‘Change Begins With Me’ solely the idea of Information Minister, says Consultant

I read with utter shock and disbelief the reported claim by some
people that the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, stole their concept of ‘CHANGE BEGINS WITH ME’, which was
launched by the President on Thursday, 8th Sept. 2016. This is nothing
but sheer lies and blackmail.

The facts are that as a marketing communications consultant, I,
together with the advertising agency Centerspread, were contacted a
week after Alhaji Lai Mohammed was nominated as Minister by the
President to attend a brainstorming workshop on Thursday 8th October
2015 at the White House Hotel in Ikeja.

At this briefing, Alhaji Lai Mohammed’s first statement was that once
he has taken office, he wishes to launch a change campaign entitled,
“Change begins with me.” It was Centerspread and my task to develop
the communications campaign and strategy, following an in-depth
briefing which we received at this session. I have irrefutable
evidence in the form of emails that two days later (10th October
2015), I sent the entire strategy document to Alhaji Lai Mohammed
detailing the first stage of the communications plan. In this email
(and I am more than happy to send it to anyone who so wishes), it is
entitled (in capital letters, CHANGE BEGINS WITH ME).

By 30th October of 2015, the entire 1st generation creative work was
sent to Alhaji Lai Mohammed which included the first created logo,
artwork, jingles and TVC concepts. A month later, both agencies
attended a presentation session at Radio House in Abuja where two
campaigns were presented to a contingent of more than 100 people of
the Ministry of Information and Culture which included NTA, FRCN and
NOA and again it was clearly and unambiguously stated that the
campaign was “Change begins with me.” Over the ensuing weeks following
this initial presentation, the Honourable Minister repeatedly
mentioned the impending campaign by its name and it was duly reported
in the media. Further still, on Sunday 24th January 2016 at the
Southern Sun Hotel in Ikoyi, the Honourable Minister presented the
campaign to all major artists and personalities who included King
Sunny Ade, Pasuma, MI, Don Jazzy, P Square, Mo Abudu and many others.
This again was public knowledge and can be verified here:
https://www.facebook.com/FMINigeria/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1062296580489916

Having said this, what is conspicuous by its absence is any form of
complaint or utterance by anyone whatsoever to the plethora of public
information espoused directly by the Honourable Minister to argue that
the concept of ‘Change begins with me’ belongs to him or her. However,
they waited for the campaign to be launched officially by the
President before making spuriously claims that the Honourable Minister
plagiarised their so-called concept and appropriated their supposed
intellectual property.

NOTHING WAS PLAGIARISED BECAUSE NONE OF THOSE MAKING THE RIDICULOUS
CLAIM ADMITTED MEETING ALHAJI LAI MOHAMMED ON ANY PROPOSAL BEFORE HE
WAS NOMINATED AND SWORN INTO OFFICE. YET, IT IS ON RECORD, AS I STATED
IN THE STATEMENT, THAT THE WHOLE ‘CHANGE BEGINS WITH ME’ CONCEPT WAS
FORMULATED AND CONCLUDED LONG BEFORE THE MINISTER WAS SWORN INTO
OFFICE IN NOVEMBER 2015.

The irrefutable evidence to attest to all these facts are available
and only confirms this position. The facts speak for themselves and,
in my opinion, all those who are making these specious claim need to
urgently apologise to the Minister.

Brian e Ebden
Marketing Communications Consultant
Lagos