The emotionless president
President Muhammadu Buhari PHOTO: BAYO OMOBORIOWO
Sir: Managing emotions is an art that is difficult to hone especially since most teachers of emotions management do not emphasize on the part of the brain responsible for emotions: the limbic system when coaching people.
Emotions management is a process which by the way needs constant practice, reaffirmations for the right actions, responses to be ingrained; they instead teach management of emotions via the Neocortex system.
Unlike other politicians in this fourth republic, President Muhammadu Buhari is not highly emotive. He allows situations to run their course without interference. A president must not act on feelings right away; he has to use few words to describe how he feels by choosing an appropriate time to communicate.
But a manager of emotions must not deliberate for too long without action lest he is seen as weak. When a president chooses to deliberate for too long, gathering intelligence when herdsmen go agog maiming and killing, it shows the wrong management of emotions.
Management of emotions does not mean not being assertive to say no to wicked devilry. It doesn’t also mean that such manager shouldn’t be entitled to say, I feel angry, embarrassed and hurt. And to dish out orders to punish offenders of deathly acts.
We are clearly beginning to see a leader who thinks of self and not mission, a minus for a soldier. Soldiers are taught the importance of mission first, saving the mission, protecting the team and looking after themselves lastly.
Buhari looks after his interests, most of all. He kept quiet for the most part only to venture to trouble spots giving questionable off-the-cuff statements not under review here.
His belated stances on sensitive issues are becoming too burdensome. And his team members who should be sponsors of the change mantra are daily catching in on his aloof disposition to very important matters. Not long Aisha Alhassan swore allegiance to Atiku Abubakar.
A political recruiter looks at policy compatibility, ideological compatibility, competence, and loyalty. Did the recruiters get it right with Mama Taraba? The emotion president said and did nothing just like in the case of the leadership tussle in the federal parliament.
I disagree that the president is in a quandary and that he doesn’t want to alienate his support base. It doesn’t matter how long a president serves, what matters is the legacy he leaves.
How can I forget the DSS damning indictment of the EFCC chair Ibrahim Magu even when both establishments are state-run establishments? Does this teach us that the president allows people the chance to do their work mindful of the laws that established them with counter allegations against some drivers of change efforts?
This president strikes me as someone whom you can’t beg when his mind is finally made up and seems to prefer people with same mindset to work for him and advise him.
Every country is run by a group of backbenchers that many refer to as ‘the cabal’. Some call them ‘the establishment’. The establishments are people surrounded by the miasma of wealth: captains of industries, barons and baronesses, the religious, university dons, generals (serving and retired), members of the diplomatic corps etc. who are driven by the desire to protect their nest-eggs. And these nest-eggs are in all regions of the country. With them, there is nothing like the drawing of imaginary lines. What rules are interests.?
I haven’t seen this president call the bluff of the establishment players yet. Some of the players are owners of cows which are more valued in Nigeria than human lives.
• Simon Abah, wrote from Abuja
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