Last week, a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, and the immediate past Super Eagles captain, Vincent Enyeama, were in the news. Diezani was reported to have been interrogated by the British security authorities over some money, while Enyeama was reported to have been dropped unceremoniously as the captain of the senior national football team, leading to his sudden retirement from the team.
Immediately the news about Diezani broke, many people did not even bother to get the full details before passing judgment on her on social media and the mainstream media. It was obvious that her ordeal made many happy: many salivated over the expectation that she would be swiftly jailed. It was not surprising that supporters of the ruling party wanted her crucified. Interestingly, most supporters of the opposition party did not even bother to defend her or show her any sympathy.
On the contrary, when the news broke that the Enyeama had a quarrel in the Eagles’ camp with the coach, Sunday Oliseh, most people did not wait for the details before supporting Enyeama and criticising Oliseh. Why were these two issues treated differently by the same audience?
As someone who held a key ministerial position, naturally Diezani was not in the good books of many Nigerians, especially those with allegiance to the All Progressives Congress, which dethroned her party, the Peoples Democratic Party in the March election. That she was the minister of petroleum resources, seen as a gold mine in Nigeria, did not make her case any better. But was she the first minister of petroleum resources? No. Her greatest undoing was the way she was perceived. Of all the ministers of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Diezani was the one who was frequently on most lips … for the wrong reasons. Why? In spite of all her positive features (beauty, gracefulness, fashion sense, intelligence, academic background (having attended Howard University and University of Cambridge), professional background (having risen to become Shell’s first female executive director), family background of her parents and husband), etc, Diezani was seen as arrogant and lacking in good human relations. While in office, she was seen as someone who carried herself as if she did not care about whatever was said or thought about her. And worse still, she communicated little.
Compare that to her fellow minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who was the minister of finance and the coordinating minister for the economy. Okonjo-Iweala was the central minister whom everything revolved around; however, she does not have the beauty of a Diezani, nor her gracefulness and gait but has an impressive academic and professional background as well as being the daughter of the king of her town who is also a retired university professor with his wife. Given Okonjo-Iweala’s family background, personal academic and professional accomplishments, as well as her position in the cabinet of Jonathan, she had every reason to be arrogant. The fact that Jonathan said during one of his media chats that other African heads of state were asking him how he was able to convince Okonjo-Iweala to join his cabinet was also a strong reason for her to be haughty, if she wanted to be.
During the fuel subsidy town hall meeting in Lagos in 2011, a human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), who was against fuel subsidy removal and had no reason to be gentle with words when talking about Okonjo-Iweala, who was explaining why government needed to remove subsidy in petrol, commended her for the gentle and conciliatory way she handled the meeting and explained government’s position. When the House Committee on Finance invited Okonjo-Iweala in December 2013 over the 2014 budget and the chairman of that committee, Mr Abdulmumini Jibrin, was verbally aggressive to her, she kept her cool. All through the altercation, she expressed herself calmly. The committee ended up giving her 50 questions to answer and walking her out of the meeting, not minding that she was representing the President at that meeting.
Compare that with the meeting the House Committee on Capital Market and Other Institutions had with erstwhile Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ms Arunma Oteh, in March 2012 over some allegations they levelled against the latter. Oteh stood up to the committee and pointedly accused it and its chairman, Herman Hembe, of corruption and wondered what moral authority they had to probe her.
Because of the way Okonjo-Iweala reacts when attacked, many people come to her defence when anyone picks on her. Many see any attack on her as political witch-hunt.
In the case of Enyeama, he got the people’s sympathies because he had been seen as someone who was not arrogant and troublesome. Oliseh, on the other hand, does not have the dovish image from his days as a footballer. Enyeama has a calm and cool personality and always smiles. Enyeama has also performed very well in the goalpost in the last 13 years for Nigeria. Anytime he was in the goalpost, Nigerians felt confident. Many rate him as Nigeria’s best goalkeeper ever.
Last week, Diezani’s family lawyer, Oscar Onwudiwe, revealed that the former minister had been battling with cancer and undergoing chemotherapy during her tenure as petroleum minister and needed prayers as she prepared to undergo an operation. He denied reports that Diezani was arrested and her passport seized and that she bought property worth N13bn. Nobody knows what pain and discomfort she has been undergoing. Such could have affected her ability to be warm and friendly. From afar, such could have been misconstrued as arrogance and an I-don’t-give-a-damn attitude. But only she who feels it knows it. In spite of that revelation of cancer, sadly, many still did not show any sympathy towards her.
People reach conclusions about others mainly based on perception. Most of the conclusions reached are not based on any verifiable fact. The more people are perceived negatively, any rumour spread to show them in a bad light is easy to believe. Those who don’t wish such people well easily fabricate stories about them, especially in this time of the Internet when people can create a website in their bedroom and start posting stories on them, which are shared and circulated and believed as true.
Diezani is not the first petroleum minister but the first female petroleum minister. In a male-dominated field and nation, being a female petroleum minister might have attracted undue negative attention to her. But the way she carried herself and related to the public did not do her case any good. On the other hand, Enyeama has been known as a cool-headed, easygoing person. It does not suit his long-held image that he would cause trouble in the Super Eagles camp.
Image is everything. Perception is reality. The let-people-say-what-they-like attitude is injurious to one’s image. Each person must therefore start early to build the kind of image they want, because on the day of trouble, that image is what would make people give the person the benefit of the doubt or jump to conclusion about the person.
—Twitter @BrandAzuka
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