Barely
few days before the swearing-in of the President elect, General Muhammudu
Buhari, Nigerians all over the globe are optimistic that the incoming administration
will usher in a new Nigeria we can all proud of. Having hoped for all this,
advertising have roles to play in building a new Nigeria. OLUWAGBENGA BANKOLE
examines the role of adverting in building a new Nigeria.
Building
a nation is a mammoth task which needs to be taken with all sense of
seriousness. It requires constructing or structuring a national identity and unification of the people
within the state so that it remains politically stable and viable in the long
run.
Nation-building
can involve the use of Advertising or major infrastructure development to
foster social harmony and economic growth. Advertising roles cannot be
overemphasized because is a form of marketing
communication used to persuade an audience
to take or continue some action, usually with respect to a commercial offering,
or political or ideological support.
Building
a new Nigeria where religion, tribalism and nepotism will not divide will not
have a say require a well packaged advertising which will positively change the
mind set of Nigerians about issues that has been causing instability and
insecurity in the country.
Speaking
exclusively to our correspondent about the topic of discussion, the Managing
Director of DDB Lagos, Ikechi Odigbo said that advertising build a nation by
educating and promoting the culture and lifestyle of the indigenes. He noted
that even as the country is going through into a new era of definitive change,
it is going to require advertising to create and nurture a new consciousness
whereby Nigerians will begin to see that we need to go beyond our ethnic
frontiers and join hands has patriotic citizen to build a nation that we can be
truly proud of.
“It
is not enough for our leaders to say we want to drive change. The people need
to take ownership of the change. People need to understand what change require
from them at a personal level, in terms of how they conduct themselves, how
they go about their businesses, how they make use of public service utilities
and their responsibilities as citizen of a new Nigeria,” Odigbo stated.
He
emphasized that all of these is going to require a very robust awareness
campaign that will begin to remote the mind set of Nigerians that government is
not just about building roads or hospitals, but government also depend on their
citizen to achieve those objectives by them been a responsible taxpaying
citizen who is also contributing to the development of the country.
Odigbo
disclosed that Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) has made a
recommendation to the incoming administration that they need to engage the
advertising industry with the tools in building a national re-orientation
campaign that will begin to educate an average Nigerian on the right values and
various key programmes that the government is about to roll out because need a
lot of awareness and understanding is needed on the part of the public.
The Managing Director, CreativeXone, Mr. Doyin Adewumi said
that Adverting echoes the society, adding that it plays significant roles on
the way government sell ideas to people especially when it comes to social
programme of government and Corporate Social Responsibilities (CRS) of
companies and groups.
Also speaking to our correspondent, the former Editor of
Marketing Edge Magazine Mr. Adewale Okoya said that Advertising is beneficial
to the growth of the Nigerian economy because it stimulates demand and helps
producers of goods and services to get needed patronage, adding that no
economy, including Nigeria can grow without advertising in the modern
era.
“Advertising also generates 'false needs' for people and
generally contributes to over consumption of social and natural resources.
Generally, advertising grows in tandem with growth within an economy and also
create employment for creative people in large numbers,” Okoya concluded.
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