Learning To Listen!
Between Nigeria’s history and the current carnage, so much incidences have surfaced and resurfaced amidst the critical need to bridge the missing links between the government and the governed.
The most recent of such is the #EndSARS protest that was aimed at addressing the felt brutality of the police against innocent citizens in most cases, which degenerated into what seems to have become an onslaught across the country, mostly from already infuriated citizens, who have been aggrieved over some policies which they consider suppressive.
Renowned Economist and…Prof. Patrick Utomi, throws light on the state of the nation, with regards to the current uproar, blaming the uprisings on government’s negligence.
He said, one of the Umph moments of being a scholar studying to unveil truth or learn to do things better is being faced with a real life situation in which that truth is breached, with costly consequences. I have had quite a few of those awwh and umph moments since our current serious national crisis began to unfold and escalate with the #EndSARS street campaign.
“One great lesson I see is far from being learnt from studies of leadership is that one of the greatest skills of leadership is “listening”. Simple as it seems, listening skills are not so easy to develop. At every turn in this crisis, politicians exhibited tone deafness and nd it has cost us all dearly in loss of lives, property and deepening of the trust deficit that is preventing society ownership of and identification with the direction the country should travel and develop for the good of all.
“The failure of politicians to learn to listen makes them persist in seeing citizens as either children, vassals or serfs and they, the politicians, as Parent, infallible ‘constituted authority’ or Lords of Manor, instead of agents of the people; servants with fiduciary obligation to act with utmost good intention to advance the welfare of those who have voted for them to represent those voters and act as their agents.
Utomi noted that today’s Nigerian politician completely misunderstands the agency function and it shows in the way they compensate themselves, the pensions they cook up for themselves and resources they block from having to account for, not to talk of abusive protocol and use of security agents.
“Paradoxically, it is the body of the central organ of government that should be closest to the people, the National Assembly, that symbolizes public view of our democracy as the antithesis of people serving people rather than self.
“Ironically, it is this attitude of role misunderstanding that makes for the impunity that is writ large in the land and has calcified in certain contexts Imo the institutionalized abuses that defined FSARS and made it the poster child of the unacceptable face of Law Enforcement.
“In my teaching leadership, I have particularly liked to emphasize the attribute of listening and lessons from a Harvard Business Review classic titled ‘Parables of Leadership’ written by Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, who were on the faculty at INSEAD when I was on the Advance Management Programme there in Fontenebleu, France, 30 years ago.
“The classic essay was just a repackaging of a Korean folk tale about a King who wanted his son to be the greatest ruler the world ever had. So he sent the prince to a sage to prepare him for the great assignment. The Sage’s pedagogy was a simple one. Wander the jungle and write down every sound you hear. After some iterations the prince gets it. He could hear even that which was not spoken.
“When I heard President Buhari’s Law and Order speech of October 22nd to a hurting nation that needed consoling, healing and reconciliation, I was sure he needed a retreat with the Korean sage. When Simon Lalong, the Plateau Governor spoke after a meeting of a group of governors, I heard the same problem with listening,” he said.
According to him, “the youth of Nigeria have for many seasons been crying that even though they are by far the majority, up to 70 percent of the population is under 37, many of them who went to university have not had jobs for up to 10 years and they have watched politicians carry on as ceremonial fops engaged in legal plunder raping the treasury to sustain big man habits while failing to broaden opportunity for the not so fortunate majority and using an extremely corrupt and not so civil policing system to repress them.
“FSARS and it’s previous incarnations which had come to be seen as extortion rackets provoked a social revolt when the last straw video went viral.
“To my pleasant surprise, good judgement fueled their rage and they turned to fourth Industrial Revolution, 21st century update of nonviolent protesting that would have made Mahatma Ghandi proud. They won the admiration and support of most for their comportment, tactics, strong espirit de corps and empathy for one another.
“Public Authorities said they heard them. That was good but Government missed the power of instant signaling. The young had seen promises betrayed by Government. Their teachers in the University were back and forth, as ASUU in unending wars of attrition to have yesterday’s agreements implemented. They saw the Apo killings officers escape what they believed was due justice.
The economist further stressed that the trust deficit was so deep that even though the Five of Five demand could not be reasonably expected to be implemented immediately, they were unlikely to declare victory and go home with nothing in hand.
Signaling with the suspension of some of the more offensive persons in abuse, high profile visits to victims, finding more trusted people to moderate engagement like Town Hall meetings and empathic communication would have moved things to normalcy more quickly.
“It was clear that the longer they remained on the streets a number of things could happen. Ambitious politicians could try to profit from it. People aggrieved for a variety of reasons could try to upset things by cashing in on the atmosphere of protest and discontent. Criminal elements could infiltrate the protests to make hay from disrupting the social order. Then there was also the grave danger that some governments could get impatient with daily disruptions of things and try to facilitate a resolution. It is not a well kept secret that some government ‘solve’ social problems by encouraging toughs to set fire and raze down blighted neighborhoods and get the poor out for needed gentrification. Could rogue elements in government accelerate resolution by infiltrating to paint the image of unruliness to provoke Law and Order crushing of the protests. This is where and when Government should have called itself to its constitutional role to get police to protect the demonstrators from miscreant and check possibilities of outsiders taking advantage of the protests to do damage. That failure proved very costly.
“If these possibilities stirred us in the face and were heard by power, authority figures would neither bully nor talk down at the citizens. But they did repeatedly. There were exceptions though.. They lost the chance to lead. Public authorities turned to power rather leadership. The problem with power, defined by Robert Dahl as the ability of A to make B do what B would not ordinarily want to do, is that it is clearly not a more effective and sustainable way to solve social problems,” noted Utomi.
Responding to the popular mishap during the #EndSARS protest at the Lekki Toll gateon Tuesday October 20, he submitted that the incident was predictable and avoidable.
“My literal observation of that traumatic tragedy from the deck of my home still haunts me but it is not just the voice of the #EndSARS youth that power needs to listen out for. With police standing by and doing little when the criminally minded went under the cover of the people’s rage to set public buildings ablaze and loot shops? What are the law enforcement people saying that requires a listening to?
“Even the so called hoodlums who head for food storage facilities, and those attacking institutions of justice like the courts. Can they be saying we are hungry and we are tired of living in a society where justice, like elections are rigged and go to the highest bidder.
“Let us be clear, the average Nigerian perceives power or authority as terror. Some are not sure who to trust more, the formally declared terrorist or those sworn on oath to protect them from the terrorist.
“Let us face the truth, a generation of poor governance has led us a massive underclass alienated from the state and having nothing to lose becomes available to stoke mayhem. This manifests in different ways in different parts of the country. These make the need for transformation of the economy and society a matter of grave urgency.”
Going further, Utomi advised that reform at a massive level by committted people ready to self sacrifice to see a greater tomorrow for all is an imperative of now.
“It is necessary to overcome the collapse of culture that has been manifested in ways that includes this great chasm between the people and those who govern them, a phenomenon that includes the loss of listening skills by a daily more narcissistic political class.
“Our work teaching leadership in the political arena is cut out for us. Clearly no easy road to travel even if we think we can see clearly now that the rain is gone and the the crooner Johnny Nash has passed on.
“A little practice of listening can reduce grief and enhance legacy,” he added.
Patrick Okedinachi Utomi, Political Economist and Professor of Entrepreneurship is Founder of the Centre for Values in Leadership
