Why do our political parties logos suck?

Politics is a dreary affair in Nigeria and the logos of political parties are even duller.

The logo of the ruling party All Progressives Congress (APC) is a broom stuck in the middle of a flag green, white, blue and red colours. The significance of the broom is that the APC is going to sweep away the corruption and dirt of the previous ruling class.

There is still a lot of corruption and dirt in the land. Maybe if the APC had chosen a vacuum cleaner as its logo, things might be moving faster in Aso Rock.

If the APC logo sucks, the logo of the Peoples Democratic Party is classically unimaginative. For 16 years, Nigerians were haunted by the green, white and red umbrella with a boring black PDP font stamped on it.

The person behind this logo did not even bother to think outside of the box. The PDP is bland and the significance of the umbrella is lost on many people.

It wouldn't be surprising that the 'contract' to design the PDP logo would have cost millions but a party chieftain might have syphoned the money and paid a poorly talented graphic designer peanuts who came up with the horrible logo.

The logos of the 1993 parties, Social Democratic Party and National Republican Convention were much better. The SDP logo was a horse. The NRC logo was an eagle- which more or less is the official animal of Nigeria.

Both animals feature on the Nigerian coat of arms. This was a time the Nigerian political system wanted to imitate the American democratic system which has two major parties- The Democratic Party and the Republican Party. It should be noted that the symbols or logos of these two parties are also animals, a donkey and an elephant also.

The present crop of political parties' logos is nothing to write home about. APGA is a chicken and the logo of PDM is a torchlight.

If visual branding says a lot about a brand (see Nike, Apple, Coca-Cola and Virgin) then it is safe to come to the conclusion that these political parties we have in Nigeria are mediocre.