Between Soludo and Maku: Failure of public relations

These are valid questions from an unwarranted quarter. The former CBN chief was either being out rightly mischievous or patriotically concerned at the drift. Some may even suggest that he is missing the perks of his former office and that his snazzy suits are perhaps getting too big for his new frame.Soludo is anything but […]

These are valid questions from an unwarranted quarter. The former CBN chief was either being out rightly mischievous or patriotically concerned at the drift. Some may even suggest that he is missing the perks of his former office and that his snazzy suits are perhaps getting too big for his new frame.
Soludo is anything but popular either within or outside the corridors of power. He is at war with his sister-in-law, Dora Akunyili over issues which only a close-door family meeting with the elders could help unravel and resolve. With the Yar’adua/Jonathan regime he could not claim to be a friend, because if he was, they would not have removed him and stopped him from getting the Anambra guber slot using the popular PDP machinery. His outburst, quite frankly is an unconvincing effort by an ex-economic manager of the reviled Obasanjo administration to rewrite history and FEC’s reaction through Labaran Maku is not unexpected given Nigerian government’s penchant for disapproving of the capacity of old brooms.

In demonstrating how much it is unlikely to take even valid criticism, the Jonathan government, through Maku passed a strong warning to Soludo’s ilk, to wit, that their vitriol would not be tolerated by a rogue system struggling to legitimise itself. It is a civil way of paraphrasing Buhari’s infamous remarks that he would tamper with the freedom of expression albeit without the despotic gusto! Even in a pseudo-democracy that is prevailing, that is an ominous sign indeed except that the critical Nigerian masses are used to swimming against the current of present day political wizardry. In its itch to tackle Soludo, Maku failed to address the serious charges but sought to rubbish the messenger. It is the kind of faux pas that journalists resort to when they suddenly find themselves in public relations’ roles for which they are not thematically suited.
For a country with a robust public relations resource, it is often appalling to see how the nation is usually a public relations disaster. Such outbursts show that the average government public relations manager thinks less like a median than a dictator. Ignoring the so-called Soludo Treatise would have been an easy way out if government has no valid arguments to neutralise its veracity. Accepted that the Obasanjo era did not take Nigeria out of the woods economically, but in comparison against the profligacy of the present day, it made a damn good effort. A thematic comparison of what happened under the Obasanjo era and that of the Yar’adua/Goodluck era would reveal that while the former extricated Nigeria from external debt, the latter has plunged us back with nothing concrete to show for it. While the former reportedly left a N22 billion of crude earnings, the latter has depleted that sum. While the former claimed to have grown the economy by between 4-6% per annum, this is not growing anything and its current slogan of vote me for my tribe and not my capacity is no reassuring response.
If the Jonathan government were to tackle Soludo’s records, it ought to have done so with facts and figures and not with veiled threats to unleash the dogs on Soludo for allegedly laying the foundation for the current rot. If it had evidence to proof such, Soludo ought to be in the slammer, where most actors of the present-day system belong anyway. By threatening to quiz Soludo, this re-election seeking regime has lost a unique opportunity to sell itself again based on its records of achievements as against banal sentiments.
For public relations nymphs, it is usually disturbing how the Nigerian government and its organs are a public relations failure at critical times. A fire-fighter at the scene of an inferno quickly rules out foul play or blames electric sparks for an obvious work of arson! A murder investigator quickly concludes that the killing of a senior SSS officer, his wife and three solid children was the sole handiwork of a demented son. A minister quickly comes up with the assertion that a critical organ of government is insolvent and then a public relations officer of an agency under him tries to tackle him followed by three fellow ministers and then a demotion to a less-critical ministry leading to a resignation. All public relations disasters showing that the ruling class sees its citizenry as unsophisticated and gullible.

Government people and their media minders have demonstrated that they do not appraise critical public opinion or that they have no capacity to critically react to them. Government should have a crisis management plan showing the hierarchy of authority and how it devolves. Second, no journalist should assume capacity to handle public relations issues without a formal training. No head of an agency or parastatal should think himself qualified to handle the public or the media without commensurate training and experience. Luckily, there are crash programmes both locally and internationally to which such public officers could apprentice themselves and safe us these goofs and gaffes.