05/04/2024
If I were President Tinubu, I would not have signed the Student Loan Act into law with just my aides behind me. I would instead have signed the Act into law surrounded by students from primary to university level in their school uniforms and regular clothes. Then, I would have had prominent education rights activists, like Professor Bolanle Awe and Reverend Father Emmanuel Edeh standing to each side of me, along with the Vice Chancellors of one university from each of the six geopolitical zones.
And the media should have been there to cover it live, with the students and other invited guests all waving Nigerian flags while singing the national anthem. And as soon as the President signed the act into law, the pen he used should have been donated to the first university in Nigeria, the University of Ibadan, as a memento to mark the momentous occasion.
It would have projected the signage and the law much more positively. It would also have caught the public's attention while igniting a wave of patriotism and nationalism so dramatically as to capture their buy-in into that most laudable and auspicious moment. Effective rebranding is a projection of positive things that are already happening. Drama should be used to strengthen your agenda. Use your optic to influence the topic. Ingenuity should be used to foster unity.
It is not only what you do that counts. Sometimes, how you do what you do matters more than what you do. Packaging is why popcorn at Silverbird Cinemas is ₦2000, while ordinary guguru is ₦50. They are exactly the same. But one is packaged to attract value, while the other is just there.
Nevertheless, it is a very commendable achievement by the President. May God bless his efforts, and may God bless Nigeria.