Olakunle Igbekele Adebola, Felix Olajide Talabi* and Ishola Kamorudeen Lamidi
On Tuesday of March 2009, rebranding Nigeria project was launched in Abuja with a Slogan, “Nigeria: Good People Great Nation”. The actual intention of the Nigeria government was to create a good image for the country both home and abroad. An assessment of the project through this paper showed Nigeria as a bad product that is difficult to market. Therefore, the paper chiefly used good leadership, Nigeria brand icons and good public service as a rebranding mechanism for public relations and advertising exercise. The work relied on mete-analysis method to carry out the research while it used persuasion theory to explain the rationale behind rebranding Nigeria. The paper argued that the ray of hope for Nigeria’s government in the Heart of Africa campaign project to re-brand the country has been dashed due to the neglect of the political, social, and economic stability cum non-involvement of public relations and advertising experts in the rebranding project. But it quickly observed that when properly applied, effective public relations and advertising strategies cum conducive political, social, economic environment as it can be found anywhere in the world, the re-branding exercise will be fruitful. It recommended that, the government should imbibe the tenet of public relations which asserts 95% action and 5% talking among other things.
Share this article