Government needs to develop campaigns to inspire Nigerians this time- Kelechi

Kelechi Nwosu, the president of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria, AAAN says in this interview that the creative body is working on campaign to support government efforts at tackling terrorism and corruption. He also believes that as government priortises its economic advancement programmes, it should engage professionals in the communication industry to develop initiatives and campaigns that will inspire Nigerians in this economic difficult time. Excerpts

It appears AAAN has created a campaign to support current national campaign against security challenges and terrorism… What is the campaign all about?

Before we even heard of the recent efforts by the Federal Government, we, at AAAN, had agreed that our country needed to have a campaign that will unify and motivate a lot of us to support the war against terrorism. So AAAN working with some of its corporate members had developed a campaign that will do exactly that. It is meant to support the war against terrorism: mobilise, inspire, and motivate Nigerians to join the war. There is currently a lot of apathy amongst Nigerians about the violence going on and that has continued to go on especially in the North Eastern part of the country. That is what our campaign on Anti-Terrorism is all about.

What form does the campaign take in terms of the message?

We will share it with you at the right time. I don’t want to let the cat out of  the bag now, but essentially, it’s meant to be an integrated campaign that will support this whole war against terrorism using very effective media to deliver the message and solicit support of Nigerians for the government.

Is there any government buy-in into this project/initiative?

We have offered the campaign that is built to create support for war against terrorism. We have shared it with the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture. We hope that they have looked at it and will use it along with the campaign that they have commissioned. We have also continually offered to the Ministry of Information our capabilities as the foremost creative and communication association in the country and we hope that they will listen to us and partner with us to build effective campaigns.

A behaviour change campaign such as the one we are working on requires deep insight and expertise. You’ve got to build it with deep, resonant insights; sometimes you might need to pre-test the creative work. So government has got to be deliberate in designing these campaigns otherwise they will not be effective. This support and capability of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) via our members are the things we are putting on the table to support government.

What if government does not buy-in, will you go ahead to put it in various media?

It is not just for government, it is for all of us, I believe the government is for us. Sometimes we talk about the government as though government were outsiders, it is our government. I believe it is an elected government that has been elected to lead us, work with us and to help us as a country.  Government and all of us, the governed, I do believe, are interested in the welfare and wellbeing of our country. So hopefully with the  FGN support, we will go ahead; without their support we will still go ahead because we are doing it for our country  which belongs to all of us .

How are you working around it with other sectorial group on this?

We have had preliminary talks with the sectorial groups (ADVAN, OAAN, MIPAN, BON)  on these campaigns. As usual, they are interested but we need to agree how to prioritise the various elements of the Advocacy campaigns.  It is important that everybody does his bit. What we are doing as AAAN is to support our country, it is very important that everybody does something in these tough times to support our government. That is what we believe in.

The Minister has met ADVAN, OAAN, APCON, NPAN but it appears he has not met AAAN, what do you think.

I think that question will be better answered by the Minister of Information and Culture, because we have made ourselves available and asked for the meetings with him. I do believe he is busy and will get around to it when it is convenient to him.

How should government use communication in national development?

Udeme UFot’s paper on Strategic Communication and National Development actually answers that question. He posits that Government should use the same principles of Marketing Communication that have built big brands to build her communication. 

We need to have a strategic direction that engages the audience: The Governments (Federal, State and Local Government) need to speak with the people not the current style of more or less speaking at them. Strategic communication involves aligning our vision with the communication that will help build the nation. One of those should be about unity and belief in the country.

Like I mentioned earlier, the country is now really divided and people are going through tough times. I think the Ministry Of Information being the main communication curator for government should engage in research and insight based communication. I think that this is a time to talk up the Nigerian brand. This is the time to ask what will inspire Nigerians. As the fight against corruption rages, a lot of people are sad and wondering, “How much money was stolen/lost?” whilst they are facing   economic challenges.

I think this may be the time for the Federal Government to consider a proper and deliberate campaign, working with the right communication professionals, to determine what we can do to inspire the nation to be positive about the country. We need to look at what to do to make sure people have great hope in this country. The Information Minister and his machinery need to dig deeper and find out from the professionals, especially from our sector how this can be done.

For instance, there is the story recently of a Nigerian Bennett Omalu, who studied in University of Nigeria, Nsukka, who went to America and discovered CTE. We can use such stories to change the narrative here and abroad about Nigeria.

We need stories that inspire us as a nation and that will unify our energies to make progress. What are the particular campaigns that would strike the sweet spot amongst Nigerians to make them believe in themselves?

This is also the time to start asking Nigerians to believe in themselves. This is the best time to promote made in Nigerian products; Made in Nigeria football league, ideas, personalities who are doing things in Nigeria and all over the world. This is not the time to just keep talking about corruption. This is time to ask what we can do to make our country great, both from an economic, emotional and spiritual point of view. Basically our best creative brains   should be sitting round the table constituting what we call a core communication group to be able to do the above for our government, our people and our nation.