Symbolism matters in
leadership. Many members of the Nigerian ruling class do not realize this. In
three weeks of being acting president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has not done anything
substantively different from what President Buhari has been doing for almost
two years. He has not healed a broken economy, tamed inflation, stemmed the
collapse of the naira, improved power, or engineered a miraculous
infrastructural renaissance. Nor has he dealt a final, decisive blow on Boko
Haram. In other words, he has not changed the governing paradigm of the
APC/Buhari administration and has thus not fundamentally altered how the
administration is perceived and evaluated. It is still a calamitous
administration on several fronts.
What the Acting President
has done however is to introduce a new temperament into governance, a new
civility, a new ability to clearly articulate the trajectory and anticipated
outcomes of governing decisions. Whether you agree or disagree with the
decisions, the new clarity is refreshing. As is the new decisiveness, a marked
contrast to the indecision and delay that reigned prior. More importantly,
Professor Osinbajo has brought a tone of empathy and humility into presidential
pronouncements. He has brought a culture of outreach, conciliation, and
deliberation to the management of the familiar tensions and fault lines of the
country; a new sensitivity and a willingness to listen rather than lecture.
When Buhari granted
interviews to local journalists, he sounded irritated at being asked questions
bordering on his obligatory accountability to the Nigerian people. He would get
angry, bark answers, adopt a self-righteous, preachy tone. Everything was
always somebody else's fault; he never took responsibility for anything. When
he was not delivering a sermon to Nigerians on what they were doing wrong and
what they should be doing, he would rant about the previous administration, his
favorite scapegoat for all that ails Nigeria, and about those who
"destroyed Nigeria." He acted, talked, and carried himself as though
he was doing Nigerians a favor by being their president. There was always an
arrogant, insensitive aloofness when he spoke about the mess his administration
has created. He seemed to be trafficking in alternative facts and inhabiting a
different universe. On the unprecedented level of suffering in the country,
Buhari came across as blaming Nigerians, their consumption choices, and their
impatience. He would snarl at any suggestion that he has anything to do with
the suffering or that it is his job to alleviate it.
Osinbajo in the other hand
has been humble, sensitive, paternal, empathetic, and lucid. Buhari adopted an
attitude of insult, infantilization, and blame toward the Niger Delta.
Osinbajo's words toward the same region has been marked by sympathetic
understanding. What's more, instead of dismissing and antagonizing nationally
controversial but locally beloved regional flamethrowers like Wike as Buhari has
done, Osinbajo has reached out to them.
Whereas Buhari was in the
habit of dismissively infantilizing Biafra agitators and angrily scolding the
Igbo with outbursts such as the infamous "what do the Igbo want?,"
Osinbajo has adopted a more respectful tone in dealing with the Southeast. When
the #IstandwithNigeria protests occurred recently, Osinbajo tweeted and granted
interviews in which he expressed sympathy with the marchers and with Nigerians
who are suffering and groaning in this recessed economy. Unlike Buhari, he
acknowledged that Nigerians deserve better, that the government takes
responsibility for the situation, and that it is its job to bring relief and
recovery. Buhari would have responded to the protests with his usual angry,
grumpy dismissal of the marchers. He would have called them impatient and
compromised by corruption. His minions, knowing how their principal would have
reacted, organized a counter protest in Abuja and took to multiple media
platforms to insult and smear Nigerians who protested or expressed solidarity
with the protesters.
We wish President Buhari a
total and speedy recovery. He will get well soon and return to the country and
it would be a relief to the country, a happy occasion to douse the current
tension surrounding his absence. However, when he returns, he needs to take a
cue or two from his Vice President, who has shown that, no matter how bad
things are, symbolic gestures can go a long way, that no matter how divided the
country may be, empathy and sensitivity can heal some of the divide. Osinbajo's
three weeks in charge has shown how Buhari missed several opportunities to
bring the country together in the wake of the 2015 election and instead
deepened our fissures with his clannish, arrogant, self-righteous anger and
sense of infallibility. Osinbajo has shown that, sometimes, no matter how
ferocious the agitation may be, a leader cannot and should not take it
personal, and that in some cases what the agitators are looking for is simply
to be heard, to be shown empathy.
Comments
Post a Comment