Leadership: Branding as a critical success factor

By Ilobi Austin

Very recently, I read in of one Nigeria’s national dailies, a very descriptive and practical explanation of different concepts of promotions-advertising, telemarketing, branding and some others.

My thought actually on reading this, was on what the great Professor Chinua Achebe- Nigeria’s literary version of Nostradamus, had incontrovertibly put forth as the problem with Nigeria, in one of his numerous classics, the trouble with Nigeria,-leadership.

In the piece, the author had described advertising, as a guy who goes to a party and announces rather unthinkingly to a lady he has just been introduced to, that he is rich; while telemarketing, was described as the same guy, after the introduction, gets the phone number of the lady and then, calls her later to offload the content of his heart; but the one that really got me thinking was, branding. This was described as the same guy, walking into the party, and instantly been perceived by the lady as a rich guy without any effort on his part, to advertise the fact.


Prof., I must state, wrote nothing short of a bible on leadership problems in Nigeria if not Africa. But to make my most humble addition, I believe that he should have added or now add, that the leadership problem is as a result of very nearly total absence of positive branding. Any attempt to conduct a survey amongst Nigerian on their perception of their leaders-past and present, would reveal the fact of this statement.

With the exception of the Murtala/Obasanjo regime of the late seventies minus the Obasanjo regime of the immediate past, it is literally impossible to pick out any other leader whose name connotes deep seated patriotism, vision and firmness. That is, when you excuse the early periods of our founding fathers and before the out break of hostilities.

This is not saying that President Yaradua’s has not built a brand with some Nigerians-positive and negative, personally, his name represents, studiousness, Justice to the greatest numbers unlike the recent past, deliberateness amidst hurrying slowly. But this unfortunately, is a hard sell with most Nigerians.

Nigerian and African leaders-public and private sectors, needs to brand themselves. They should just look at the governor Fashola of Lagos state. He has branded himself as a no-nonsense and hardworking leader; consequently, everything and everybody in his state has suddenly become controllable and part owners of his vision for the state.

We are all witness to how our leaders issue executive orders on the spot during official visits, which never gets implemented and nothing happens. This is because, those charged with the responsibility, tends to listen to what is not been said- do it if you feel like it otherwise, to hell with it. This is not because they don’t like to see their directive carried out, but because they don’t convey the messages with their eyes and body but just empty words.

This branding issue came in handy during the recent American elections. While McCain came across as a bully, war-monger with a large dose of the “I know it all” mentally, Obama was perceived as an intelligent, deliberate and peace loving fellow with large dose of team spirit. A deeper investigation might reveal something else, but that is branding-concealing the unpleasant.

By way of prediction, I foresee Obama teaming up with the Russian president who happens to be his opposite, to form a coalition to fight terrorism. Remember, in physics, it is taught that, unlike charges attracts while like charges, repels. Obama is the opposite of the Russian president- McCain kindred.


In conclusion, Leaders in Nigeria, Africa and indeed, the rest of the world whether in the public sphere or private, needs to prop up their image-that is, body language, to convey more than words, their true intentions and desires, otherwise, they will forever be setting up task forces, ad hoc committees, commissions and agencies, to do what the law had long envisaged and provided for.

Ilobi Austin, an event and social commentator writes from Warri. His articles on Nigerian and international affairs can be downloaded free,www.vibratingaustin.blogspot.com