Nigeria’s former ambassador to the United Kingdom, Dr Christopher Kolade has condemned the poor quality of communication emanating from the Presidency, citing the “rodents” issue as an example of “unedifying communication”.
Kolade, former Chairman of Cadbury Nigeria and former chancellor of Pan Atlantic University, Lagos, spoke on “The Pursuit of Excellence” at the first annual lecture of the Cadbury Nigeria Alumni Association, a gathering of former employees of the FMCG firm.
Kolade decried the regression of professionalism across many sectors in Nigeria, citing lack of trust as one of the factors for the continued strikes across many areas.
Kola, a renowned communication professional and former Director General of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, NBC, stated that “We should not be too embarrassed to mention the shortage of excellence in the quality of communication in governance, as we recall that, not too long ago, the nation’s President arrived back from overseas, and decided that he would work from home for a few days.
“Why did anyone have to explain that to us? The President’s home in this context is only a few metres away from his office, and he, like you and me, is eminently free to decide where he will physically sit for the successful performance of his duties.
“Someone had to offer us the explanation that rodents had displaced our head of state from his exalted office space, for the maintenance of which the nation makes generous allocations of human and financial resources in every annual budget! Would the announcer of that information proudly display that to other members of his professional constituency as an example of best practice in edifying communication?,” asks Kolade.
He attributed the strikes in the education, health and other sectors to the absence of trust and abundance of bad faith.
“Neither side has any confidence that the other will fulfil the terms of the agreement to which they append their signatures. When good faith departs, everyone looks bad! Indeed, as we can now testify, the constant practice of bad faith encourages even eminently qualified professionals to betray their commitment to best practice and professional excellence!”
Kolade decried the regression in various areas of national life in Nigeria and a departure from the pursuit of excellence in public life.
“Today we seem to be going through experiences that challenge our claim to excellence. Look wherever you like in our nation, and the pursuit of excellence seems to have lost much steam. How do we explain the prevalence of divisive, tension-generating rhetoric that some have labelled hate-speech?
“How has it become a regular occurrence for cattle rearers to drive their animals into private farmlands, and even into school classrooms, where they interrupt the education of our children and put the economy of the nation in jeopardy?
“Why are we not disturbed that, in competing with one another in the arena of good governance, one former President gleefully informs us, through the media, that corruption in the time of his successor has become far worse than it was in his time?”
He blamed “self-induced confusion” for the poor results. “We know what a performance of excellence should look like. We even make the right provision in our Constitution for people to perform excellently.
“Our National Anthem and National Pledge provide strong reminders of the fact that we need the help of Almighty God if we are to be successful. We do a great deal to frustrate the very wise provisions that we have made”, Kolade stated.
