Rebranding A 64-Year-Old Sick Woman For The 2024 Miss Universe Beauty Pageant.

“Nigerians are no longer citizens, but a source of revenue venture for a criminalised enterprise regime. They are traded as customised commodities, Taxed as slaves, Exploited as loans collateral, and finally, Captured by tyrants in power.”- DSM.

Many Nigerians have accused me of not branding Nigeria as an Eldorado, but my problem is that a diplomatic statement will always be a painted lie. You can’t bathe a pig and expect it to avoid the worst of dirty gutters. It’s impossible to have a diehard thief as a leader and expect him to avoid his or her fellow thieves. Is there any Nigerian who’s ignorant of the attributes of a thief. For the fact that most Nigerian thieves have decided to go to church or mosque for Thanksgiving services for their successful looting sprees doesn’t make us ignorant of knowing most of the Nigerian thieves. Our pretences are the reason why these thieves are stealing with impunity.
Secondly, how can you praise or rebrand a nation or society whose leaders are confused, always feeling better with foreign ideologies and complexity?
Thirdly, how can I praise or rebrand a nation or society, where the governance system has become the worst trajectory of human and financial wastages. Nigerians were complaining of over bloated federal cabinet members of 48 people. Our president sacked 5, and insensitively, recruited 7?
A government that doesn’t care or even listens to the citizens plight or observations can’t be praised or rebranded by me.

TRUTH IS THE ONLY WEAPON THAT CAN DESTROY FALSEHOOD. TRUTH IS Sacrosanct FOR ME and I won’t compromise such a solemn Creed just to praise or rebrand a society engulfed with all sorts of falsehood narratives..
What most of my critics failed to understand about rebranding a confused society is that, the task of changing an ideal mental appraisal for patriotism is not about changing the national anthem, speech making or a thief in power reshuffling thieves in government. Its all about a 360-degree turn around from endemic abnormalities to accepted moral values by both the citizens and leaders.

How can you rebrand a confused society, whose leaders are globally known as high level criminals?

How can you rebrand the image of a confused society whose leaders are syndicated fraudsters and certificates forgers?

How can you rebrand the image of a confused society where justice is not about the moral value evaluation standard but how much was bribed?

How can you rebrand the image of a confused society where ammunition meant to defend the citizens are freely being traded with terrorists and bandits?

How can you rebrand the image of a confused society where elections are no longer the sole responsibility of the electorate, but the complicity of ‘AGBEROs, SECURITY AGENCIES, INEC and JUDICIARY?

Reputation of the leadership is critical to any sort of global image branding, and unfortunately, Nigeria has become more inclined towards voting leaders without any iota of reputation, both at home and abroad.

How can we be honest with ourselves, and be conscious enough to reflect if the leaders we are parading today were part of, or fully introduced elections violence, intimidation and outright slaughtering of Nigerians just to grab it, snatch it and run with our collective mandate?

How can you rebrand a confused society who has publicly professed that the future belongs to the youths, and the same youths are being traumatised, arrested and killed at every instance of their protests against the over recycled and greedy elders, through the instrumentality of state capture?

How exactly can you rebrand a confused society where criminals, thieves, terrorists, armed/pen robbers, sychophants, idiots and druggies have hijacked power, and the moronic citizens/hypocrites are watching helplessly?

There’s something about natural law, and please note that, I wasn’t talking about the law of gravity, but Divine original law that explains the functional attributes of a HEAD. The head in the modern day leadership definition, connotes the conglomeration of all leadership abilities to harness different dimensions of characters, lives, opinions, resources and diversities. The essence is to produce the best results that will add value to the organisation, community or a nation. According to natural resource law, a river does not flow upstream. It flows downwards, through a well planned natural route. Although, several countries have invented artificial waterways through the canalisation of the sea’s natural routes, it still boils down to the fact that the elevations must still tilt downwards. When you have contaminated water right from the SOURCE, definitely, the product downwards will be poisonous. A visionary leader must understand that his or her position has become the mirror by which others see his or her territory. A visionary leader is like the SOURCE of the entire territorial waters, and whether the water is poisonous or not will be determined by his or her policies enactments….anti- or pro-people. So, when you accept a thief or an armed robber as a national leader, such a person will try to institutionalise thievery and robbery as a national image brand name. Now, how can I praise or rebrand such a confused society?

Many of us have always assumed that the concept of the citizens begetting their leadership as a general norm. Yes, in certain circumstances, but not a generalised fact. Taking a cue from the 2023 presidential election, and most Nigerians, including the president knew who won the election. This is because, the citizens made their choice based on their rationality. The ‘but’ remains that, INEC and JUDICIARY decided at last. In this simple scenario, can we still generalise that it was the citizens who voted amiss? Oftentimes, the citizens are intimidated by the security agencies, and they are forcefully made to accept whosoever was forced on them. The candidates are not their choices, but through the compromised instrumentality of the state, the citizens are captured, and anyone who tries to oppose the injustice is seen as a law breaker. In this case study, who will blame Nigerians for quietly licking their wounds that were inflicted on them through the threat of corruption in the judiciary and INEC officials?

The head is the Central Processing Unit of all human beings, it represents the most active and sensitive part of the body, and that’s why, if you cut off both arms or legs, pierced the stomach or remove some intestinal tract from the body, the chances of surviving is more than 50%. But if you chop off the head, the entire body system will collapse, and the end point is DEATH. That means, if you have a sick head, the entire body will be sick. If you chop off your legs or arms, you’ll still be active in your life. It’s well stated that, ‘a group of lions led by a sheep will be defeated by a group of sheep led by a lion.’ The truth about empires is that a society could rise or fall due to its leadership prowess, vision and ambition. A sensitive leader won’t borrow to lavish on exotic lifestyles, buy a presidential Yatch and Jet, when his or her subjects are passing through various types of MISERIES. It doesn’t make any sense, that instead of a humbling lifestyle by our leaders, we are being harassed haughtily.

To sincerely rebrand a society, the idea of passing the failure of a society should not entirely be a buck passing password of the citizens failures or attributes to elect ideal leaders, but the complicity of leadership tyrannical mismanagement of the citizens trust through the use of state actors.

How can you rebrand the image of a society that chose the worst in a ballot box, and still never repented of such a great mistake.

How can you rebrand the image of a society with the unholy alliance between our corrupt infested leaders and traditional rulers, pastors, Imams, and sycophants in government? These set of people have prioritised financial gain over human life and well-being. These shamelessly greedy spiritual, traditional and government officials have turned a blind eye to the suffering of their people, sacrificing the people’s welfare for their personal enrichment. This synergy of betrayal of trust is absolutely condemnable and reprehensible, as leaders who are supposed to protect and serve the country have turned out to be vampires in the society.

This corrosive collaboration perpetuated as a new culture of impunity, has created room for those in power to exploit and oppress vulnerable populations.

How can you rebrand the image of a society where the Traditional rulers that are once revered for their wisdom and integrity, have now compromised their moral values for material wealth; Religious leaders, expected to uphold moral standards, instead condone and even facilitate human rights abuses, and Government officials, sworn to serve the public, exploit their positions for personal gain. These toxic dynamics have undermined the very fabric of society that it will be hard to rebrand its image, especially in the global stage.

How can you rebrand a society where citizens live in fear, powerless and vulnerable due to the entrenchment of corrupt leaders with personal ambitions and interests, devoid of national ideologies and complexity?

How can you rebrand a society where human rights are trampled underfoot, justice is denied with threats, and the rule of law is mocked by criminals in power?

How can you rebrand a society where governance is a criminalised entertainment enterprise, a confined space that has deferred a normal Democratic System solution?

Sometimes, it’s very hard to proffer any reasonable solutions to the hybrids of Nigeria problems. The truth is that, when a matter concerns an individual, he or she will seek the best idealistic solution. For example, when an individual wants to plate, barb or retouch his or her hair, the person will insist on the best barber or hair salon to give him or her the best haircut and hairdressing. We seek the best doctor or surgeon when we are sick or need to be operated on. In the same vein, when we are looking for a school or a teacher for our children, we are very meticulous as we search out for the best school and teacher.

My greatest confusion, and why no one can authoritatively proffer any reasonable solutions to Nigeria’s problems is because our sentimental mindsets are filled with much hatred amongst ourselves, especially when we are choosing our leaders. We are so entrenched in venomous tribal and religious emotional sentiments when choosing our leaders. The leaders in turn, will choose his or her tribes people as escalated by PMB, and now, it has been elevated to an unimaginable level by PBAT. Criminal justice and Financial portfolios are now fully under the control of the Yorubas. The federal character commission and ideals have been destroyed, and merit doesn’t matter any longer in appointments and recruitments.
This singular mentality dysfunctionality is the reason why instead of seeking out for the best amongst us, we will opt out for the worst despicable moron to lead us. The worst leadership selection that impacts the worst trajectories of human carnage to millions of Nigerians. Seriously, it’s strange and indescribable. The worst fundamental leadership problem right now is not necessarily the fault of the followership. The big thieves in power don’t really reckon with followers, especially, when they can buy off the security, judiciary and INEC officials with the same stolen money from the national treasury. A common man or citizen, who wants to protest against the hijack of all the governance apparatus will be arrested, and if he’s lucky, he won’t be instantly killed, rather, he would be locked up as a criminal, and only God Almighty can save such a soul. That’s why, although, we can blame the citizens, but the state captured by the big thieves cannot be overturned by hungry looking followers. It’s very clear that finding appropriate solutions to Nigeria problems will be very difficult. We have a situation right now where integrity, competence, creativity, visionary and honest citizens are carefully locked out of power. The big thieves have hijacked the entire governance system.

In conclusion, the reality of rebranding a society is that both internalised and eternalised are equipped with nationalistic and patriotic mindsets. A situation where the citizens and leaders must accurately understand that they are both the pilots and co-pilots through a conscious effort to co-exist by the rules of law and moral values standard. Secondly, they must search their consciences, ask themselves questions and probably come up with different individual solutions that can be galvanised in a holistic decision. That’s why, it’s very difficult to rebrand the image of Nigeria presently, and the simple reason is that, it will be like trying to gorgeously dress up a 64 year old sick woman for the 2024 Miss Universe Beauty Pageant… Of course, the answer will be obvious…even though I come in PEACE.

 Dr. Sunny Oby Maduka (DSM), is an Author, Resource Personality, Management Consultant/Trainer, Chartered/Certified -Auditor/ Accountant, Financial Compliance Expert, Economic/Political Analyst Strategist, Marine Expert and Motivationist)