OF all the existential crises that have tried the soul of Nigeria, especially since the present democratic dispensation, the ugly events and baroque twists of the past few weeks, are beyond doubt, the most dismaying and heartbreaking. If what happened were scripted into a movie, it might well be a blockbuster, a box office success. It’s an engrossing and disturbing scenes all over. Only the strong and extremely courageous will withstand to watch till the end all the terrifying scenes. And you begin to ask: how come that #EndSARS movement that began so peacefully, reportedly so well-organised with legitimate demands, and commended by all, in and outside the country, suddenly turned into absolute mayhem and wanton destruction of lives and property across the states?
Wherever you look, Lagos, Edo, Abuja, Ondo, Osun, Anambra, Imo, Cross River, Rivers, Plateau, Akwa Ibom, Kaduna, Kwara, Ebonyi, Enugu, and many other states, it was simply a period of rage, confusion and anarchy of unprecedented scale. It was like scenes from Rwanda of the nineties. Exactly what went wrong in the last few weeks in different places in the country, and how hoodlums took over the peaceful protests, destroying lives, private and public infrastructure, will take some months of investigations to unearth all the details. That’s one angle of the big picture.
And what about President Muhamnadu Buhari’s much-anticipated but belated nationwide broadcast of October 22? It may sound hokey to some, but it is compelling that for a nation trapped inside a bubble, exhausted by rage and chaos for weeks, and considering the damage to private property and public infrastructure, and in particular, the reported massacre of innocent protesters at Lekki Tollgate in Lagos by military officials, a call for the president to address the nation was important. At such critical moment, a prompt presidential address was expedient for what it ought to be : a window into the mind of the man leading your nation. That’s when the citizens need assurance of hope that, in spite of all that had happened, we must prevail. Promptness and appropriate timing are important components of a presidential address in time of crisis. The temper of the times requires it. But these requirements, as we have seen, are none of the President’s virtues. He has always been too slow to respond to emergency situations. He’s also thin-skinned when it comes to comments about his style of leadership.
Apology for any wrong or mistake is something President Buhari hardly does. When, finally, his nationwide broadcast came, many said it did not come with a goodness of heart. That it was not anywhere reconciliatory. He did not hit right on the nose. He started well, but when it appeared he was capturing the essence of the moment, he pulled back with a threat when what was needed was compassion and empathy. As his supporters have often said, President Buhari may have tremendous moral strength, but he has never been an exemplar of empathy and humility. There were claims in the president’s broadcast that were not necessary, even if they were true. Take, for instance, when he said, “No Nigerian government in the past has methodically and seriously approached poverty alleviation like we have done”. If this government did, why then has Nigeria remained the “poverty capital of the world”? Why is it that youth unemployment still remains frighteningly high? Why so much hunger in the land? Why is inflation and prices of food items on the rise?
All of this leads to one vital question : When should a president, indeed, a leader apologize and when not? For weeks, I have been trying to find out why this president finds it difficult to say sorry or apologize for some mistakes made under his watch. I found the answer. To paraphrase American presidential historian, Robert A. Caro, ‘when a leader gets enough power, when he doesn’t need anybody anymore- he’s president… then we can see how he always wanted to treat people, and we can also see – by watching what he does with power – what he wanted to accomplish all along’. I find this very correct with president Buhari. Power is like a bikini, it reveals more than it can hide. If Buhari was not president, I believe he would have been one of the individuals to condemn the reported killings of harmless protesters at Lekki tollgate. This is much true: A leader’s apology, as Barbara Kellerman, a former research director of the Centre for Public Leadership at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts said, “is a performance in which every expression matters and every word becomes part of the public record”.
If you read the apology of the vice president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo over government’s silence and failure to do enough to stop police brutality before now, you would understand the essence of compassion and empathy. The same with that of Govs Sanwo-Olu of Lagos state and Ben Ayade of Cross River, you will understand that even though leadership could be a thankless job, both men expressed contrition in the face of unwarranted provocation by In fact, sometimes leaders even apologize for ‘sins’ to which they personally have no connection.
Ideally, apologies can serve four purposes. These include individual purpose, where the leader publicly aplogises to encourage followers to forgive and forget. Second, is institutional purpose where the leader publicly apologises to restore the group’s internal cohesion and external reputation, third is intergroup purpose where the leader apologises to repair relations with injured parties, and finally, moral apology where forgiveness and redemption are sought by the leader. Instructively, the first three purposes are strategic. The last purpose is said to be authentic, while institutional apology is often political. That’s why President Buhari deemed it necessary last year to apologise for the annulment of June 12, Presidential election, 26 year after it took place.
What it means is that when leaders publicly offer apologies that are both timely and good, those apologies will have positive effect. There’s no evidence of a good apology that backfired, experts say. And, you then ask: why did President Buhari refuse to apologize for the Lekki tollgate killings, allegedly done by the military, or why did former president Olusegun Obasanjo, refuse to apologize for the Odi killings during his presidency, even when it had been proven that public apology seems to be in order? Their reasons can be personal or institutional.
However, those who have refused to apologize are said to be afraid that the admission of a mistake or wrongdoing will damage or destroy the group or organization for which they are responsible. Does that mean, for instance, that the military high command would not have been happy if the president and Commander in chief had apologised for the Lekki tollgate killings? I don’t know. But, I do know, based on research that for some leaders, apologising in public is never easy. Reason : they want to be seen always as heroes when things go right – and not scapegoats when things go wrong. Altogether, how best to apologize depends on the nature of the situation.
But one thing is clear: the acceptance of responsibility or an expression of regret – is better than nothing. It helps to heal the wounds, the pains and anguish suffered during crisis. That’s what Osinbajo did. That’s what Sanwo-Olu did. It came from the depth of their hearts, not from the head. If we must grow great leaders in our country, our leaders at all levels must learn how to acknowledge the mistake or wrongdoing, even when it was not committed by them. Calm, positive words soothe frayed nerves. The world has changed greatly, and leaders should no longer see the world in zero-sum terms. That’s one of the lessons the #EndSARS protests has taught us.