KINGDOM PERSPECTIVE
with Remi Akano
E-mail: remiakanosr@believeandrepent.com
There is this matter arising from the recent Real Men Luncheon of the Christian Men’s Network Nigeria that space constrained me from mentioning last week. It came up during the interactive session and it is the issue of event and project sponsorship by the big spending companies in the country. And it subdivided into two.
First was the aspect of certain unwholesome practices by officials of many of these companies. The contributor puts it somewhat like this: You have an event requiring corporate sponsorship to fly. You have done your homework by tailoring your proposal to suit the needs of a particular product or service. You present the proposal to the appropriate official and he finds it worth his while. Several meetings later, he finally says to you: “congratulations, your proposal has been accepted.’
Of course you are happy. You shake his or her hand and ask, ‘when are we signing the deal?’ Not so fast, he replies, and he begins to state his terms. First you will go back and repackage your N20 million proposal to read N30 million and second you will commit to paying the extra N10 million to him as his ‘cut’ from the deal. You are shocked and it shows in your countenance. He notices and reminds you the budget you presented has not been tampered with and that in any case that is standard practice in his department! He didn’t say it in too many words, but the picture is clear: do it my way or no deal.
The gentleman who painted the scenario then asked guest minister, Elder Felix Ohiwerei who had just delivered a powerful, thought-provoking message on the theme, “Wanted: Men of Character”: what should a man of character do in such a situation?
Now, Ohiwerei was eminently qualified to answer this question having served in marketing and product management positions on his way to the CEO’s position at Nigerian Breweries Plc, one of Nigeria’s biggest spending companies in sponsorships.
And he did not mince words. In my time, I never made any such demands. Once a proposal met the needs of the products in my charge, that was it! And on what to do in a situation like that, his admonition was something like this: you should simply say no. mean it and stick by it! Any fear that you might lose the sponsorship is unfounded; nobody can take away what God has given you. If the marketing official can rob you of it, then it was not meant to be yours in the first place. A child of God must be prayerful; if you are, don’t worry, you’ll get whatever is yours, even if some people have to be sacked or just taken out of your way by some other means.
The other aspect of the issue pertains to the attitude of brand and product managers to sponsorship of religious projects and events. To paraphrase the words of the gentleman who raised the issue: this people simply refuse to sponsor Christian programmes. Ohiwerei, who is of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, did not see why. In his opinion, if a proposal meets the needs of a product or brand; there is no reason why it should be rejected. It depends on the disposition of the helmsman, he said.
Time, unfortunately did not allow for a thorough discussion of this issue which incidentally, yours sincerely feels very strongly about. Let me share my experience in this respect.
A few years ago, I set out to formally launch a Christian magazine. The idea was to bring the magazine into the market with a bang, because I had felt rebuked for sneaking the publication into the market during the first attempt. So we packaged a launch programme. We were to have what we called “Joy in the Kingdom Luncheon” with as many men of God from across the denominations as possible invited. It was to be followed later by a more public “Joy in the Kingdom Concert”. I won’t bother you with the details. The Marketing Team was led by my dear departed friend, Tony Alenkhe, one time Promotions Manager for Sony Music, the company that made superstars like Shina Peters, Mike Okri, Wasiu Ayinde and many more. By this time, he was born again, and like me, eager to put all his knowledge and experience into the service of a kingdom project like KINGDOMPeople magazine.
Wherever he went with the team, the answer was the same. The response went like this: We are secular; you see and so cannot touch events like this! If we sponsor a Christian event, we will incur the wrath of Moslems! Counter arguments that they could simply balance things out by seeking Moslem projects to sponsor did not impress them. Some even encouraged us to divert our energy and creativity into something secular so they can do business with us! So, days rolled into weeks, weeks into months and months into years and finally the project was rested to await better times.
Meanwhile, under the garb of secularism, most of Corporate Nigeria has been busy spending a sizeable percentage of their sponsorship budget on programmes and projects that are, to put it plainly, simply satanic. They spend hundreds of millions of Naira every year bringing in musicians of doubtful morality; who sing songs that are value-corroding and whose costumes do nothing to encourage decency in the sartorial choices of our youth.
Most of the big spenders love to exploit seasons of religious festivities to sell their products and services but do not want to associate with the religions. The closest that Corporate Nigeria gets to doing positive things is through their budgets for corporate social responsibility (CSR) which is miniscule compared to what is spent under the guise of marketing, most of which warps up our values.
There is absolute need for a rethink. I believe this has to start at the Board level where policies are either made directly or endorsed by default. Christians in these places have to stand up for their faith. Well, I would expect Moslems to do the same. That can only lead to taking the resources away from the kingdom of darkness .More Marketing Naira has to be put into clearly edifying projects and, truth is, for such projects to be really effective they have to have spiritual grounding. This is not antithetic to meeting the promotional needs of any product. Enough creativity resides in the kingdom to ensure that the products don’t suffer. After all, haven’t things gone so awry, with creativity in such small supply that a soft drink range’s television commercial has to feature scantily-dressed “blondes” to be effective? Must every product, non-alcoholics inclusive, be sold on the wings of seduction? The fixation with sex seems to be partly responsible for the boycott of events and projects without it! That is why even malt drinks would not advertise in a Christian magazine.
Where are all the young men and women we see in churches and at other conferences? Aren’t some of them brand or product and marketing managers? How are they serving their faith if they let all of these things happen right under their noses? What about the script and copy writers; the directors and producers? Is it a case of keeping your faith away from the workplace? No, things cannot go on like this.
I am a practical person, however, and so, I believe the place to start is to begin to engage ourselves on these issues. Seminars and workshops may be necessary for Christians in these professions to prayerfully find solutions to this game of the evil one.
Recently, journalists held a workshop about evangelism and the media and I think that is wonderful. You see, many editors, for instance still have to be weaned from the orientation that issues of religion should be confined to Sundays (for Christians) and Friday (for Moslems). True religion is a way of life and therefore an everyday affair! The question, of course is who will bell the cat? The answer for now, as the saying goes, is blowing in the wind. But, not for too long, I assure you.
TIME TO GET UNDER THE WORD, MADAM
And so, Mrs Patricia Olubunmi Etteh finally ate humble pie. She resigned her office as Speaker of the House of Representatives, Federal Republic of Nigeria. You may recall that we said in “Madam Pharaoh as Goddess Artemis” (October 28) that “… not even a hurried, peremptory adjournment of House plenary for more than a week can save this woman’s job. But as I say that I know that she and her handlers still have a lot of fight in them. So I can see them not giving up even at this stage.”
We were right on each score. She did lose her exalted position, but not without a fight! Even after a motion of impeachment against her and her deputy had been moved and seconded, Etteh still had to be persuaded, even pleaded with before she agreed to take the path of honour. I wish her well in the next phase of her political career, but whatever else she does or fails to do, she should please go back to church and sit under the word for a season. It is not for nothing that the bible said: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path (Psalm 119:105). It will do her a world of good and who knows, she may yet bounce back.
First published in a Nigerian Daily, the Sunday Independent, published in Lagos Nigeria.
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