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It was a “remember where you were when …?” moment: On December
11, 2008, I was standing under a palm tree in Santa Monica, California, when my
cell phone rang.

It was my brother-in-law, a Wall Street big shot
who rarely called me. “Are you sitting down?” he asked. I wasn’t. And I didn’t.
But I should have, because his next sentence made my knees wobble. “They
arrested Bernie Madoff.”

He needn’t have said another word; I knew right
away my whole investment was toast. Two weeks earlier I had doubled my stake,
having thought of Madoff’s fund as a safe haven from a nose-diving stock
market. Just that morning I had received my monthly statement showing a perky
increase; I had even called to thank my Madoff contact.

Yet during all the years I had money with Madoff,
I had a sense there was something odd about his fund. Its performance wasn’t
stellar – it was just so suspiciously steady. I had joked with friends,
“someday this will turn out to be a Ponzi scheme, but I’ll have my money out by
then.” Someday turned out to be that Thursday, two years ago.

Over the next few weeks I heard from friends and
acquaintances who had also handed their money to Madoff: Barry, Arthur, Rob,
Neil. First names only – like recovering alcoholics, Ponzi victims don’t want
to be known. The press ran articles about famous people who had been suckered,
which gave me some of that “misery loves company” relief. I can’t be that dumb,
I figured, since those people lost way more than I did.

How did this happen? I have an MBA from a
well-known Eastern business school. I had frequently read about Ponzi schemes
and was familiar with their unsustainable mathematics. I play cards and know
bluffing. But none of that saved me.

Madoff attracted people who believed in him and
who were themselves credible. My own connection to Madoff came through members
of a wealthy family who kept tens of millions of dollars in his fund for many
years. My investment was a small fraction of theirs; it felt safe to outsource
my thinking, and my investing, to them. With so much more to lose, they had to
be doing it right.

After Madoff’s arrest I was angry. I was angry
with someone who despicably stole so much from so many. I was angry with the
Securities and Exchange Commission for not having uncovered his scheme sooner,
angry with the family who put me in the investment, angry with my own family
for not having talked me out of it. But ultimately I was angry with myself. A
fool and his money are soon parted, and I was the fool.

But as happens after the death of a loved one,
the pain that followed my financial loss slowly wore off. After a few months I
came to see my Madoff experience as the penalty for sloppy judgment. Not the
scale of punishment I would have chosen, but one that left quite a lasting
impression. (Unfortunately, the pain continues for others, as witnessed by the
death of Mark Madoff, the financier’s son.)

The following year, 2009, was better. The IRS
issued a ruling on Madoff that my accountant said was the most favourable we
could have expected. And I received the biggest tax refund of my life. It
didn’t come close to recouping my losses, but at least money was coming in instead
of pouring out.

Grateful that I now had the resources to attempt
a recovery, I slowly returned to investing, knowing that sitting on cash or
putting my money into certificates of deposit would erode my capital when
interest rates inevitably rose. In the process I felt as if I was channelling
Polonius’ platitudes: Make sure the accountants are reputable, the results
transparent, insist on meeting the managers in person. Keep in mind that risk and
reward always travel together, that if something sounds too good to be true it
usually is, that the law of gravity cannot be repealed, that you’re seldom
warned the floor has just been waxed. Remember the Wizard of Oz was a phony.

Whether the stock market’s rising tide lifted my
boat or my investment decisions were particularly astute doesn’t matter: I’m
scratching my way back to where I was two years ago. More important, before
putting money into any deal, I have spent tedious hours vetting the managers,
checking references and getting greasy and grimy crawling under the hood to
understand how their business works. And today my portfolio feels like a family
album; I know every piece of it in intimate detail.

Bernie Madoff opened my eyes. I now understand
that life is a game of Minesweeper where the mines are real – and that letting
someone else play for me is a losing strategy. For that I am, I dare to say,
grateful.

Michael Kubin is a media
executive and a writer

© 2010 The New York Times

Since the result of the November 28th run-off election was made
public by the Independent Electoral Commission, outgoing President Laurent
Gbagbo has defied international pressure and is clinging tenaciously to power.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the European Union, the
United States of America, France, China and the United Nations Security Council
have all backed Alassane Ouattara, a former prime minister who was named winner
with 54.1 percent of the votes. But Gbagbo has refused to budge, preferring
instead to foist a national crisis on his country, shutting down almost all the
media in the country and closing the national borders. He has gone ahead to
swear himself in as president for another term.

During an African Development Bank meeting with civil society, I
inadvertently stepped on dangerous ground. In the course of my interventions, I
had a reason to crack a joke and made jest of the so-called “Ivorization”
policy. The immediate response I got from my predominantly Ivorien audience
shocked me and I had to quickly move over to a different topic altogether. A
colleague of mine from Mali, who knew the fragility of the situation better,
later warned me never to joke about that kind of thing during my stay.

The ‘Ivorization’ policy is a politically motivated tribalistic
policy introduced by the now 76 year old deposed former president Henri Konan
Bedie, after the death of the former president and father of Cote d’Ivoire
Felix Houphouët-boigny. Bedie’s main objective was to solidify power as
Houphouët-Boigny’s successor. The policy sought to deny Ivorien citizenship to
people who were born in and had lived in Cote d’Ivoire, but who had one or both
parents born in a neighbouring country such as Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal or
Niger Republic. It was a very unjust policy that was primarily designed to
prevent the now newly elected president Alassane Ouattara from contesting for
the presidency in July 1999 because he was a “foreigner”.

That policy made it easy for Konan Bedie, who was then President
of Parliament to retain presidency of the country in a flawed election process.

The cancerous consequences of that single virulent political
seed has followed that country ever since. It metamorphosed into bitter
divisions that ended up in an armed conflict in 2002 after President Gbagbo
continued with ethnocentric politics to retain power and control the economy.
Cote d’Ivoire is rich in cocoa, coffee, timber, petroleum, cotton, and palm
oil. The access to the lucrative proceeds of these natural resources has been a
contributory factor in the Ivorien crisis.

In response to the election of Ouattara, the chairman of ECOWAS,
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, convened a meeting of ECOWAS Heads of
government on 7 December 2010 in Abuja, where the leaders unanimously backed
the president-elect and asked Mr. Gbagbo to step aside. The African Union (AU)
also sent an envoy, former president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, to meet with
and persuade the defeated Gbagbo to step down. But that seems to have failed.

After the report back of Mbeki, the AU announced its suspension
of Cote d’Ivoire’s membership. Many other major powers, including multilateral
agencies, are threatening other forms of sanctions if the Ivorian strong man
continues to be obdurate.

The former university-lecturer-turned president has rebuffed all
of these actions as “western intrusion”. He seems impervious to mounting
international pressure and willing to risk an impending international isolation
and internal conflict just to ensure that he defiantly clings to power.

Two issues come to my mind amidst this dangerous political
drama. The first is the need for Nigeria to step up and re-energize her
prominence in the affairs within the African continent. It falls on President
Jonathan’s shoulders to rally other African heads of government to make it
categorically clear in an ultimatum to Gbagbo that he cannot continue to hang
onto power. Press releases and shuttle diplomacy can no longer suffice, and so,
more needs to be done. The other issue is the need for politicians in Africa to
understand the fundamental tenets of democracy.

Kenya was recently plunged into an avoidable conflict when Mwai
Kibaki refused to allow his rival Raila Odinga to form a government, when it
was crystal clear that he had been defeated. Ditto Zimbabwe, where the strong
man Robert Mugabe lost the election but refused resign and allow his rival
Morgan Tsvangirai to take over. Enough of these African strong men! These are
exactly the kind of men the US President Obama says we do not need. Africa
needs strong institutions instead.

African leaders must learn to accept defeat with equanimity and
put national interest and continental prosperity above selfish quest for power.

To sit down with Laurent Gbagbo to consider a unity or coalition
government as has been done in Zimbabwe and Kenya is tantamount to denying the
democratic process and the legitimate voice of the Ivorian people expressed
overwhelmingly on November 28. Africa must for once confirm to the world that we
can get it right. The Cote d’Ivoire logjam must not be allowed to degenerate to
war.

Uche Igwe is an Africa
Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Centre

Last week, WikiLeaks released cables about Nigeria. The
information focussed on discussions between President Goodluck Jonathan and
former U.S ambassador to Nigeria, Robin Sanders.

Since the publication of the alleged conversations, many
political opponents have tried to profit from the revelations, distorting and
misinforming the public in order to score cheap political points.

Some would want us to believe the cables have portrayed the
president as not being equipped for the job. According to a statement credited
to Garba Shehu, spokesperson for presidential candidate and former vice
president Atiku Abubakar, “this expose has once again continued what we have
always said, Jonathan is not a man to be trusted”.

But away with political opponents and let us face the real
contents of the leaks and look at them intelligently.

The leaked cables quoted Sanders quoting Jonathan as saying
after her meeting with him on February 26, 2010, “I was not chosen to be vice
president because I had good political experience… I did not. There were a
lot more qualified people around to be vice president, but that does not mean I
am not my own man.”

Some people would want us to believe this means President
Jonathan cannot be trusted: what an irony. It is uncommon, for a Nigerian
politician to admit that he is not the almighty and the omnipotent. In a
society where people who are trusted with public office immediately turn
themselves into deities to be worshipped, never to be questioned, it is rare
that a Nigerian could admit that he is not the only qualified person to occupy
a public position.

Public office is not necessarily given to the most experienced,
or the most educated, but to the man who is best able to bring about
development, a man who embodies the two fundamentals of leadership as postulated
by Steven R. Covey, the personal effectiveness guru: they are sense of service
and knowledge.

President Obama had little public administration experience when
he decided to run for the highest office in the country. But the American
people followed him because they saw in him a man willing to admit his
limitations and thus willing to learn. They also saw he had the passion and the
will to serve. Leadership is not self-centred behaviour, but others centred
behaviour. How many Nigerians can resist the temptation to trumpet their own
credentials and exaggerate their achievements in order to impress?

According to the revelations Jonathan allegedly, also said he
had intended to dissolve the Cabinet early in the week of February 22, and had
planned to make that announcement at the February 24 FEC meeting but found out
that Yar’Adua was returning and this dissuaded him from acting. He said the
last Cabinet meeting was disastrous, included yelling and screaming, and was
totally dysfunctional. Sanders reported that Jonathan said he is ‘not a
politician’ and had very limited experience as an administrator, but concluded,
“I will not tolerate a brawl.”

Is President Jonathan your usual Nigerian politician? The
obvious answer is no. The president is not a desperate power monger, as some of
his opponents would want the public to believe. In the heady days of the
Yar’Adua debacle when the nation tottered on the brink, had Jonathan been your
usual politician, our circumstances as a nation may have been different today.
He would have dissolved the Cabinet, instead he was loyal to his boss when he
learnt that he was arriving even though nobody told him formally or put him in
the picture. But he remained calm, not desperate to prove a point, but willing
and ready to step up to the plate at the appointed time. And he did.

Nigerians should be optimistic about the prospects of President
Jonathan. He has the right frame of mind to determine that electoral reforms
are germane to Nigeria’s development. Sanders said: “His sole focus is to leave
a legacy of both electoral reforms and credible elections, including changing
the entire Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).”

The question we should ask is what can be revealed in leaked
cables regarding other politicians in Nigeria especially the ones aspiring to
become President in 2011? There is no need to wait for WikiLeaks to do that for
us. A number of such names are synonymous with corruption. That is not the case
with President Jonathan.

The leaks have shown him to be humble, truthful, sincere and
patriotic. These may not be the best attributes for a politician in these
climes but they are the attributes Nigeria needs at this time. Jonathan is a
transforming leader not a transactional leader like those who have paraded the corridors
of power for too long.

Read the final verdict from Sanders: “We believe the US
government is firmly placed to advance our bilateral agenda, including the
creation of enabling environment conducive to free, fair and credible elections
with the approval and assistance of Nigeria’s de facto head of state. Even if
he decides to contest for the presidency, Jonathan seems sincere in wanting to
leave a lasting legacy of electoral reform for Africa’s most populous nation.”

Afam is a public
commentator and a pro democracy activist, he lives in Lagos

Isiaka is mild
mannered and soft-spoken man. On his way to work one morning, he was
flagged down by a policeman who asked for a ride. Without hesitation,
he agreed and they set off. The policeman promptly fell asleep, having
apparently been on night duty. At the destination, Isiaka woke him up.
The policeman thanked him profusely and walked off.

The next morning,
Isiaka’s son was washing the car when he saw a pistol under the front
passenger seat and immediately alerted his father. Isiaka came to the
conclusion that it must belong to the policeman who rode in the car the
previous day, so he proceeded to the nearest police station to report
the case.

At the station,
Isiaka was arrested and charged with ‘armed robbery and possession of
firearms’. The policeman he helped had reported that armed robbers had
attacked him and stolen his weapon from him. Despite protests, it took
Isiaka weeks and a lot of money to be released from cell and several
months to clear his name.

Akin, Jimi and
Daniel will never forget what happened to them in their final year at
the university. They had attended a friend’s birthday party and decided
to leave at about 11 pm. There were no taxis or ‘okadas’ at that late
hour so they decided to walk the short distance home. Halfway, they
were accosted by a police patrol and arrested for possession of
marijuana. Despite protestations, they were taken a police station and
pronto, the policemen tendered several wraps of marijuana as exhibits.
The policemen had stuffed the drugs into their pockets. It took their
families huge sums to bribe the DPO to release the students. Several
years after the incident, the bitterness remains.

Alfa is a civil
servant. Some years ago, he decided to travel out of town on
Independence Day. Along the way, he came across a police checkpoint.
The policemen asked for his particulars. Everything was intact except
for his driver’s license, which he didn’t have on him. The policemen
threatened to arrest and detain him unless he gave them money. Once he
did, another policeman emerged from behind a tree and arrested Alfa for
‘bribing a police officer’. He marked the money as ‘exhibit’ and
threatened to take him to arrest and charge him to court. Scared and
disoriented, Alfa was easy prey. The policemen took virtually every
kobo he had before letting him go. Till date, he doesn’t celebrate
Independence Day.

Uche is a
businessman who travels frequently by road. Not too long ago, the
vehicle he was travelling in was involved in an accident. It
somersaulted several times and came to rest in a ditch off the road. It
took some time for help to arrive in form of policemen who were more
interested in going through the pockets and possessions of the dead
passengers. To Uche’s shock, any passenger that showed any sign of life
was quickly finished off by the police. Though seriously injured, he
had the quick thinking to pretend to be dead as the policemen removed
his money, wristwatch and other valuable possessions. It was only at
the hospital, after the police had departed that he groaned for help.
Till date, he has been unable to forget the gruesome and cold blooded
murder of the passengers, who survived the accident, only to fall into
the hands of the Nigeria police supposedly on a rescue mission.

Musa is an
engineer. Some years ago, a group of young men robbed him of his car at
gunpoint. A few weeks later, the car was found abandoned and was
recovered by the police. Eventually too, the armed robbers were traced
and arrested. A few days later, Musa stopped by at the police station
to sort out paperwork about recovering his car. Out of curiosity, he
asked the policemen about the young armed robbers. ‘We don finish them’
came the casual reply. Musa found out later that the young men had been
taken to a bush and asked to run, then shot dead for ‘attempting to
escape police custody’.

The names have been
changed, but the stories are real. Every day, many Nigerians are
subjected to terrifying encounters with the police. Motorists have been
shot for refusing to pay N20 bribes; thousands have been arrested and
detained for no reason; female detainees have been subjected to rape;
many have been robbed outright by the police, or framed for crimes they
did not commit…

The stories cannot be completely told on this page.

Few days from
today, it will be Christmas; a Christian festival celebrated worldwide
in honour of the birth of Jesus Christ who died on the cross sins taim
imo riva. Christmas is in the air.

How do we say it in
Naija langwej? Why bother about how to say it in awa langwej? It is
important because it enables us to deeply reflect on our peculiarities
as a people; it provides a ready guide to celebrating krismas fo Naija.

Right now it is
common to hear people say, “Christmas is in the air” which in local
parlance means, “krismas de flai fo evriwie”, “krismas don rich
graund”, “krismas de smel”. The sweet smell of Christmas, like the
monsoon breeze, is already blowing across the country reminding
Christendom of the D-day: December 25.

It is the desire of
all to have a fun filled and memorable Christmas celebration. Since
wishes they say were never horses, beggars were never expected to ride
on them. Therefore, while some are working out how to celebrate
Christmas in style, there are many who are bogged down by thoughts of
the day’s meal and probably how to pay the next term’s school fees.

For this category
of people, Christmas is not a priority on their “must do” list. Painted
differently: as Mista Peter de arenj hau im go tek enjoi krismas, Mista
Josef de krak im bren fo hau im go tek setul im bele an im pikin moni
fo school fo Januari we de kom. As a matter of principle, there are
others who would say they can’t “waste” dia taim thinking about
Christmas because for them, it’s “just another day” that will naturally
“kom an go”. From such people come comments like; “wetin konsain mi wit
krismas?” And the question that usually follows is “hau wi go du am?”
which continues to dominate discussions bikos eviritin get as i bi.

There are some
Christians like the members of Jehovah’s Witnesses who by their
doctrine don’t celebrate Christmas. As we say, evribodi get im stail
bot wi nou se if graund levul, nobodi we no go laik to enjoi.

Simply put, Krismas
fo Naija means celebrating Christmas in Nigeria; home to the happiest
people on earth. One expects nothing but the best from Nigerians
whenever there’s cause for celebration. Irrespective of faith, the
people of Nigeria are usually united in making every celebration truly
memorable.

It is against this
background that on the day of any religious festival in Nigeria,
Christians and Muslims as well as members of other faiths happily
converge with family members in numerous parks, gardens and other
venues with family in the spirit of the season. Only recently, Muslims
and Christians celebrated the Muslim Eid Kabir religious festival in
one accord. As krismas de kom, let’s come together and do what we are
known for; enjoy to the fullest with the fear of God.

If what is good for
the goose, as they say, is also good for the gander, it behoves us to
go into every season of celebration with a general sense of sharing and
feeling of consideration for the less fortunate. In this spirit one
does not have to be a Christian to lend a hand of support to the person
celebrating Christmas. As a Muslim or member of any other faith
supporting a Christian at this time is a very good idea because your
reward would be bountiful. We are basically a socially- supportive
society where one’s true worth is measured by the number of people one
has supported or is supporting. The promotion of our values of
“family-support” is a major reason why we are still the unique people
that we are.

Abeg, no bi
evribodi hol pepe. So dia fo, no foget yo nes door nebo, no trowe fes
fo pesin we yu nou se graund no levul fo. Givers they say never lack.

Happy Xmas and violence free 2011 in advance.

Mr. Oribhabor is a promoter of Naija (Nigerian Pidgin) and resides in Abuja.

When I was growing
up, my mother took me through some gruelling training in public
behaviour and information management. I doubt if CIA, NSA, FBI, KGB or
SSS operatives go through the kind of exercises my mother designed for
me. Some of the poignant ones came to mind after I read WikiLeaks’
public laundering of the US envoy’s private conversations with my dear
President Jonathan in the Yar’Adua dark days.

Growing up in the
village, there were unwritten manuals on how to navigate the high wires
of surviving a tough terrain. My mother started early on me because I
was a bit exuberant and quick to trust people. She knew she needed a
strong arm to manage me, so she would tell me to curb my enthusiasm
whenever strangers were around. She focused on keeping secrets mainly
because many embattled couples came around to my father to resolve
their differences and at a young age I was privy t o all sorts of adult
crises.

She also embarked
on training me to read her unspoken language in public, like grunts,
eye movements or outright rough handling. Many times when I failed, she
would be left with no other option than to resort to her beautiful
black hands. My mother’s hands were elastic in dishing out some
Guantanamo Bay spanking, no matter how fast I tried to run from my
crime scene.

As kids, when some
aunties would come from the city with Cabin Biscuits and Goodie Goodie
during Christmas, I’d get carried away by misguided excitement,
knocking off tumblers and China. I’d forget myself and run my mouth
without sifting the kind of information I wasn’t suppose to release.
I’d also think my mother was in the same euphoric state at seeing my
city aunties. When my excesses got too many, she would excuse herself
from the visitor and arrest the situation by delivering justice faster
than a Balogun market mob on a thief. In all fairness to her, she would
have sent out all the warning signs like a few grunts, two seconds
silence in the middle of her conversation, one minute stare without a
blink, shuffling of her right foot on the floor, knuckle crackling,
go-get-me-a-cup-of-water even if she had just drank the entire River
Niger – warnings which I’d ignore because when the gods want to kill a
dog, they inflict it with deafening insanity.

Seriously, nothing
irked my mother more than you endangering the family with your basket
mouth in the midst of strangers. A stranger by this definition was
anybody other than my father, grandmother and four other siblings;
these were the only people that got my mother’s high level security
clearance. This meant if anything bothered us the children, we were to
tell her or my father. She must not hear about it elsewhere or she
would not spare her elastic hand.

For instance, I was
ten years old when my brother got the elusive visa and admission to go
and study in America and I couldn’t go screaming down our street
telling all my friends that my brother will soon go to the white man’s
land and start sending me toys and cool T-shirts and jeans. Do you know
what it takes to contain such excitement for a ten-year-old? O my belly
was on fire! And even later on when I could talk about my brother in
America to neighbours, I was not to blab about every detail I read in
his letters home. As my mother would say, you never know who would
misuse information they receive – listen more and talk less. You could
say she ran an air tight Costa Nostra, with her eyes and ears
everywhere in the village and other places we her children went. So we
never broke her rules.

And during those
strenuous training sessions, which were so many, I couldn’t honestly
tell you it was fun at all, but she balanced her stringencies with
supersize love. She would buy me the coolest gifts, including an
unforgettable silk bow tie and a blue velvet suit that I wore on my
11th birthday. So you can say my mother believed wholeheartedly in
Hebrews 12:11 “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.
Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for
those who have been trained by it.”

The reason why I
have gone into all this history about my mother’s training style (which
by the way if she were to read now, she would give me one of her long
looks of “did you not learn anything”?) is WikiLeaks’ revelation about
President Jonathan. The information is not damning as such, it only
shows a meek political lamb in a land filled with heartless hungry
lions. Only if he knew that my mother would have considered Sanders a
“stranger” and telling her his most kept secrets, what he would’nt tell
us ordinary citizens, was like taking a leak in a public toilet built
of glass. So to my good friend, President Jonathan, I would say, next
time please bridle your tongue even in your innermost sanctuary because
you never know when that innocent looking visitor would put uzonta in
your mouth for ulterior motives.

The leaders of
the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have spoken.
Unlike in previous times when the community had spoken without a
distinctive voice, our leaders on the West Coast of Africa, for once,
did not muffle their voices.

In a clear tone,
they told Laurent Gbagbo, the disgraced ex-leader who sits at the
Presidential Palace at Yammoussikro with a stolen verdict, to vacate
the scene. The new lyrics are: Gbagbo out; Allassane Ouattara in.

It is one
decision that has brought a cheer or two to long suffering nationals on
the West Coast of Africa. We rejoice in the fact that our leaders
appear to be responsive to the cry of the people. We hope and pray that
the talk in Abuja would not remain mere paper guarantee.

The Chronicle
urges our leaders to ensure that Gbagbo is truly shown the exit. In a
number of such conflicts, the defeated candidates had benefited from
power sharing deals, by hanging on and using the power of incumbency to
attract leniency from leaders of Africa, many of whom do not have
proper mandates from the people, anyway.

When the likes of
Blaise Campaore of Burkina Faso and Yahaya Jammeh of Gambia, who seized
power with the aid of the intimidating powers of the gun and remain
glued to the presidential seat for more than two decades, after the
illegitimate seizure of power, are involved in the decision-making
process of such proportions, we stoop to applaud their action.

The West African
sub-region and the continent on the whole do not have any worthy
examples on how to deepen democracy. Faure Gnassingbe in Togo is a
father to son transmission of power, as if the presidency in Togo is by
inheritance.

On the continent,
Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Egyptian Head of State, Hosni Mubarak,
Mammar Gaddaffi of Libya and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda among others,
cannot be role models in any democratic experiment. Leadership in
Africa is a lost cause.

The Chronicle is
submitting for serious consideration by those of us inhabiting the
continent with the largest concentration of the black race, to make it
a point of working to eradicate the autocracy being perpetrated in the
name of democracy on the African continent.

We have a duty to
clean our acts by calling errant leaders to order. For a start, we
appreciate the stance of ECOWAS, and hope that those who gathered at
Abuja and took the decision would walk their talk. Gbagbo should leave
the scene. That should be without compromise.

As a History
Professor, the disgraced former leader of La Cote d’Ivoire should have
a fare idea of what eventually happens to leaders who overstay their
welcome. Those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent
removals inevitable.

Editorial from The Chronicle (Ghana)

When I was with
Sketch Press as a cub-reporter, I was asked to cover an assignment
where Bolarinwa Babalakin, retired Supreme Court justice, was the
chairman. It was a gathering of old students of St. Anne’s School,
Ibadan. His speech that day is one I would remember for life.

He spoke eloquently
and it was from him I first learnt that quote, “Pursue the good you
can, with all the means you can, at all places you can, and with the
people you can.” He used the occasion as reminder to the old students
and guests to continually do good so that there will be great causes to
remember them for in life. This happened 20 years ago, and I can still
recollect vividly how people listened with rapt attention to the jurist.

Public speaking
skills are essential in our lives. It is one skill that everyone should
desire in order to express oneself and make great impact. If public
speaking is this important, then our people need to be very careful
when they speak.

My observation over
the years has left me bewildered because of the way people, especially
public officers, speak in public without considering the implications
of their actions. Public speaking is more than giving a speech or
making a statement just for people to hear. It should be one that
should strike a chord in the heart of the listeners. When you speak,
you should leave something for your audience to reflect upon.

I have listened to
several people, but only very few have impressed me with their delivery
style. I am not looking for someone with great oratorical prowess or a
good command of Queens English alone, but speaking to make an impact in
the listeners’ lives.

Public speaking
demands that one organises his/her ideas in a logical manner while
tailoring one’s message to meet the needs of the audience. It should
also be one that creates a good story telling format to drive home the
point.

Frederick Fasehun,
the Odua Peoples Congress founder, made a wonderful delivery during the
week when he spoke extempore at a book launch. He propelled his
audience to action after challenging them in a thought provoking
manner. Even though he spoke extempore, his speech was in very
structured, with brevity of expression and formal language devoid of
abusive or insulting words.

I mentioned our
public officials earlier on and the whole essence is for them is to
learn how to speak well in public. It has been discovered over time
that some of them do not prepare adequately before they speak. Even
when they prepare, they speak on issues without relevance.

Perception is important

What some people do
not also know is that perception is important when it comes to public
speaking. You create an impression about your person the way you speak
and act in public domain. The public disposition of our elected
officers leaves much to be desired. They engage in careless and
illogical statements that demean the office they occupy. If not, how
can we describe a governor who said the nation’s number four citizen
from his state is a curse to the state?

Regardless of
political affiliations, such statement is not expected to form the
fulcrum of the event at hand. The event in question was not solely
organised to pour incentives on the other personality. In public
speaking, there is the need for ethical speaking and the purpose, goals
should adhere to ethical standards. A good public speaker should also
be honest in what he says and not turn issues upside down.

This was the case
of a former Attorney General who said at an international Bar
Association event that he was conferred the SAN title with the Lagos
State governor the same year. This was debunked in a matured manner by
Governor Babatunde Fashola. If the governor had sent a representative,
the public would have been fed with falsehood. This is a blatant
contempt for the truth in public speaking and several people still
engage in such.

The use of abusive
language that has pervaded public speaking is indeed an unbecoming act.
It is totally wrong to use language to defame and demean the other
person. It is important to avoid bias in public speaking. I read in the
newspaper where a governor was also quoted to be saying, ‘The state
cannot be governed by vagabonds’. The occasion was a political debate
by governorship candidates.

The question is who
were the identified vagabonds that signified interest in the exalted
office? This is a serious issue that elected officials should look into
and put ethical principles into use when speaking publicly.

Also, elected
officials should attend public speaking schools to polish themselves.
There are basic guidelines to public speaking as caution should not be
thrown to winds because of personal animosity, bias, and prejudice on
certain issues or against some people.

It is indeed true
that we may not have the prowess of great speakers, but if there is a
strict adherence to some basic guidelines, public speaking can indeed
be a delight.

AYOPO, a communication strategist and public relations specialist,
is the CEO of Shortlist Ltd. email-shortlistedprspecialists@gmail.com