Whereas Dame Patience Jonathan had nine operations and was in coma for a week in a German hospital, the Presidency repeatedly lied about her whereabouts; exposing the government to public ridicule.
The recent disclosure by First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan that it is only due to divine intervention that she is still alive today bears closer examination in the wake of the controversy that surrounded her health status and eventual hospitalization twice, in Germany. Mrs. Jonathan, who spoke at a praise and thanksgiving ceremony she hosted at the Presidential Villa chapel, Abuja, said she had nine surgeries and was in coma for one week; which necessitated her almost three-month absence from the country.
The First Lady said doctors had given up hope on her; she died and woke up during the period of her ailment, adding that some of her aides, who had written her off, began selling her properties. Nigerians must be wondering why the government they elected into office chose to lie to them that the First Lady was holidaying abroad when indeed she was gravely ill in a foreign hospital. The media had given various reasons for her absence. But the Presidency denied the “satanic rumors” and poured scorn on the media and the imaginary enemies of the government, even asking God to strike them with Holy Ghost fire for propagating the wicked rumors! This was sheer nonsense.
In one of the many rebuttals in the heat of the illness saga, the First Lady’s Spokesperson, Ayo Osinlu, told Nigerians that Mrs. Jonathan travelled abroad to “rest,” given that she had not taken a rest since President Jonathan’s election. On his part, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, dismissed Mrs. Jonathan’s reported illness as a rumor, saying “there is nothing like that.” Amid all the denials, the President himself maintained a stoic mien and carried on with his duties as if all was well, thereby lending credibility to the lies and deceit.
And this brings us to the crux of the matter: why did all the special advisers in the Presidency; some of them seasoned journalists and professional communicators fail to feed the public with credible information about Mrs. Jonathan’s whereabouts? There were questions awaiting official and credible answers. Where was the president’s wife? Was she on holidays? Was she sick? If so, in which country and in which hospital was she receiving treatment? If she took ill, the Presidency should have managed the situation more effectively by releasing that information quickly. Mrs. Jonathan is human. As a human being, she is likely to suffer occasional bouts of ill health. There is nothing in human nature that says our First Lady cannot fall ill.
The rumors about Mrs. Jonathan’s whereabouts developed and worsened because the Presidency failed to clear the fog of uncertainty about her whereabouts. In the absence of official information, the public decided to invent answers to the same questions the Presidency refused to address. Now that Mrs. Jonathan herself has broken the jinx over her illness, the president must review promptly how his close collaborators mishandled the situation. That review must consider lessons in Damage Control and Crisis Communication 101. Reuben Abati as a media savvy communicator should know better!
A number of lessons must be learnt from this experience. Nigerians are not a cohort of kindergarten kids who can be fooled with impunity; the presidency must treat the country with respect. There is nothing sacred about the health of the president or his wife. The president’s wife like the President himself is a public figure, at least in her capacity as first lady. A public figure enjoys limited privacy. If Mrs. Jonathan is in poor health, it is in the public interest to inform the nation. In the absence of credible information from the Presidency, the public invented rumors to satisfy their appetite for official information. That is one problem you must deal with when you allow rumor to evolve. A culture of secrecy undermines rather than enhances the image of the government. Rumor thrives when official sources of information are sealed or corrupted.
In a marketplace of ideas, particularly one dominated by skepticism, getting the public to accept official explanation is nearly impossible. In a country where the citizens are distrustful of their leaders, official explanations are usually dismissed as propaganda. The culture of secrecy poses a major challenge to mind managers at the Presidency. In their role as information fire fighters, presidential spin doctors have to grapple regularly with how to deny or explain rumors that have appeared in the media in a way that will make their version of events meaningful and believable to a cynical public. Nigerians are cynical of government not only because of their failure to fulfill election promises; but also because of their sustained record of lies telling.
It was high time the Presidency recognize that the days are over when it was easy to fool most of the people most of the time. All Special Advisers on Media and Publicity in the Presidency – Reuben Abati, Doyin Okupe; must hold their heads up in shame and take responsibility for the unprofessional and cavalier manner in which the Presidency mismanaged information about Mrs. Jonathan’s whereabouts.
Huhuonline.com Editorial
