By Frank Meke
An acquaintance of mine, who lately found himself in government, boldly accused me of engaging in camp(s) wars. Twice, he touched on the sensitive matter, and I thought time has come to help him and others who are simplistic and pedestrian to wake up to certain realities of life, particularly in governance and public service.
Mr. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu possibly captured the failings of most of his appointees when he charged them last week to go out to the public place and tell Nigerians what they are doing or had done, or better situated, why he is in power today as the president, Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The evangelical charge or admonition by the president to his appointees is a clear indication that most of these appointees, even those who claim that they are in public space, may have been talking to themselves and possibly at no point time, did sit down to process if their message actually made impact at all or is merely hitting the wrong cords with the public.
In life, who speaks for you and on behalf of your national or organisational assignment(s) is important, a determinant factor that may influence the acceptation or outright rejection of ones deliverables, operational achievements and goals.
Now let me recourse to the scriptures to capture the essence of perception and acceptance of messages and the messenger..
Out on the streets in the times of Jesus Christ and am sure, we all still
do worry about it today. The Lord had asked his disciples who the people think He( Christ) represents, or is ! The disciples were shocked at the simplicity of that question but thoroughly taken aback by it all, an assumable simple question but very difficult at the same time to answer, and many of them floundered. They struggled to explain it and even answer it correctly.
Most of the disciples of Christ Jesus failed the examination on public perception, acceptation, spirituality, and work ethics deliveries because they don’t know anything about the master ( the Christ Jesus and His mission) except Peter.
They probably love to be part of Christ mission ( camp) by being associatied with the signs and wonders of earth shaking miracles that accompanied his Ministry, the noise, and praises from those who had never seen a leader who gave up food and sacrificed his comfort for others and without fear , spoke truth to power, to those who marginalise the poor and widows.
These disciples were simply happy to belong to the camp of the ” Christ like ” but unfortunately did not understand the earthly mission of Christ. They were just happy, jolly good fellows who left all, wives and children to join a ” camp” which they did not understand the end mission and expectations.
Except for Peter, whom Christ revealed the source of his (Peter’s) ” expo” ( answer) and going forward even Peter until he was confronted by the realities of being part of the camp of Christ Jesus public persecution, and to which he( peter) failed to stand up and be counted for the ” camp” of Christ, a development which made him weep sore to his predicted shame and unbelievable denial of his master.
Judas was part of that shame, for he betrayed a master and a camp he belonged to because he was simplistic, transactional, and a sad regrettable example of those who come to serve the people or a nation for the sake of their belly and so deceitfully went out of their way fool to others.
Now to my acquaintance, who maybe in a camp to which he possibly does not understand that a day shall come when the public and including those who gave him a space in the ” camp” , the appointment, would expect a score card or performance sheet and leave all alone to bare the shame or be stoned.
At this juncture, the public is the master judge and jury. Your thoughts and possibly your rating of your performance metrics would not be seen from your perspective but from the critical eyes of the public.
If you are an officer of government, the opinion of your wife, husband, and your family won’t help you. Even that of staff will possibly hit you so hard if you dare ask them, particularly those staff who do not fear transient hold to power and authority.
If you’re lucky to have a team that boldly assesses and evaluates your leadership qualities, they may be kind to tell in house that you have not measured up, unfortunately, Nigeria has lost men and women of such qualities to eye service syndrome. Our civil servants now daily sing songs that their ogas at the top simply wish to dance to , hence why our ministers and top government appointees fail at meeting public expectations.
To us in the media, and like in all professions, truth is being buried in the quest to hold our public offices accountable. Those who ran to the public square to accuse the media of being biased or in a certain imaginary camp forget easily that they were at the behest of the adventure to purchase clean sheets of nice articles from the media in support of their efforts to meeting up with public perception of their dedication, commitment, discipline and sacrifices to a given assignment to public good.
Unfortunately, these same persons, like my unnamed acquaintance whom we shall not hesitate to put in public space soon, would readily leap out in defence of a camp to which if he is intensively interrogated and questioned, may fall flat on all counts for blindly standing up for a mission and a message he did not understand.
If the president is requesting his aides or disciples ( ministers and ceo of agencies) to go to public space to tell Nigerians what he represents and his messages on “Hope” for a new Nigerian state where we all don’t need to listen to heavy-duty propaganda as against the presence of evidential ” manna” on table and job security, then my acquaintance need to have his head re examined for taking to camps evangelism to amuse and excuse himself from
the failings of his principal and benefactor.
And I like unmistakably told him, my mission is well spelt out, support , inform and hold leaders accountable for the sake of teeming Nigerians out there whose voice and participation in governance must be heard and respected.
It is a job for men and women who are willing to sacrifice friendship and brotherhood for the sake of millions of Nigerians suffering in the midst of plenty out there. Nigerians who wonder at the open unmitigated deception and outright fallacies pushed into the public space by some ministers who possibly are not aware that nobody takes them serious, or at worst are merely seen as noise makers and strangers to the communities they are mandated to serve.
This is a public notice that we shall not flatter to engage publicly if our appointees did well and where they are merely noisy bench warmers attracted the luxury of the office, then they will dance to heavy drumming of deliverance songs. Let the camp war begin!
