Lagos — The Minister of Information and Communications, Prof Dora Akunyili has urged Nigerians to give the best of themselves in their various endeavours as a way to help redeem the alleged battered image of the country.

Prof Akunyili made the appeal at a talk shop with Brand Writers Association of Nigerian (BWAN) at the Lagos Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja recently to asses the performance of the Rebrand Nigeria project. Likening Nigeria to a product which has to be good before it could be sold, Akunyili acknowledged difficulty in marketing re-Brand Nigeria.

According to her,"All I will want to plead with Nigerians, is to do whatever we are doing the right way, because, it is only a good product that we can sell. What is happening with Rebranding Nigeria project is the question of struggling to market a product that is not very marketable. It poses its own very big problem."

Akunyili who said that other countries of the world record higher crime rates than Nigeria lamented that Nigeria is being defined by the actions of a few criminals. "The international community has been defining us based on the behavior of a few criminals in our midst. We have actually allowed the bad behaviors of these few horrible people to incriminate our collective innocence. What we need to do to enhance our image is not only to put our roads in place, bring back our pipe-borne water or enhance our electricity supply, we also need to do something about the way we are regarded, because even if we have electricity 24 hours and all the roads in Nigeria fixed and the internet still says , it is risky to go to Nigeria, foreign investors will not come."

She, however, said that the Rebrand Nigeria project has already started yielding results. "Yes if not for Rebranding Nigeria project, we would not have stopped Sony from that advert. It is in the spirit of rebranding that people reported Sony to us. We pursued them and they were on their knees. If Sony did that two or three years ago, nobody will say anything." She told journalists that the only way to redeem the country's battered image is by putting forward the positive things about Nigeria and responsibly manage the negative characteristis.

"The only way to work on it is to do something concrete by addressing our image, redefining ourselves and telling the world who we are, putting forward our positive and responsibly managing our bad traits." Also present at the event were the Chairman, Nigerian Union of Journalist (NUJ),Lagos Council, Mr.Wahab Oba; the Council's Secretary; the Publisher, Marketing Edge magazine, John Ajayi and the CEO/publisher, Marketing Mix(M2), Akin Adeoya who all commended the minister's rebranding efforts while also pledging the support of the media. John Ajayi said : "We should continue to support the Rebranding project. If there are criticisms, they should be positive. I want us to see ourselves as co-travelers in this Rebranding Nigeria project." Earlier in her address, the acahairman, BWAN, Mrs. Neta Nwosu while commending the minister for initiating the project, urged her to forge a lasting working relationship with brand writers in propelling the Rebrand Nigeria project. " Our assignment as brand writers is to communicate values where they are values, where there are no values, she said we shout out and orchestrate a crusade for creation of values. We salute your courage in Rebranding Nigeria. Let's forge a lasting working mutual relationship. It will benefit you, it will benefit your ministry, and most importantly, it will benefit our great nation," she added.