Lagos — The Joint Committee on Information and Media of the Senate and House of Representatives yesterday took the Information and Communications Minister, Professor Dora Akunyili, to task on the sources of funding for "the re-branding Nigeria " project.

The committee which engaged her at a public meeting at the National Assembly said it observed that no provision was made for the project in this year's budget and wondered how she intended to drive the proccess.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Iformation and Media, Senator Ayogu Eze, said: "We are at pains because we just finished the budget session and you are supposed to interface with the committee in the House and in the Senate but at no point during this consultation did we have project re-branding and the issue of sourcing fund for the project would be a very key issue.

"We want to be assured that we get assured about some of these issues, where the money will come from and the content of what you are going to do," he said.

His counterpart in the House, Hon. Dino Melaye said: "We will want the minister to tell us how she intends to re-brand Nigeria. I want you to tell us the parameter for re-branding." He asked further:

"What happened to "Heart of Nigeria" project? Why re-branding? How much was appropriated for the Heart of Africa in 2007, 2008, and 2009 and how much was spent?"

Melaye said that they would be able to see reasons to support current efforts to re-brand Nigeria if they were furnished with details of what happened to the "Heart of Africa project."

In her respose, Akunyili disclosed: "We intend to source money from the public sector, which is government, private sector and the people of Nigeria. Re-Branding Nigeria is not a jamboree for spending money. We intend to account for all funds."

She told the joint committee that the "Heart of Africa" project, which was designed to shore up Nigeria 's image under the previous administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, gulped a whopping N1.05 billion.

She said that the project was a failure, which was why, according to her, it had become imperative to embark on "the Re-brand Nigeria" initiative.

She said that: "In 2007, N750 million was appropriated for the "Heart of Africa" project," adding that, "In 2008, it was N308 million and N299 million was spent and 'Heart of Africa ' is still going on."This year, N150 million was appropriated. 'Heart of Africa ' still owes N19.5 million, which we hope to pay from the money appropriated in this year's budget because government is a continuum," she explained."'Heart of Africa' did not work; it is no longer news that it did not work. "Heart of Africa" is a name that was first answered by Malawi . Many other African countries like Congo, all those countries in Central Africa have been laying claims to being the Heart of Africa."Heart of Africa was first launched overseas; so it suffers disconnect from the Nigerian people. I believe that Nigerian people are very intelligent, ingenious people to evolve their own slogan instead of fighting for slogans with small African countries."For the re-branding to succeed and not go the way of others we have to do things differently. It is no news that Nigerians all over the world have been painted with the same brush by the international community and that Nigeria is a country where nothing works."This negative perception about Nigeria was actually foisted on us by the international community and it stuck with us. We know that this is not true. We know that we have good Nigerians', she said.