By Promise Adiele
Marketing and demarketing are major semantic categories in Business, Economics, Public Relations, and Advertising-related discourses. However, these days of cross-pollination of ideas and interdisciplinary approaches in almost every enlightened engagement, words and phrases have become nomads, sauntering in and out of various public exchanges with gusto. Today, ‘marketing and demarketing’ are in Nigeria’s political register, maintaining a focal presence that connotes different meanings depending on one’s contemporary political leaning. Nigerians will never miss any opportunity to dismember phrases that drop into their political menu, stretching them to buttress one point or another. Well, I have decided to exercise my analytical prerogatives to dissect ‘marketing and demarketing’ of Nigeria as I understand them. Everyone is free to do so.
Recently, Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections and unarguably Nigeria’s political hurricane, Mr. Peter Obi, was accused by Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, of demarketing Nigeria at faraway Johns Hopkins University in the US. Mr. Obi delivered a lecture on Politics and Change in Nigeria at the renowned university. The Lagos State governor advised the former presidential candidate and other Nigerians to ‘market’ the country abroad and not ‘demarket’ it. Undoubtedly, Babajide Sanwo-Olu is an intelligent man and a patriot. Except when he was recently arm-twisted like a schoolboy, his executive authority undermined, and a recalcitrant speaker reinstated in the state, the governor has managed to stay out of controversy, obeying instructions, focusing on his errands, and committing to delivering the dividends of democracy to Lagosians. Surely, Mr Sanwo-Olu is a dutiful, responsible governor.
To market a product or service in layman’s terms simply means to identify its strength and outline its importance in order to convince people to patronise it. Of course, there are strategies to rely on to achieve a successful marketing objective. In the same vein, to demarket a product or service means to say negative things about it that would expose its weaknesses and dissuade people from patronising it. Every day, millions of people engage in marketing or demarketing of various items of innumerable classifications, sometimes unconsciously. People market and demarket other people. Colleagues at work market and demarket one another. Companies, corporate entities, churches, and institutions market and demarket one another. Politicians and their supporters market and demarket one another. Marketing and demarketing are present realities in a competitive world. The question is, did Mr. Peter Obi market or demarket Nigeria while speaking at Johns Hopkins University in the US? During his speech, Mr. Obi highlighted the irrefutable truths about Nigeria, ranging from incremental poverty, a moribund health sector, insecurity, and a viciously polarised social structure along ethnic divides.
Sadly, many apologists of the present government seem to suffer from some kind of inexplicable neurosis which drives them to attack anyone who identifies the true, deteriorating situations in Nigeria, including poverty, insecurity, mass evisceration, and collective despair. Not too long ago, it was music sensation David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, who received a backlash for saying that economic situations in Nigeria were life-threatening. Mortar and pestle and the land upon which we all stand are witnesses to the excruciating poverty that the current administration has plunged Nigerians into since 2023. The wind, ocean, animals in the jungle, angels, and all the demons that populate our spiritual spaces are witnesses to the agonising inflation in the land, which has forced people into desperate, urgent need for survival. The killing fields in Borno, Benue and Plateau States are testimonies of Nigeria’s security challenges, coming on the heels of different kidnappings and killings of citizens. How speaking truth to power about the exact conditions in Nigeria equates to demarketing the country is a puzzle that can only be solved by advocates of the present grotesque, macabre procession which we all like to call a government.
As a Christian, I am aware my moral compass, the Holy Book, frowns at lying. It captures the Ananias and Sapphira narrative as a timely warning for humanity to desist from peddling falsehood. It would be a mortal sin for anyone to declare that the conditions in Nigeria deserve celebration. The fate of Ananias and Sapphira would summarily come upon anyone who stands on occasion to declare that there is no poverty, no security challenges, no inflation, and no mass suffering in the country. The fury of heaven would visit anyone who asserts that Nigeria’s health sector is one of the best in the world. Indeed, how stating the facts about Nigeria equates to demarketing the country is one of the most unintelligent arguments I have ever witnessed. According to information released by StatiSense Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms have wiped away 48.3% of Nigeria’s economy in just two years. According to the report, Nigeria’s GDP in 2023, before the present administration came to power, was $363.82 billion, but in 2025, Nigeria’s GDP has declined to $188.27 billion.
The World Bank has recently predicted that more Nigerians will become poor in 2027. These are verifiable facts but unfortunately, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his gang want Nigerians to travel abroad and tell lies about the country. It will amount to scamming of an elevated proportion if Nigerians deceive the world with wrong information about the country and attract patronage from the international community. Isn’t it best to say the truth about conditions in the country, trusting that the international community would extend its hand of help towards us? Peter Obi did not demarket Nigeria; in fact, he marketed the country by telling the truth, which hopefully will attract sympathy and aid to help millions of suffering people in Nigeria. Surely, many people demarket Nigeria, and Peter Obi is not one of them.
Any Nigerian who has indulged in trafficking hard drugs or benefited from the proceeds across international boundaries has demarketed the country, giving it a bad name. Hard drugs like cocaine, heroin, and other species of banned substances are inimical to human growth. Any Nigerian who has indulged in election violence and ethnic slurs leading to a visa ban has demarketed the country. Today, millions of Nigerians are being harassed abroad about their educational qualifications because some Nigerians lied and forged their educational history. Those are the real demarketers of Nigeria. People who indulge in cybercrimes, defrauding foreigners of their hard-earned funds, are the real demarketers of Nigeria. Any Nigerian who has spent fake, hard currency in a foreign country and was arrested for the same is a demarketer of the country. Any Nigerian who advertises the country in a bad light, engaging in criminal activities that diminish the image of the country in international circles is a demarketer of the country. Even within the country, anyone who drives against the traffic before the glare of a foreigner demarkets the country because some foreign tourists capture these scenes with a camera.
The electoral body and politicians demarket the country when, before international election observers, they manipulate election figures to favour the highest bidder. The judiciary also demarkets the country when judges and judicial officers dance naked in public by taking bribes and perverting justice before the whole world. The Nigerian judiciary is reported to be the most corrupt sector in 2023, taking the highest bribes. Recall that the judiciary affirmed the victory of the current government in 2023. These reports are available in international media channels.
It is a regrettable scenario of demarketing a country when politicians accused of different degrees of heist and embezzlement of public funds end up as lawmakers or occupy sundry leadership positions because they identify with the commanding heights of the country’s political clan. Nigeria is demarketed when Nigerians return to the country and get robbed or killed by either terrorists or even official security authorities like the police and military. Nigeria is demarketed when the police, before the whole world, mount roadblocks and collect money from motorists, killing those who refuse to part with their money.
If we must truly preach that Nigerians should stop demarketing the country, then we must do it with sincerity of purpose, eschewing indulgences that lacerate the image of the country in international circles. However, to ask Nigeria to lie about conditions in the country is to advance the devil’s objectives. God detests lying. Nigerians must be encouraged to be forthright in good behaviour while in the international arena and desist from acts that would bring the name of the country to disrepute.
Peter Obi did not demarket Nigeria in the US, rather, he invited the world to share in our plight and render a helping hand where necessary. Some people have demarketed Nigeria in foreign climes, bringing dishonour and shame to the country, and we know these people. Surfing through international media channels will reveal the identity of Nigerians who have demarketed the country by their actions and past associations. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in all his intelligence, should be moderate with his use of marketing and demarketing as political instruments so that he does not force Nigerians to begin to dig deeper into the archives to uncover those who have demarketed the country.
DR. Promise Adiele is of the Mountain Top University, and can be reached via promee01@yahoo.com; @drpee4
