HUMAN Rights Activist, Comrade Newuwumi Omolubi, has said the latest project of re-branding Nigeria with mere change of logo and slogan by the Minister of Information, Prof. Dora Akinyuli and her team, is a waste of tax payers money, as what the country requires is a complete change of attitude and not pouring an old wine in a new bottle.
“Sometimes I get confused and bitter over the things we do in this country. The task before this government is beyond sloganeering. As far as I am concerned, she is just trying to make a name,” Omolubi stated in an interview yesterday in Warri.
His words: “It is like putting an old wine in a new bottle. Does that change the taste of the wine? It is just another exercise in futility. Let Akinyuli stop deceiving Nigerians, she knows that the state of the Nigeria does not allow for patriotism.”
According to him, “It’s nothing because neither the logo nor slogan is the problem of Nigeria. It is the individuals that make the country that are the problem.”
On the reminder by the minister that the handcuffing of a former governor sometime ago brought disrepute to the image of the country internationally, he said she should direct her re-branding exercise to the top government officials that steal government and smear the image of the country.
He asked: “Does the less-priviledged in the society travel out of the country? It is the ministers, the governors, the president, government and some private individuals and their children that travel abroad, so they are the ones giving us a bad name. Akinyuli should start on these people and not wasting money on logo and slogan.”
He said greed, selfishness, bribery and corruption, insincerity on the part of the government officials were some of the problem that needed to be tackled before they could talk of logo and slogan, as Nigeria is not a product or commodity that needed re-branding.
Also speaking on the recent debate on whether INEC chairman, Maurice Iwu, should resign against recent judgments in most of the election tribunal, Omolubi, who is also a member of the Delta State Waterways Security Committee, said Iwu alone should not be blamed for the failure of the last general elections, but the politicians who want to win at all cost.
“Iwu is just one person, he is just a messenger, he was not in my locality, he was not in Delta state, he can’t be everywhere, the fault is not Iwu but the politicians and it is the politician who appointed him in the first place, so his loyalty is those who appointed him,” he stated.