by Reno Omorki
Some people have remarked in writing and in other forms of communication that President Goodluck Jonathan has given more attention to the entertainment industry to the detriment of other industries.
When I read such remarks or hear them from pundits on radio and TV talk shows, it does occurs to me that there are many who do not understand the inter connectivity of the various industries and sectors that make up a nation and how growing one has a multiplier effect on growing all.
Let me go deeper.
Except Nigeria is a very unambitious nation, (which it is not-Nigeria and Nigerians have a global reputation for ambition) it naturally would be the desire of our industries to spread their wings beyond Nigeria and into foreign domains, particularly in this era of globalization.
Our industries would like to have a presence in other African nations and from there conquer the globe.
But the truth is that nobody buys your product except they first buy your culture!
Culture is a door opener.
Take the United States for example. The government of the US has since the end of the Second World War vigorously supported the exportation of American culture to the rest of the world.
They arranged for American actors and singers to go on cultural exchanges to Europe, Asia and The Middle East.
The world soon fell in love with Buddy Holly, Shirley Temple, Louis Armstrong, Jimmy Dean, Fred Astaire and other first generation American international stars.
After falling in love with these icons, the world wanted to dress like them, to drive the cars they saw in their movies, to visit the cities they talked about in their songs.
And they did just that. This was the reason American brands like Coca Cola, Ford, IBM and Chevrolet went global immediately after the Second World War.
By the time America unleashed Elvis Presley, James Brown, Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne and the Motown retinue of stars on the rest of the world, their dominance of global pop culture was unassailable and what resulted from this was their dominance of the world economy.
It was and still is a common practice for American companies to hire movie stars from Hollywood and country music stars from Nashville as cultural ambassadors to project their products into nations they wanted to enter.
The logic was that these stars enjoyed a lot of goodwill from the people in those nations and they could transfer that goodwill to their products.
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