Former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Obong Victor Attah, remarked that the results of the 2023 general elections severely tarnished the reputation of the nation.
Attah said this while speaking in Lagos as the guest speaker at the 2024 investiture ceremony of the Institute of Certified Sales Professionals (ICSP), with the theme: “Cultivating Excellence: Mastering the Art of Standing Out.”
He said: “Let me say that the circumstances and conduct of the 2023 elections caused serious damage to the character of our President, our number salesman, our electoral process and our judiciary.
“It left Nigeria therefore with a badly damaged image. It is difficult enough to sell a good product in the face of stiff competition, to sell a damaged product is a daunting task.
“Selling Nigeria in the aftermath of the 2023 elections is not by any means an easy job. As has been shown, our actions and utterances that led up to the elections and have since continued after the elections, have left us with two major strikes.”
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According to him, the first blow is that “we have a gravely damaged product (Nigeria) and the second is that our number one salesman (president) has been badly disabled. But we must not give up.”
Attah, also revealed that the Nigerian passport after the 2023 elections, is the least welcome globally of all major countries of the World.
He said: “one interpretation of the rejection is that foreigners don’t want to see our faces. If that is so, how can we reasonably expect them to want to invest here or to buy anything, except crude oil from us.”
He further stated that “Nigerians forgot that the number one national salesman is the president of the country. He, more than any other person, has the responsibility of selling Nigeria first to Nigerians, and Nigeria to the rest of the World.”
