In a speech delivered at the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN), fellows’ forum  in Lagos, on March 25, 2009, the President and Chairman of the governing council of NIMN,

Chief Lugard Aimiuwu, reiterated the commitment of the council to repositioning the marketing institute as a veritable catalyst for strategic transformation.

Not a few believe that the former UAC marketing director was only stating the obvious, since the activities of the council, ever since the re-launch of the institute in October 9, 2008, had been geared towards putting the marketing institute on a pedestal of success.

Prior to this period, the institute had been embroiled in squabbles, between two opposing groups about which of the groups had the right to the control and regulation of the practice in the country, culminating in two different marketing institutions running the same practice. It was, therefore, a big relief for stakeholders in the industry, who would not want to be associated with a fragmented body, when the peace accord was eventually brokered between Chief Sylva Emoekpere and Mr. Ganiyu Koledoye, the two warlords that had been at loggerheads.

‘’We decided to sack ourselves to give peace a chance. It was rare and difficult, but Koledoye and I believe that the sacrifice was necessary to move the institute and the marketing profession forward,’’ explained Chief Sylva Emoekpere, in one of his post-reconciliation interviews granted to the Nigerian Tribune.

Koledoye, now the institute’s vice-president, promised to abide by the agreement reached at the reconciliation meetings as long as it would positively rub off on the practice, thus signaling the hope for a true reconciliation.

But while the bickering lasted, many felt that the marketing profession in the country had actually been the proverbial grass that suffered. For instance, the fact that marketing practitioners were not contacted at the formative stages of the ‘Re-branding Nigeria’ project was one of the immediate fall-outs of the protracted wrangling.

‘’Ordinarily, we should have been at the forefront of the ‘Re-branding Nigeria’ project since it is about marketing Nigeria to the outside world, but for the situation in the practice then,’’ stated a practitioner, who would not want his name in print.

‘’Besides,’’ he continued, ‘’the body could not make its input to the Federal Government’s seven-point agenda then because it was a house divided against itself.’’

But the election of Chief Aimiuwu, a transformation strategist and marketing planner, as the president and chairman of council of the institute at the unifying extra-ordinary general meeting of all the members of the erstwhile fragmented institute, held on 29th August, 2008, had brought a soothing relief to the frayed nerves of marketing professionals in the country.

For instance, one of the highlights of the administration has been the commencement of true reconciliation, when it actually came out with a recertification and re-orientation programme, where certificates earlier issued by the two marketing groups were replaced by a new one issued from the institute. Stakeholders believe that the single act had gone a long way in bonding the products of the hitherto warring marketing bodies; since they now see themselves as belonging to one professional body – the NIMN. In the past, the fierce battle for supremacy between the two groups had affected their products.

Besides, the former president of the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) has never minced words in his belief that the profession had come to stay in the country. And, one of the his reference points had been the accreditation of its courses by the Federal Ministry of Education, in December 2008, which had further enhanced its status.

But, in spite of all these feats, experts believe it is not yet Uhuru for the fast-recuperating marketing institute. One of their fears is hinged on the fact that the institute, as it is today, currently thrives on the clout of the incumbent president, since he has been able to use his vast connection in the marketing world to attract enormous goodwill to the institute.