Article
Image Re-branding in a Fragile State: The Case of Nigeria*
Godwin Uyi Ojo1, Iro Aghedo2
1Godwin Uyi Ojo is a lecturer in the College of Arts and Social Sciences, Igbinedion University, Okada, Nigeria, and executive director of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria. He received a PhD from King’s College, London. E-mail:
Gloryline2000@ yahoo.co.uk.
2Iro Aghedo is a lecturer in the Department of Political Science, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria. He was educated at the universities of Ibadan and Benin in Nigeria and at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His articles have been published in the Review of African Political Economy, African Security, Journal of Asian and African Studies, and Third World Quarterly, among others. E-mail:
matthew.aghedo@uniben.edu.
© Copyright 2013 Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Received: May 05, 2013; Revised: May 25, 2013; Revised: Aug 06, 2013; Accepted: Aug 08, 2013
Published Online: Aug 31, 2013
Abstract
In today’s globalized world, nations are increasingly concerned about how they are perceived by their publics, often carefully planning and executing policies to maintain a positive identity or shed a negative image. While some countries are able to execute nation branding, others are not. Using the Nigerian experience as a case study, this article shows how the character of a state can undermine its capacity for successful nation branding. We argue that countries are judged not just by what they say but also by what they do, and that inherent contradictions such as sectarian violence, ethnic tension, and corruption underline Nigeria’s underdevelopment and its reputation at home and abroad. We assess this trajectory in the context of state fragility and “prebendalization” politics in a country with a powerful colonial legacy, and suggest a duality of order and disorder involving formal and informal structures of governance that impinge significantly on re-branding efforts.
Keywords: Nigeria; fragile state; corruption; violence; re-branding
