Kwara CPS Tasks Media Practitioners on Strategic National Rebranding To Project Nation’s Image
Nigerian Media Practitioners have been urged to be strategic about what they publish in the country
The Chief Press Secretary to the Kwara state governor, Mallam Rafiu Ajakaye, who made the call in Ilorin on Wednesday while delivering a key note address at the grand finale of the 2023 press week of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Kwara state chapter
said that it was time for the Nigerian media to adopt strategic national rebranding to project the good and position aspects of the country to the international community.
“Let us be strategic about what we publish about our country even if we must hold the government accountable.
“We need to begin to rebuild the image of the country, the image we carve for Nigeria sticks as a failed nation.”
In the keynote address titled “Role Of The Media In Nigeria’s Soft Power Conundrum”, the spokesman of the governor, said that all the countries now classified as developed nations have had their dark past in history.
He noted that while he is not asking the media to abandon its role as the watchdog to hold government accountable, but must strike a balance between being patriotic journalists holding government accountable and de-emphasizing negative publicity about the country, just as CNN and other international media organizations do for their respective countries across the globe.
Going down memory lane, Ajakaye said the term soft power was coined in the 1980s by political scientist Joseph Nye Jr., who defined it as the ability of a country to ‘influence others without resorting to coercive pressure’.
“The _Foreign Policy_ , a publication based in the United States, says soft ‘power usually originates outside government in places like schools, religious institutions, and charitable groups. It is also formed through music, sports, media, and major industries like Silicon Valley and Hollywood’.
“Soft power could well be the alternative to brute force. It is, in fact, the opposite of raw military power. In between the two is what is called smart power, which is a combination of both.
“However, soft power is said to be more effective for nations to achieve their national interest on the global scene, rather than military force, which most times backfires and instigates hostilities against the invading force and their countries. Many examples attest to this.
“But soft power is not built overnight; it takes conscious efforts and campaigns to get, and is achieved through national branding, which is a collective effort of everyone, especially the media,” he further explained.
According to him, in a world driven by fierce competition for scarce resources, human and material, nations arm themselves with the right tools to be the top investment destinations. National branding comes in here. What do we want our country to be known for? How do we want outsiders to perceive our country? Let us be clear: there is no society that is free of violent crime, corruption, and other social vices.
“However, what nations do is to manage their reputations and embark on aggressive country brand to gain global relevance. Nations create a perception about themselves.
“This is not the exclusive duty of a government. Indeed, as has been mentioned above, soft power is better projected through the third party, especially the media. A nation is not the property of a government; it belongs to everyone living within its space,” he declared.
In his opening speech, chairman of the correspondent chapel, Abdulhakeem Garba, said the media’s role as a soft power in nation building can never be overemphasized.
He noted that in the contemporary global landscape, the media has emerged as a powerful tool with the ability to shape public opinion, disseminate information and influence social, cultural and political dynamics within nations.
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