The speech that sank the nation

When a leader runs from talking to his people, it smirks of cowardice, incompetence and a huge lack of empathy and this is what our dear President Muhammadu Buhari exemplified. He showed disgust, disdain and utter disregard for the Nigerian people and their agitation.

IN times of crisis, history has always confirmed that the measure of a leader’s character and reliability can be judged by when and how he speaks. When a leader misses the opportunity to speak to his/her followers at the right time and with the right words, then he or she has arrived at a place of monocracy and might soon slide into a place of pseudo-relevance.

In times of crisis, speaking is a major form of leadership, because this act alone helps your followers to measure your character, helps them to test your empathy, helps them to question your integrity and it also helps them to give you sincere and very often painful feedbacks which are essential for the calibration of the soul of any leader.

In the present American context, one thing you can’t take away from their jumpy President is how he speaks a lot and directly to the American people, and this has helped the average American to be able to judge for themselves what kind of man he is and if he can be trusted or not. The verdict for this measure by the American people as we all know will be cast on November 3, 2020 (the American election).

When a leader runs from talking to his people, it smirks of cowardice, incompetence and a huge lack of empathy and this is what our dear President Muhammadu Buhari exemplified. He showed disgust, disdain and utter disregard for the Nigerian people and their agitation. Before the president could speak to Nigerians, every institution in the Nigerian democracy asides the judiciary had to beg for the speech, the nation was at the brink of chaos and the man who should primarily be our Servant-in-Chief relaxed like Nigerians voted for his appointees – their spin couldn’t even save that shame.

The fateful night of President Buhari’s disastrous speech, the nation was already in a state of turmoil and depression, the fear in the air was palpable and everyone needed a leader to rise like Winston Churchill, but no, the leader we have sat and read to us a speech that sank the nation in 12 minutes.

How low did the nation sink? That evening, I walked down the street of my estate and it was unusually so dark and deserted and all I could hear from different flats were shouts and sounds of curses and anguish. Every young friend or family member began strategising from that night how they could leave Nigeria for Canada or the United Kingdom – the nation groaned loudly and for days, we could barely breathe.

That night, my expectation was that Nigerians at home and abroad deserved a better speech but the president and his aides excitedly gave Nigeria an awful, insensitive, and reluctant speech effectively denying everyone that inspired optimism and trust. The patronising aides of the president were expecting Nigerians to be grateful that the president who should serve us spoke to us.

Words are powerful, words are creative, words are made, words are born – great leaders immemorial have always harnessed the leadership power of speaking directly to the people in times of crisis and your ability to wield this weapon can be the difference between salvaging a crisis or making it worse. Terrible speeches are a disgrace to the person who read it and to the office they represent; we will never forget in a hurry the day our president’s lack-lustre speech sank the nation.

Haastrup is a Management, Leadership and Communication Consultant. He is the Lead Consultant for StevenHaastrup Consulting Ltd, Lagos and Abuja.