By Barr. Sylvester UDEMS.
We’ve, as always, made the wrong decision in removing Adedayo. Things like this are the reason why we are where we are today, as a nation, moving backwards, instead of forward.
Festus Adedayo was Chief Press Secretary for Governor Chimaroke
Nnamani of Enugu State for so many years. The same guy was Chief Press Secretary for Governor Ajimobi of Oyo State for so many years.
Festus Adedayo is a loyalist. He can work for anyone and be perfectly loyal. It is people like this that one ought to hire. If he is hard in criticizing you, it shows he is fearless, and as such, now he is on your side, would be hard in representing your interest and in defending you.
How can we say because he once criticized Buhari the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he shouldn’t work for Lawan, the Senate President of the Federal Republic? Doesn’t that sound absurd? Is this not clear indication that we are a hopeless nation?
How does the mere fact that he is Buhari’s critic suggest, without more, that he would not be a perfect loyalist working for Lawan and APC now? We’re doomed!
My opinion is that criticism helps to make leaders better and helps them to achieve more. Criticism may sometimes not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to seeming flaws and puts leaders on their toes. So, I do not think we should reject on grounds only because they’re different or hold a different opinion.
The truth is, if I were in any position of higher authority or power, such as occupying the office of the President of the FRN or of the Senate of the FRN, I assure you, I would keep away people who used to agree with just everything I had ever said or done!
I would rather have around me, and working with me, people who would tell me the truth that I need to hear in other to become the best that I aspire to be, than to surround myself with dishonest sycophants and bum-lickers who just would never see anything wrong in any and everything I do or say.
That some party bots are complaining about Festus Adedayo’s occupation of the office of the Senate President’s Media Chief, is testimony to why we are where we are as a country; all our leaders and those around them want only sycophants as aides and servants and partners.
Most of them forget that when we reject people only because they’re different, or hold different views, we deny them the respect they deserve as human beings and at the same time make a statement about our own ugly character in the process. By so doing, we also deny ourselves the opportunity to get to know what they have to offer as individuals.
Being together here doesn’t necessarily mean we’re similar or hold similar opinions on issues. Being together underlines the very fact that we respect our differences. Hence, a wise woman, Jennifer Chen, once suggested, ”Give others freedom to be themselves. Appreciate the differences between their ways and yours, and you’d be wiser and greater.”
To suppress free speech is, more often than not, tantamount to committing a double wrong: it violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.
In my published congratulatory message to one of our leaders, I had written thus:
”[Our] supporters alone cannot make [us] succeed; they can only make [us] remain for one side! Which would mean that, unfortunately, [we] are not for all, but for only some! This is the greatest of all of Nigeria’s problems – the wrong notion that only those who helped us to ascend the throne could make us succeed on the throne! … Leaders that aim to succeed must adopt all-inclusiveness as their motto, so as to be able to create an environment in which all individuals and sections feel empowered to express their opinions freely within the larger group. Leaders ought also to realize that diversity of thinking is critical to effective collaboration and management; thus, they must pay close attention to team composition and team processes in order to fish out all capable hands to work with for success.”
I salute Ahmad Lawan. Sir, you’re a true leader. By this singular decision to appoint someone who is known to have held different opinions with your party on issues of national importance, you’ve demonstrated that there is hope for our country. It’s unfortunate this appointment was withdrawn.
Respectfully,
Barr. Sylvester UDEMS
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DISCLAIMER: All views expressed on our opinion page are those of the writer and do not represent the position of INSIDER or any of its reporters/editors.