By Jerome-Mario Chijioke Utomi
Back in the days, as an undergraduate interested in nation-building and enthronement of true political leadership in Nigeria, I cherished two leadership recruitment quotes.
The first is from the United States of America born Jim Collins, a very strong human resource development expert and the other from Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, an Italian diplomat, author, philosopher and historian who lived during the Renaissance and best known for his political treatise, “The Prince”, written in about 1513 but not published until 1532.
While Jim Collins believes that the first responsibility of a great leader is to find the right people as the success of every administration depends, to a large extent, on the quality of the people in charge, Machiavelli, in a similar style, is of the view that the first opinion that is formed of a leader’s intelligence is based on the quality of men he has around him. When they are competent and loyal, he can always be considered wise because he has been able to recognize their competence and to keep them loyal. But when they are otherwise, the ruler is always open to adverse criticism because his first mistake has been in the choice of his ministers.
This whole idea recently played out during an enriching conversation with Olisa Ifejika, the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta state.
The imperativeness of the conversation was predicated on the urgent need to separate facts from fictions and assumptions in ways that will assist douse, among Deltans, conflicting reactions and utter confusion occasioned by the public’s asymmetrical interpretations, misunderstanding of some recent government policies in the state education sector.
Aside from being frank and factual, Ifejika, in the course of our conversation, demonstrated an understanding that viable democracy has its locale in openness, reliability, appropriateness, responsiveness and the two-way nature of the communication environment.
Remarkably, through his openness, the conversation became more revealing than expected, producing three sets of related results.
First and very fundamental, he cleared the thick cloud that has enveloped the state in the wake of the government’s new education policy.
Ifejika deftly cleared innuendos, insinuations and half-truths that heralded the rumoured hike in school fees in the state.
His flowery but in-depth dissection of the issues has gone a long way in restoring the healthy and friendly relationship between the government and Deltans.
Secondly, by his seamless clarification of critical issues, Ifejika, unlike most image-makers notorious for hoarding information, firmly presents Governor Okowa as a great, visionary and proactive leader who picks the right people and gives them the right positions.
Thirdly, like Machiavelli, Ifejika’s humble and friendly disposition which complimented each other and made it very easy for me to be at ease in his presence even as that was the maiden meeting, more than anything else, speaks volumes of Okowa’s intelligence and wisdom. Professionally, Ifejika exudes confidence and competence.
As a former Deputy Editor at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), his and other professionals’ presence in the Okowa government attests to the quality of men the Governor parades as aides.
It is, therefore, evident that Okowa recognizes competence and quality for the overall good of Delta.
Reasons this piece largely borders on Ifejika and his principal, Governor Okowa’s character trait can be gleaned from the 1978 highly influential ‘Mexican statement’, of the World Public Relations professionals where the group defined Public Relations as “the art and social science of analysing trends, predicting their consequences, counselling organisation leaders and implementing planned programmes of action which will serve both organization’s and the public interest.’
Essentially, aside from the age-long belief that proper information management is the life wire of good governance, by communicating to Deltans the work and policies of the government, the Chief Press Secretary leaves one with the exhilarating conviction that he is not a fifth columnist in the fourth estate of the realm or a propagandist masquerading as a journalist but a seasoned information manager, one at home with the ‘art and science of analysing trends and predicting consequences.
Viewed broadly, why his openness is commendable is that it is coming at a time when most of the government spokespersons in Nigeria are capped with the attributes of Paul Joseph Goebbels, a German Nazi politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.
He was one of Adolf Hitler’s closest and most devoted associates and was known for his skills in public speaking and his deeply virulent anti-Semitism, which was evident in his publicly voiced views.
This unsettling posture by some government spokespersons has turned their exalted positions to platforms for fierce political and ideological warfare in ways that negate our rationality as human beings.
A great amount of innocent human character has been spilt, wars of words waged, countless souls persecuted and martyred. Spokespersons have in recent times failed to communicate noble ideas and ideals.
This consequence of their failures is responsible for the reason anarchy presently prevails in the country and accounts, to an extent, why Nigerians daily diminish and are impoverished.
For example, instead of telling their principals what the real issues are or encouraging them to keep promises that gave them victory at the polls, curtail the challenges confronting the people, and promote consensus politics, some spokespersons, to impress, encourage divisiveness, uphold autocratic tendencies, and promote media trial of political opponents.
In most cases, they become propagandists using radio, television and the internet as outlets to relentlessly false feed the people.
Each time some of these spokespersons are faced with embarrassing facts about their principals, they fall back on data that is hardly objective, generating inferences that can never be described as explicit. They hardly pick calls or respond to inquiries from journalists, broadcasters, development practitioners and the information-seeking public despite the existence of the Freedom of Information Act which was signed into law on May 28, 2011, by the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
Some government spokespersons want to suppress and control the media organizations and watch over journalists- the real watchdogs of the society.
While I, sympathizes with the awkward position some of these spokespersons are placed particularly as communication from public officials are self-undermining and often reputed for encouraging complacency among citizens, I, however, believe that finding solutions to the unwelcoming information management style by some image-makers will have far-reaching effects on both the public officials and the entire Nigerians as every decision they make requires a value judgment as different decisions bring different results.
This is precisely what the Job of a government spokesperson should focus on, and a lesson others in similar positions must lesson.
I, therefore, suggest that spokespersons in Nigeria’s political space must learn from Governor Okowa’s Chief Press Secretary, Ifejika, a thorough breed professional and a consummate information manager.
Utomi Jerome-Mario is the Programme Coordinator (Media and Public Policy), Social and Economic Justice Advocacy (SEJA), a Lagos-based Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). He can be reached via [email protected]/08032725374
