We were taught in an AIDS awareness campaign seminar in PortHarcourt as teenagers in secondary school in 2003, that good conductis the only way to stop the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and not the irritant condom some other HIV/AIDS activists preached. We agreed then, I still agree now.Since good conduct-moral uprightness; will entail that the issue of sex before marriage does not occur; same goes to the image of a country. I put it this way, 'good conduct and not re-branding'. Yes! No amount of image laundering (re-branding) would change the perception of the peoples of the world about Nigeria if the Nigerian citizenry are not behaving in a proper way. Thus, so long as there are scandals, corruption, drug trafficking, terrorism, killing etc, the world will see Nigeria as a bad place and Nigerians as bad people. Nigeria: Good People, Great Nation will be a rubbish rant if her people refuse to show attitudinal change. Irrespective of the ratio involved in this colossal damage, the truth is that they are Nigerians and are seen so world over.Our re-branding was faked; it is a masquerade and so, a deceit. It is also counter-productive, just like in the condom case of AIDS. It puts a tag of lie to any other claim of good people in Nigeria since the deceit (re-branding) received a nod of authority from our authority. Nigeria: Good People, Great Nation! Without first cleaning the hearts and inimical attitude of her people' These words sounded propagandistic and not long after the re-branding campaign, a Nigerian messed up again. This time round, it was in an act of terrorism and suicide bombing. The 'Good People, Great Nation' found herself in hot waters of image scandal. Nigeria was immediately enrolled in the United States 'special list' of terrorist countries. Have we been de-listed' How many drug cases have we witnessed since then' Avalanche I dare say. The post-election mayhem, the killing of corps members in the North, the kidnapping of corps members in Rivers State. Which good people will kill and kidnap corps members who are serving their country (great nation)' Good people indeed! In a minute, let us critically review that re-branding language: Good People, Great Nation.The second part will lead to the first part since there will be no good people without a great nation. Sweet as it sound, it looked ephemeral from the word go. It lacked the truth or evidence that comes with such potent and superlative words. Let us look at the second part 'Great Nation' Dr Dora Akunyili and her team were simply optimistic here or were they rather liars' The sentence did not show future belief which is the hall mark of optimism. At the time of this re-branding, we cannot boast of good roads, electricity, neat and efficient airports, fine housing scheme, employment and good welfare. In fact, within that period, the World Bank released a figure of $2,398.78 per person per annum in July, 2010. This shows a per capita income of $3.00 a day! That period also witnessed strike action from university lecturers for what they termed, 'the neglect of educators, education and knowledge'. It was still then that the proposed #18,000 about $114.73 minimum wage was being advocated though it was rejected by most governors. Are these, features of a great nation' Then, where is the greatness and honour in all these' Deceit is in the offing.Good People' The 'Etteh-gate' and subsequent Kung fu, boxing and war of words that greeted the nation's House of Representative were within the period of re-branding Nigeria. Check Nigerian newspapers online, you will see where that free for all fight was hoisted. That is the image of Good People. What about that grand welcome and reception that was given to an ex-convict' The many cases of corrupt government officials and bank executives standing trials; the endless drug trafficking cases, kidnapping, killing, rape etc' Does this make a good people'The greed of government officials exemplified by their pay is another thing here. Some call it 'jumbo pay', it is criminal to me. Most Nigerians are dying of hunger and our leaders are receiving outrageous pays. Imagine a per capita incomes of $3.00 and our leaders are taking home outrageous pays' Remember that CBN Governor's (Lamido Sanusi) lecture during the convocation at Benin' 25 per cent of the country's overhead cost being consumed by the legislative arm of government alone! I will analyse our leaders pay using the Legislative arm of government because of Bankole's case. House of Representative members collected 28.9 million Naira quarterly allowances before July, 2010 when it was raised to 41 million naira; excluding their salaries. This was even posited recently by the embattled ex- speaker, as a defence on the 10 billion naira loan. A senator's take home at the end of the year is about 351 million naira while that of a member of House of Representative is about 147 million naira. If the pay of a senator is shared to all Nigerians, everybody will receive above 2 million naira each. Whereas, a senior accountant in a local government receives about N110,000 giving him an annual pay that is less than 1.4 million naira. His yearly salary is less than what he will receive if a single senator shares his pay for one year to every Nigerian. Is that not wicked' So where are the good people' And where is the love our leaders confess they have for their subjects'Good attitude and morally upright behavior will change our image than any well composed words; irrespective of the writer or poet that composed such words. The money spent during the re-branding crusade is an imprudent spending as we have found out today. So, changing the attitude of Nigerians is far more important to those sweet words.Hon. Bankole's case is another setback to that crusade. I know that Hon Bankole is innocent until proven otherwise but his arrest and trial alone is inimical to the office of Speakership of the House of Representative and the re-branding crusade itself. Another twist to it is that the case if properly handled can help our country's image. This will happen when everybody that is guilty in that case is severely punished; even if it is the whole members of the House and the lending bank. The punishment I proffer here is not mediocre jail terms the court do dish out but a huge jail term that will serve as a deterrent to would-be offenders in the future. This way, we will instill fear in our nation and drive away or minimise this shame called corruption without spending a dime.Nigeria: Good people, Great Nation will be achieved not by the number of times we echoed the words nor the amount of newspaper advertorial space and broadcast commercial time, but by our good hearts in dealing with others, shunning of corruption, drug trafficking etc and developing our country. This is the re-branding we need and not the deceit we engaged earlier.What we need now is good conduct and not paper re-branding.Temple wrote in from Hannang Dong, Seoul, South Korea.
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