Jabborro Blog

I asked Chat GPT what it thought was wrong with communications under the Muhammadu Buhari administration in relations with its various partners and stakeholders. As is typical of responsible AI, the thorough training of the model influenced the modest tone of its return. But it still highlighted issues that indict that administration. Since the knowledge cutoff of the AI model was September 2021, I had to correct the tenses of the article.  Well, here is what came out.  Enjoy the AI perspective: Title: Wrong Communications Practices in the Government of Muhammadu Buhari Introduction: Wrong communication practices in government can undermine trust and hinder effective governance. Here's how these practices relate to the government of Muhammadu Buhari in Nigeria. Lack of Transparency: The Nigerian government under President Buhari faced criticism for a lack of transparency. This includes concerns about handling information on security, corruption, and government expenditures. Enhanci

Issues from the Nigerian elections rage on, months since the Electoral body, INEC announced winners. The election petition and issues tribunal, headed by members of the nation's judiciary has also given their verdict, followed by the Supreme Court. Now, let us find out what the International society thinks about the contentious Presidential part of the elections. Starting with the European Union! Through their Election Observation Mission, they released a report that read out their position. Abuse of incumbency by various political officeholders distorted the playing field and widespread vote buying detracted from the appropriate conduct of the elections. Incidents of organized violence shortly before and on election days in several states created an environment deterring voter participation." The BBC Zeroed in on Rivers State: "While the official result in this state gave a clear majority to Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), our tally suggested t

- What are 'Bureaucratic Bottlenecks'? - Where is Nigeria on the Ease of Doing Business Project? - Why Can't the Nigerian Civil service setup accept technology? The video below shows a 70-step process of simply dunking a basketball. The process comprises what is known as a Rube Goldberg machine - a complex contraption that employs a chain reaction to perform a simple task. If you can survive the video to the end, then you can understand what 'Bureaucratic Bottlenecks' are.  That is the typical example of bureaucratic bottlenecks - the lengthy sequence of required but disposable steps you must go through to get business done in a particular place. It is commonly used in Nigerian corporate scenarios. Ease of doing business has been extremely low in Nigeria for decades.  Where is Nigeria at the Ease-of-Doing-Business Ranking? The overall cost of doing business in Nigeria is too high - a combination of the time-cost, manpower cost and financial cost, unnecessarily exorb

 On US' refusal to support Nigeria's Okonjo-Iweala as WTO DG Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala The news that our daughter, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been appointed the DG of the World Trade Organisation was received with much joy and jubilation by many, especially, Nigerians. While our jubilation and congratulatory messages filled the air and the social media space, a sudden twist came, namely, that the US has refused to throw their weight on Iweala's appointment. As a consequence, many Nigerians got filled with rage against the US, dubbed them evil, arrogant, selfish and stupid. Some even went as far as insulting fellow Nigerians who support Trump's second term bid.  Unfortunately, a bitter truth some of us have failed to realise is that this life which many say, "no balance" is largely about interest. Just as in politics, 'interest rules'. You go for the individual or party that represents your interest, beliefs and/or convictions; an individual or party that ca

Pam Windsor, an entertainment contributor at Forbes recently wrote about Sinach's 'Way Maker' under the caption; "Michael Smith's 'Waymaker' becomes go-to comfort song in a global pandemic". Nigerians - at least the ones who follow gospel music - are hard on Forbes. A notable name amongst the unhappy reactions is Victor Oladokun. He is a world renown media personality also known ofr his Christian faith and dual-racial background. I thought to weigh in on this angst because I am equally of the gospel background, although a practicing comms professional. My Thinking We should not take offense at the heading of the Forbes article. That is clearly work of Michael W Smith's tremendous PR strategy team. His marketing team obviously do not list Nigeria and Nigerians among their market targets. This is why their captioning doesn't name Sinach or anyone else as author of the song. But in the body itself, credit is duly given. And for some

There are wild crises awaiting any govt backed or led Covid19 Vaccination in the world. Mention the word and see the reaction.  European Pharmaceutical Review(EPR) Nigeria is not expected to buy into another developing country's curative measures for popular and infamous reasons. As with HIV, no Western country will censor a cure. So, poorly led Nigeria will not even consider a cure. It means they will herd everyone to a compulsory vaccine, by the books of WHO and/or the West. That is the only destiny left for this pandemic. Physical distancing is doing a good job, but reinfection remains a possibility. Ask Paulo Dybala. Whether the vaccines are deadly or life-saving we do not know, cannot tell until millions have been vaccinated. But this is where Public Relations professionals come in. Leaderships of countries should seek out the right hands in every unit of professional service needed for this war. And that includes the Communication sector. They should be en

The Federal Government (FG) has disclosed it is looking to inject sanity into the social media to restore a sense of control. Lai Mohammed, Nigeria's information minister This was disclosed by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed. He was speaking at a media briefing on Tuesday in Abuja. The minister lamented that the social media space has gone totally out of control. “Gentlemen, since we inaugurated our reform of the broadcast industry, many Nigerians have reached out to us; demanding that we also look into how to sanitize the social media space. “I can assure you that we are also working on how to inject sanity into the social media space which, today, is totally out of control Get trained on PR and digital media here! “No responsible government will sit by and allow fake news and hate speech to dominate its media space; because of the capacity of this menace to exploit our national fault lines to set us against each other and trigg

[OPINION] by Imo-owo Mbede Can we sincerely say that the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has been efficient at making Nigerian roads safer? I doubt. I would rather say that the FRSC is more efficient at extorting money from road users, as against its primary obligation of ensuring that our roads are safe for users. A Federal Road Safety official pulls you over and demands to see your drivers' license, which I presume should certify your eligibility and authorization to drive. Unfortunately, the drivers' license does not prove whether or not one can drive – because till date I DO NOT REMEMBER EVER SEEING THE FRSC CONDUCTING DRIVING TESTS BEFORE ISSUING A DRIVERS' LICENSE. (They now do so through accredited driving schools, but that’s a very recent development – and as Nigerians, we know what that means….) All the while, it was all about the money; for as long as you could afford it, the FRSC was more than willing to issue you a license (and so my blind uncle h

[ENERGY] Dead Bus Equipment, Ibom Power Company More than once in the 13 months of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, electricity generation has fallen in Nigeria from 5000MW to 0.0MW. Seeing the political issues that lead to these crises are yet to be resolved, there's every likelihood of a recurrence. But, Akwa Ibom State will not be affected next it happens. Although all states in the federation statutorily get served from the national grid, The ima ge shows the dead bus system that isolates Akwa Ibom State from the nation when the national grid fails. In such times, the State becomes an island of electricity.   It was approved for the state owned power generating corporation, Ibom Power Company, IPC, by the Udom Emmanuel led Government, along with other interventions in the energy distribution sector. The IPC managing director, Dr Victor Udoh had touted it to the state in 2015, in a time it seemed commendations for the Governor were merely sy

[INVESTMENT] Tomato Demonstration Farm in Akwa Ibom Regular readers of Jabborro.com posts would have met my report on how Akwa Ibom was working towards meeting the Federal Government of Nigeria’s tomato paste production objective. It was carried on a few print media and websites as well. Please find it here. The Tomato Nigeria Will Get From Akwa Ibom Not long after that report, price of fresh Tomato skyrocketed by about 400%. Tuta Absoluta, a crop pest that originated from South America, became resistant to pesticide and this was blamed immediately, although a combination of it and other factors actually caused the inflation. Now, the inflation caused many damages across the nation. Yet, I know of 2 experiment farms that neither suffer the plague nor fail to make profit. They thrive in the epidemic, thanks to collaboration with AKEES – Akwa ibom Enterprise & Employment Scheme. Here is a mild analysis of their enviable turnover even as a trial farm. CHECK

The differences between Public Relations and Propaganda are debated by Communications scholars all over the world. This image demonstrates just a pictorial aspect difference between Propaganda and Public Relations. A basic definition of Propaganda is the systematic manipulation of public opinion, distinguished from other forms of communication in that it is consciously and deliberately used to influence group attitudes by imposing the opinion of the propagandists on their target. Its methods are also different from PR and other forms of communication. The Gonzales Weekly, an American publishing firm, points to one method used on the American public: the Half-Truth. When it comes to principles of transparency and accountability by leaders to the masses, or Organisational leaders to their stakeholders, however, half-truths are whole lies. On the PR hand, truth must be told in its complete form. When an organisation has crises, for instance, the first step to solve it us