The original story was
that the President was on vacation in London and decided to undergo a
routine check-up there. Ordinarily, that should not give room to
controversies except for another comment that he hurriedly departed and
that the Vice President who was at this year’s World Economic Forum in
Davos, Switzerland was rushed back to stand-in.
Against the backdrop of the nation’s experience during the Presidency of
Umaru Yar’Adua, all sorts of what may have happened or not dominated
public space in the country. It was not only lay persons that became
apprehensive, even the Nigerian Medical Association(NMA) demanded to
know the current state of the President’s health adding that he does
not have doctor-patient confidentiality which can deprive his people
from knowing the sickness he was battling with.
Rather than an authoritative and well couched official statement, our
information framework became defensive making more people ask more
questions. For example, Minister Lai Mohammed told our people that
considering that many ministers were up and doing, people ought to have
known that nothing was wrong with the President.
When reminded that when the roles were reversed in the Yar’ Adua days he
led the opposition to demand a daily update on the President’s health,
he replied that whereas the late President was ill at the time, Buhari
was hale and hearty. How can a people already apprehensive, appreciate a
man reportedly hale and hearty, that doctors couldn’t discharge to
return home? Lai forgot that the handlers of Yar’ Adua gave similar
assurances that he too was well at that time.
In reality therefore, history has long conditioned Nigerians to be
sceptical of any government statement. After all, we were told during
Jonathan’s Presidency that our first lady, the famous mama peace
suspected by some people to be ill was only on vacation until the lady
returned to tell Nigerians to help her thank God for coming back to life
after 7 surgeries!
In the case of Buhari, there were credible reports which suggested that
he was fine. His only surviving elder sister, Hajiya Rakiya was reported
by the News Agency of Nigeria to be on phone with him daily. Senate
President, Bukola Saraki’s confirmation that he spoke with the President
and that the latter was in good health also doused tension, so was that
of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara.
But perhaps the best report was the visit to the President in London by
his foremost party leaders, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Bisi Akande. The
photograph showing the two leaders with Mr President was quite helpful
as it reflected the saying that power of “pictures don’t tell lies”. If
it reinforced official statements that the President would be back
sooner than Nigerians expected, our leading legislators managed to
provoke Nigerians to begin to question the exact meaning of “soon” as
the key term in our expectations.
Now, if the President would be back soon, why was it necessary for
Saraki and Dogara with whom he had allegedly spoken to visit him in
London? Was it because ‘soon’ was no longer feasible? Were they trying
to show personal closeness to the President or was it just a new wave of
collaborative federalism?
Whatever the motivation, it was a far cry from effective communication
as a panacea for public distrust of government. Our leaders must begin
to appreciate that public perceptions of issues are more readily
dependent on body language, gestures and signs rather than what is
actually said. Indeed, the recent controversy throws ample light on what
traditionally goes wrong with our government, the tendency to embrace
information dissemination in place of information management.
Government in this part of the world is fond of relying on those of us
who are eloquent and argumentative instead of those who are adept in
media management forgetting that information dissemination is no more
than parroting which can quite often be irrational.
Although Akin Oyebode is an erudite law professor and not a media
expert, he got it right on national television the other day when he
called on President Buhari to also speak with Nigerians following his
advertised telephone chat with US President Donald Trump. So, why is it
that whenever the nation feels starved of information about their
President, we often quench the thirst by hearing what the same President
said to other people? When the late President Yar’ Adua was ill,
someone organized for him to speak with the British Broadcasting
Corporation (BBC).
The truth is that no President needs to speak to more than one source as
his speech can be dubbed and shared to all sources. If our government
suspects that because of what it has turned NTA into, people may not
believe its programme content, why was the favoured Channels TV not used
to beam a short message from our President to Nigerians? Why was
public disenchantment wilfully encouraged?
The posture of the Buhari administration to governance is no doubt
commendable. Anyone who is not satisfied with how it has tackled our
hitherto pervasive insecurity is insincere. There is also hardly any
public officer today who is not careful about how he handles public
funds because of the anti-corruption stance of government.
This is therefore not an administration to be rubbished. Government must
accordingly strive to embrace a robust information management style
that can ensure effective public enlightenment and bridge the gap
between government and the people. As past presidents of the Nigerian
Guild of Editors, Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu, the two media aides of
President Buhari are strong media professionals.
This makes one suspect that their presence in the villa not
withstanding; stories on the health status of the President degenerated
into a controversy because rather than relying on their expertise, some
political actors were calling the shots on what to be said or not. Let’s
leave experts to do their work
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/02/buharis-unnecessary-health-controversy/
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/02/buharis-unnecessary-health-controversy/
The health status of
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari was the obvious issue of the moment
in the country in the last one month. Of course, being the nation’s
number one citizen, whatever concerns the President ought to interest us
all. Unfortunately, the posture of official information management on
the subject generated a high level of cynicism among the people.
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/02/buharis-unnecessary-health-controversy/
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/02/buharis-unnecessary-health-controversy/