techafrica

Contact

Nigeria: The Heartbeat of Africa

Oluniyi D. Ajao

·

· Updated 3 March 2020

·

3 min read

I’ve been in Nigeria since Sunday, so I am well-informed about what I am writing about right now. I just saw an ad on CNN, about Nigeria – the Heartbeat of Africa. I am sad to say that this is just another waste of public funds my the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation.

On the ad – the National Theatre, Nigeria’s foreign reserve, agriculture, friendly/generous Nigerians, fastest growing telecom sector in Africa, sizable oil and gas reserves – were amongst the points the ad was using to try wooing international investors.

It is indeed true that Nigeria’s telecom industry is one of the fastest growing, in the whole wide world, but even the telecom industry is not hitch-free. (I really don’t want to go into that now).

I strongly object to the govrnment wasting public funds on CNN ads. They should rather be spending such money on REALLY improving the country’s infrastructure. The roads are in bad shape, after almost 8 years of a democratic government. On Sunday, I travelled from Lagos to Ibadan. Yesterday, from Ibadan to Ife (and back). As recent as October 2006, I travelled to Katsina from Lagos, linked to Sokoto and back to Ibadan. The roads are in a terrible shape. Ogbomosho to Ibadan has been taking precious lives for many years now. Its still a narrow and dangerous road. The construction of a new Ibadan – Ilorin expressway has since been abandoned.

How can this government then be advertising to the world that all is well? Doesn’t the government know that all is not well in the Niger Delta? I hear about foreign oil workers being kidnapped in the Niger Delta, almost on a daily basis. The people there are agitating for a more equitable distribution of the country’s wealth that is derived from the crude oil extracted from that part of the country.

Eversince I became conscious of myself as a human being, I have never seen power being stable in Nigeria. Never. It’s always on-and-off, several times everyday. What business can one do in a country where power supply is completely unreliable? Except of course you would invest in diesel-powered generators, and increase the price of whatever goods/services you are offering. But then, how do you compete with the rest of the world this way?

I am not an alarmist or a saddist. I love my country and want things to be well with Nigeria. Mr Government, stop wasting funds on CNN ads. The world knows better than that, and will not be fooled even if you pumped more money into this campaign.

NB: The website for this campaign, www.heartofafrica.com is nice though. It’s well done.

Share

Oluniyi D. Ajao Avatar
Oluniyi D. Ajao
Oluniyi D. Ajao is an Internet Entrepreneur and Tech Enthusiast. Follow him on X (fka Twitter) @niyyie for more tech updates.

Comments

  1. osita gabriel nwabunwanne Avatar
    osita gabriel nwabunwanne

    I realy apriciate the work you guys are doing but how can i contact you on phone and may be have some thing to discuss and more also talk more on your work you guys are trying more greace to your elbow

    Reply
  2. Oluniyi David Ajao Avatar
    Oluniyi David Ajao

    The government has now cancel the ad campaign (that some have referred to as “image laundering”). Did you know why the Federal govt of Nigeria cancelled the CNN ad? It was as a result of Jeff Koinange’s (CNN Africa’s correspondent) report on the Niger Delta. See: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/02/16/nigeria.cnn.ad.reut/

    ABUJA, Nigeria (Reuters) — The Nigerian government on Thursday canceled an advert it had placed on U.S. television channel CNN because of a report broadcast last week about militants holding hostages in the oil-producing Niger Delta.

    Information Minister Frank Nweke said Nigeria had demanded an apology from the station over the report, which he said depicted the situation in the Niger Delta in an “unethical and subversive” way.

    “The government of Nigeria considers it improper to continue to run a promotional material about the country in a medium that has consistently, even unprofessionally, depicted it and her people in a denigrating manner,” Nweke wrote to CNN.

    Reply
  3. Felix Adebayo Avatar
    Felix Adebayo

    I have been hearing this Government boasting several times of having increased the National Reserve, and some other statistics like that. They are living in their own world, well-separated from the people which they govern. Of what use is a reform agenda if it had not improved the standards of living of the average Nigerian? It is a shame that this Government cannot tackle the issue of stable electricity for a period of 8 years.

    Reply
  4. Oluniyi David Ajao Avatar
    Oluniyi David Ajao

    @ Emmmanuel, how can a nation of 140 million people allow a few greedy individuals to hold them to ransom? How? That should not be possible, unless of course in Nigeria, where anything goes. 🙄

    Truth be told, if we continue like this, we are headed for chaos. A popular up-rising against the power that be. The agitation we see currently in the Niger Delta would be a miniature compared to a national uprising.

    Reply
  5. Emmanuel Oluwatosin Avatar
    Emmanuel Oluwatosin

    My question is, “What does the government want to achieve by deceiving people?”… There is an adage in Yoruba that says that the truth will always catch up with lie no matter how long the lie has been going.

    Anyway, I would suggest that we focus on what we can do on our own. But have you ever considered the reason why it seems we don’t have electricity in Nigeria? Some people have invested heavily in Generator and Diesel business and must make their money back. So, these set of people have to do everything to ensure that an average Nigerian is denied access to electricity

    Reply
  6. Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » Nigeria: the heartbeat of Africa

    […] Ajao blogs about his experience in Nigeria, “I’ve been in Nigeria since Sunday, so I am well-informed about what I am writing about […]

    Reply
  7. Folabi Ogunkoya Avatar
    Folabi Ogunkoya

    I actually saw the ads on the london underground too, everyone was looking at at. A total waste of money

    Reply
  8. Yomi Adegboye Avatar
    Yomi Adegboye

    The last time I heard about that pointless (and shameless) ad on CNN was over a year ago! You mean that our government is still running it?

    Like you said, Dave, those funds could be better utilised providing real infrastructure here. I have run a generator on N65 per litre of petrol for about four hours today already. I hate driving around Lagos on week days because of the nasty traffic situation and poor roads.

    We have universities where computer science graduates never get to touch a PC all through their 4-year course, and the twisted-thinking people in government think that the best way to change all that is to put an ad on CNN?

    That ad is certainly one way to make a fool of ourselves to the world! :mrgreen:

    Reply

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related articles