Nigeria government. 

She said, “We have international people who also buy that stolen oil. We need them to treat this stolen oil like stolen diamonds, the blood diamonds. Make it blood oil. Help us so that those people don’t have a market to sell this stuff.” 

However, not only crude oil theft and its transportation to foreign countries go unchecked in the country territorial water, also hijacking of fuel laden vessels in the middle of the sea by sea pirates has been an order of the day.

What has been a source of concern for Nigerians and stakeholders in the sector is the unabated level of impunity in the country territorial water when there is The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, (NIMASA), the apex maritime agency that has one of its responsibilities to be ensuring safety in the nation territorial water -that includes checkmating the menace of attack on ship and theft of crude oil through the use of Nigerian ship.

But, rather than reduce, Pirates’ attacks, hijacking of vessels; transportation of stolen crude oil to foreign countries, kidnapping of foreigners on the sea for ransoms and other marine crimes flourishes.

For instance, it was reported early in February that three crew members of a British flagged cargo ship, Esther C, were kidnapped about 80 miles offshore. Shortly after, gunmen killed a Filipino crew member when they attacked a chemical tanker and three days earlier, some crew men were killed on a vessel that deployed a private armed team.

There was also the case of a Russian ship that was reportedly attacked in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and its captain kidnapped. Recently, pirates hijacked and demanded N200 million ransoms for the release of six foreigners kidnapped, which was the latest of at least five attacks recorded on Nigerian waters.

These dare-devil pirates had also attacked an oil barge in the troubled Niger Delta region, which claimed the lives of two soldiers and one crew member. The list is endless.

The Nigerian Trawlers Owners Association, umbrella body for all indigenously owned industrial fishing companies has its woe tales over this upsurge in the activities of pirates and sea robbers, saying its members have lost a whopping N118.5billion in the last eight years.

According to the figures released by the association’s president, Mr. Joseph Overo it showed that its members lost a total of N5billion in 2003, N6billion in 2004, N7.5billion in 2005 and N12billion in 2006. Other details show that in 2007, members lost N13 billion, N15billion in 2008 and N17billion in 2009 even as N20billion and N23billion were lost in 2010 and 2011, respectively, bringing to a total of N118.5billion.

But, in other to fight this ugly scourge NIMASA recently took delivery of about twelve patrol boats to fight high sea crimes, these boats are fortified with engines and bodies of the boats bulletproofed, making them difficult for pirates to target the crew onboard. Also, the boats were equipped with state-of-art technological facilities that could do 200 nautical miles before refueling.

The boats: NIMASA Burutu, NIMASA Port-Harcourt, NIMASA Lagos and NIMASA Warri were specifically built to withstand any adverse effect and tropical weather, hence their suitability for the control of piracy and illegal activities on the country’s territorial waters.

With this procurement, safety on the Nigerian coastal and territorial waters is expected to be improve but still Nigeria territorial water is still prone to attacks making a Malaysian-based piracy watchdog, International Maritime Bureau rating Nigerian waters second most dangerous after Somalia.

Also, In view of the negative effects of the upsurge in piracy and sea robbery on Nigeria’s maritime domain, former President Olusegun Obasanjo expressed fears that the high level of insecurity in Nigeria will continue to inhibit investment in the maritime industry of the country.

The former president said, “I want to make an appeal to the Federal Government and the littoral states and a serious one for that matter, there should be urgent and concerted efforts at fighting the menace of piracy on Nigerian waters now”, he noted.

Also, United States Consul General in Nigeria, Mr. Jeffery Hopkins has also raised concerns over the recent upsurge in sea piracy and robbery on Nigeria’s maritime domain. The diplomat, who spoke at the Maritime Exhibition and Conference, tagged NIMAREX 2013 noted that the upsurge in piracy and sea robbery portend negative consequences for the nation’s economy. 

According to the envoy, “Piracy, sea robbery and other crimes on Nigerian waters have been on the increase and you can agree with me that this is a disincentive to the expected inflow of Foreign Direct Investment into Nigeria”

“Ships coming to Nigerian shores have to move in a convoy to avoid being attacked by these pirates and robbers and you know that this might likely bring about additional cost of shipping for goods meant for the Nigerian market”, Hopkins queried.

Meanwhile, a reliable source has confided in Nigerian compass that hijack and theft of vessel’s especially oil cargo like others in the past cannot be achieved without the backings of some powerful Nigerians who are in the business for financial gains. He described the business of ship hijacking as highly lucrative, explaining that there were a huge numbers of trained pirates in the country today.

According to him, “I gathered that once there is a ship to be hijacked, the powerful sponsors get across to the pirates who then move to get the details about the vessel from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, NNPC and then seek support from relevant security agencies to have a successful operation”.

However, in a telephone conversation with NIMASA Head of Public Relations, Hajia Lami Tumaka, she said the agency has all it takes to combat piracy and win the war over them; though she debunked the allegation that high government officials and security agencies conspire to give the sea robbers information about vessels to be hijacked.

She said, “The government has a political will to fight piracy on the country territorial water and that the government or security agent conspires with sea robbers are not true,” she said.