The Change Begins with Me campaign is already one fraught with controversy from the backlash from Nigerians over what they perceive as blame shifting to the plagiarism scandal that rocked the nation only a few days ago and it seems that it’s not over yet with reports suggesting that the campaign has gulped an astonishing $10m or N3.4bn.
In a report by The Independent, the breakdown of the cost went like this: The communication consultant headed by Brian Ebden and a company, Centerspread, who will be handling the logo, artwork, TV concepts and jingles signed a contract worth N1.7 billion with the Ministry of Information.
Civil rights groups were allegedly paid N700m to promote the campaign and big Nigerian celebrities were paid N100m to be used as the faces of the campaign.
The rest of the money was said to be used for miscellaneous things such as sponsorship of dignitaries who attended the launch, advertisements and so on.
The Independent reports that Minister for information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has so far been unavailable for comment on this matter.
This is just another hit in a campaign that has been poked full of holes by Nigerians and it is certain that this latest allegation will garner a lot of attention from Nigerians everywhere.