The former CEO of the Rebranding Project Business Support Group, Lolu Akinwunmi, has said the rebranding effort of the late Minister of Information and Culture, Prof. Dora Akunyili, failed because of myriad of problems.

The Marketing Communications expert, who runs one of the leading integrated Marketing Communications outfit in the country, Prima Garnet Africa, said this last Friday at the second edition of the Brandish Meeting of Minds. He said the idea behind the exercise was to cause a shift in the narratives of the country as a way of attitudinal change.

He said the first failure of the project was being branded ‘rebranding’ which according to him hampered the exercise from achieving its objective.

“Those who associated with the late Dora Akunyili would know that she was a focussed and passionate believer in the Nigerian project, better than many of the leaders we have in the country. When she conceived the rebranding exercise, before consulting some of us, she had gone ahead to start the ground work and when the team met with her, we found out that what Dora had in mind for the country was not rebranding but attitudinal change but at that point, she could not change the direction of the project because enormous work had gone into the project,” Akinwunmi said.

He also cited political reason as another factor that impeded the rebranding exercise. He noted that some highly placed officials frustrated the effort of the government.

“They felt Dora would be wielding too much power if the project had succeeded.

“The third problem we encountered was money. When our team was inaugurated, we requested for N50 million to ensure the smooth running of the project, covering salaries, overhead and other expenses to cover a period of time but no money was made available to us,” he averred.

He added that, the situation was so bad that he most times flew to Abuja from Lagos with his personal money. Akinwunmi voiced his concern over the lip service managers of the country pay in the bid to move the nation forward. He said every serious government has to commit to planning what it wants to achieve and the duration it will take to achieve the goals.

“South Africa ran its for eight years and India ran its for years before they arrived at where they currently are. But, Nigeria want to see solution to something it has not committed time and efforts to, which is not possible,” he concluded.

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