Justice Onnoghen in handshake with President Buhari
James Abang|28 October 2016
Building a brand is an expensive and time consuming business. This is true for both commercial and political commodities. No wonder some companies or political parties either prefer to acquire an existing brand or go into franchise arrangement where they can share a brand. Sometimes this is done through mergers.
It is unclear which of the options APC adopted in 2014 when they benefited from “Brand Buhari”. However, it should be noted that the same brand was rejected thrice by the buying public when the then Gen Buhari contested for presidency and lost three times. But those rejections were based on what marketers call “pre-purchase evaluation” which is mostly based on negative perception. One of the perceptions buyers (in this case the general public) initially have against Gen Buhari was that of Islamist, sectional and rigid, hence voted against him. Mr. President must therefore be commended for shaking off those perceptions and going ahead to win buyer confidence and subsequently the general election. This remarkable “come-back” was possible in part because his initial rejection were not based on fair evaluation of Brand Buhari.
But when a brand is rejected in what marketers call “post purchase evaluation”, they generally don’t make a come-back. This is because post purchase evaluation arises from actual buyer experience with the brand in question. Buhari as a brand is presently not helping buyers to stay with initial favorable buyer re-evaluation that gave him the APC ticket. For instance: Gen. Buhari’s seeming anti-south stance when it comes to appointments into sensitive positions is causing great concern. Uptill now, the issue has been open to speculation with many of his party members insisting the president is not biased against the south in his choice of appointees. But issues coming out of the recent DSS siege of the homes of some judges is posing many questions. Many believed the raid was targeted at Justice Walter Onnoghen.
For the second time in 3 months Thisday Newspaper has carried suggestions that the whole saga was designed with a view to find possible fault with Justice Walter Onnoghen who should take over from the retiring CJN by virtue of seniority to pave way for Justice Tanko Mohammed who is a Northerner. Quoting Thisday of today:
“… it is widely believed in judicial circles that the president still harbours a desire to extract a pound of flesh from the Supreme Court. Attention is called to his reluctance to forward the name of Justice Walter Onnoghen to the Senate for confirmation two weeks after the NJC transmitted its recommendation to the presidency. The delay is said to have been caused by the DSS’ frantic search for something to nail him so that the third in line of seniority at the Supreme Court, Justice Tanko Muhammad, could be nominated to replace him. So far, nothing has been found.
Yet shunning Onnoghen for Muhammad is bound to worsen Buhari’s reputation for preference for appointing northerners to sensitive positions. Sidelining Onnoghen for whatever reason would torpedo the chance of the south to occupy the top judicial post again 29 years after Justice Ayo Irikefe retired from the post”. I believe the above quote is self explanatory. It is very easy to take Nigeria southerners for granted and do anything against them if you live under the old time assumption that southerners distrust each other and that the Yorubas and Ibos don’t share the same bed. You might be right but a time comes they can manage the same desk, if not bed, when pushed to the wall.
Polaroid was an all-time leader in instant photography. But while the world was changing towards digital technology and electronic imaging, Polaroid stuck with what the company assumed was consumer weakness. That is the need to have permanent visual record in form of a picture in hard-copy. Based on this false assumption they failed to change its strategy and improve its product to meet emerging needs. Polaroid failed because the times left it behind with its archaic products while the world moved into electronic imaging and storage.
President Buhari risk a brand suicide if he assumes he can as usual climb on the weakness of the south to bye-pass Justice Walter Onnoghen and appoint a northerner in his place. Believing that the south known to be disunited, distrustful of each other would not gather sufficient momentum as usual to stand up for their rights. He should not take the risk of that outdated assumption. It is true that the Yorubas, as usual, may not bother because it is not their man. And perhaps the Ibos won’t either because Walter is from core minority south (Cross River). That was yesterday. The fact remains that even his most ardent supporter is aware that his appointments tilt against the South. In this days of information tech and social media everyone is informed. Therefore this assumption of a disunited south would do nothing is outdated. Mr President should forget it as it might ruin everything he has put together to build his brand and if care is not taken it may also ruin APC for which he is a brand champion.
This writer respectfully call on Mr. President to prove his critics wrong by forwarding the name of Justice Walter Onnoghen to senate for confirmation as CJN immediately. This would further confirm his brand’s sincerity with ONE NIGERIA project and heal a lot of wounds. Otherwise he risks total brand rejection of Brand Buhari not only from South but also fair minded Northerners.
James Abang
Writes From Atte Okiuso Village, Urueoffong/Oruko LGA.
