THE recent actions of the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS) Nigeria, Mr. Oluwatosin Ajayi, in compensating individuals wrongfully arrested and detained by the agency, serve as a powerful reminder of the importance of attitude in leadership. This gesture not only showcases the DG’s commitment to upholding human rights but also highlights the impact of attitude on organisational culture and public perception.
The DG DSS’s decision to compensate the wrongfully arrested individuals and offer apologies to others demonstrates a significant shift towards accountability and transparency. This attitude is reflected in the DG’s directive to investigate and discipline officers involved in the wrongful arrests, ensuring that those responsible are held accountable for their actions.
This is quite unusual and doesn’t smack of an offering from a Nigerian leader, especially from security and intelligence sector that the civil society organisations and the media have always derided for overzealousness and willful violations of human rights. In the news media, we say this is newsworthy because it sounds bizarre, unusual and odd.
Here is the thing, by taking responsibility for the agency’s mistakes and providing compensation, the DSS, easily one of the most powerful intelligence agencies in this regard, is working to restore public trust and confidence in the agency. This approach is essential in building a positive relationship between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve.
The DG’s actions demonstrate a commitment to leading by example. By acknowledging and rectifying mistakes, he sets a positive tone for the agency and encourages others to follow suit. This leadership style promotes a culture of accountability and transparency within the organisation. As I was saying, this should have a bandwagon effect on other national security, intelligence, military and even para-military agencies’ leaders who do not feel that they have a responsibility to dignify people they serve on their beats.
Most of the leaders who often trample on the rights of the civil society activists and media operatives should borrow a leaf from the new deal at the Directorate of State Security.
Doubtless, the DG’s attitude towards accountability and transparency will continue to promote a culture of responsibility, where officers are held accountable for their actions, and that will encourage a more nuanced approach to security operations. Besides, this attitude will shift the culture of the secret service as long as Nigeria’s duty bearers and authorities continue too with robust succession plans in the security and intelligence communities. A situation whereby immediate past President recalled retired officers who could not pass promotion examinations to directorate cadres to be directors-general of such sensitive organisations could not have produced anything else other than a culture of mediocrity.
‘Apology isn’t a sign of weakness, after all’
According to the United Nations, in our personal relationships, apologies seem to be easier than in working relationships. We may fear that apologising to even a colleague in a competitive environment might be perceived as a sign of weakness, undermine our authority or even negatively affect office dynamics.
However, an honest and sincere apology has the potential to restore dignity and diminish fear of retaliation or even desire for vengeance on the receiving end. On the giving end, it can be a powerful tool to reconcile a working relationship and to initiate the restoration of trust. In this way, an apology can show strength of character, demonstrate emotional competence and reaffirm that both parties share values in their relationship they want to commit to.
I would like to stress here that we should begin to look at some classics that didn’t fail some of our legends before civilisation kicked us in the face. So, as we continue to grope from darkness to darkness, we need to share some values that can shape our character as a nation. I wrote here the other day on the ‘power of character’, which some icons actually say ‘is destiny’. Yes, ‘character is destiny’. That is, attitude, yes attitude is everything!
I have tested some of the classics and I have found them profoundly powerful enough to shape and even fulfill our destiny as the most populous black nation on earth. We should begin to share with our leaders and managers of our enterprises that there are some simple but significant ‘magic words’ they need to embrace to calm frayed nerves in and out of seasons, in good and bad times. It is a time to tell our leaders that at such a time as this, they need to swallow their pride and vanity and imbibe a habit of apologising to the people they lead. And here is why:
Our leaders hardly understand the most important sentence in the constitution: ‘The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government…’ Most of our leaders care only about their security votes as ‘slush funds’ to take care of their future including (re-)election. They hurt the people every day. Through their callous acts, they hurt most families, old and young. They hardly pay salaries and pensions in most states and local governments. Our leaders whose recklessness has triggered import-dependent economy hardly reflect on the consequences of high prices of food items and (consumer) essential goods at this time.
As I was saying, our leaders are also using dubious means to extort even poor motorbike riders by collecting multiple taxes from them every day even in Lagos and Abuja. They don’t care about what happens to the poor and vulnerable, Frantz Fanon calls “the wretched of the earth”.
Our leaders violate even our organic laws to the extent that the Supreme Court even claimed in 2020 that our leaders are ‘taking impunity too far’. In Africa’s most populous nation, the Senate can reject a president’s nominee but the president can call the bluff of the upper house and allow the rejected candidate to begin work and complete some tenure of even five years in office. This is an economy where the federal legislators individually earn higher than the president, vice president, and the ministers of even the richest countries in the world and there is no strong institution to ask questions.
That is why I feel that our leaders should seek the face of God by asking for His grace to understand the power of apologising to the people at this time. There is tension in the land. There is hunger they deny with dubious statistics. There is unbearable inflation they claim they have stabilised. There is insufferable level of corruption they promised to eliminate since 2015. What is worse, it seems to the people that rampaging corruption is fuelling rising insecurity nurtured by terrorism they want us to call banditry. Our leaders therefore need to realise the power of apologising to the people at this time. Here again are more reasons:
Saying You’re Sorry is called apologising. When you apologise, you’re telling someone that you’re sorry for the hurt you caused, even if you didn’t do it deliberately. An apology is a statement that has two key elements: it shows your remorse over your actions and an acknowledgement of the hurt that your actions have caused to someone else. Col. Sanjeet Sirohi, an Indian motivational speaker and soft skill trainer says, ‘I am sorry’ is the most powerful sentence in the world.
‘Why should we apologise?’
There are many reasons we should make a sincere apology when we have hurt someone unnecessarily, or have made a mistake. First, an apology opens a dialogue between yourself and the other person you seem to have hurt. Second, when we apologise, we also acknowledge that we engaged in unacceptable behaviour. This helps us rebuild trust and re-establish our relationship with the other person. Third, what’s more, when we admit that the situation was our fault, we restore dignity to the person we hurt.
In the main, a sincere apology shows that we are taking responsibility for our actions.
‘Why apologies can be difficult’
Despite all these positive reasons, why do some people still find it difficult to apologise? In the first place, it takes courage to apologise. When you admit that you were wrong, it puts you in a vulnerable position, which can open you up to attack or blame. According to Sirobi, you may be so full of shame and embarrassment over your actions that you can’t bring yourself to face the other person. What is more, you may find yourself following some advice that, “never apologise, never explain.” It’s up to you if you want to be arrogant and damn some consequences.
You may ask somehow if apologising can fix everything. This is another feeling but saying ‘I’m sorry’ when you need to is the right thing to do. It does a lot of good. But by itself, it might not be enough to make everything all better again. Sometimes along with an apology, a person needs to fix the mistake or promise to do better. Sirobi agrees with this line of thought.
Gone are the days of keeping everything bottled up inside to suffer alone.
As we move forward in this time of self-knowledge and self-discovery, it’s vital to acquire the ability to recognise our own mistakes.
So, people in authority in Nigeria need to be told to realise that nobody is perfect and so they are not perfect. They need to realise at this juncture that they cause emotional pain to citizens of this country every day. The trouble, however, lies in their refusal or failure to acknowledge that they have done the people some wrong.
This is therefore a time to tell our leaders in Nigeria that they need to apologise to us as they have hurt us a great deal through poor leadership to the citizens and indeed the black race. Our leaders should swallow their pride and vanity for them to realise that even national apologies can be a big deal. When they offer that, they acknowledge the past to help move everyone forward. We may need to explore more about this context: when nations apologise!
In the main, the compensation and apologies offered by the DG DSS Nigeria demonstrate the power of attitude in leadership. Our leaders at all levels should note and reflect on this today: there is no power when leaders and managers display arrogance and recklessness. And so by prioritising accountability, transparency, and human rights, the DG, DSS, Mr. Ajayi has set a positive tone for the agency and promoted a culture of responsibility. As the DSS DG who has boldly restored the DSS as a Secret Service indeed, continues to work towards building trust with the communities the DSS serves, his approach should serve as a valuable lesson for leaders who do not know that attitude is everything, after all!
- Oloja is former editor of The Guardian newspaper and his column, Inside Stuff, runs on the back page of the newspaper on Sunday. The column appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Monday.