Managing Nigeria's Image Crisis: Akunyili’s Rebranding Programme to the Rescue (?)

This research examines the current image problem in Nigeria, the attem pt to launder this im age via rebranding, the kind of reactions that rebranding has elicited and a prognosis on w hat can be done. This is against the background of the image crisis that the country suffered from between 1993 and 1999. The image crisis in that period was largely attributed to Nigeria’s lack of democratic progress. This image crisis was again compounded by the fraud that characterized the 2007 general elections. While arguing that the rebranding programme seems to be more of a cosmetic remedy, the paper recommends among other things that beyond sloganeering, the Nigerian government needs to address the issues that gave rise to the image crisis in the first place. This is the only way that N igeria can get out of the image quagmire.