Great Leaders: Their Reactions To Critics, Political Enemies And Other Issues -By Abdullahi Hassan

It is said” to lead is to be criticized”. If you’re not ready to be criticized, then you are not ready to lead. Criticism accompanies leadership. So, leaders should not be surprise when it come; especially when they come with change mantra. As a leader, you will make many decisions and some will agree with you, while some will disagree with you. However, leaders failure to accept and respond constructively to criticisms are the reasons leadership is in a big doddering and mishmash state in the third world.

Great leaders take criticisms and convert them into good opportunities previously unseen; into a platform to enable growth, innovation and endless possibilities.The only way to avoid criticism as a leader is to do nothing. And that’s not possible. If a leader is taking a nation somewhere; progression or retrogression, people will still criticize his or her efforts. As late Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule, once quoted the words of the former President of the Republic of South Africa Jacob Zuma; “Good leaders, when they do bad or faulty, they expect ordinary citizens, the academicians and the media to blow the horn of warning. Such good leaders listen and hear such warning, and they respond constructively. They do not see themselves as been above public criticisms, these are good leaders”.

The way a leader respond to criticisms say much about the maturity, humbleness of that leader and the quality of his leadership. It will be something fantastic if leaders will borrow from Nelson Mandela’s ways. As Richard Stengel (the Author of Mandela’s Ways, Lesson on Life) narrated in chapter 9, page 151, 153, 155, 156, 157, and 159 of the book; Mandela keep his rivals close. While Mandela often lost track of his colleagues, he never stopped tracking his opponents. Nelson Mandela never considered using intelligence services or private eyes to spy on his rivals. He knew that the best way to do that was not from a distance but from close. He often motion for a rival to come over and sit next to him the better, to keep an eye on him.

No doubt, through humility, accepting criticisms and being good to political rivals/enemies, Mandela turned many radical rivals to political allies and equally good friends. People like Bantu Holomisa, Christopher Hani, F. W de Klerk and also his close rival, the Zulu leader Mongosuthu Buthelezi whom Mandela felt would be willing to lead the country to civil war in order to achieve his own ends.

Mandela was more comfortable with those who confronted him than those who hide their feelings. Giving his clear distaste for Mongosuthu Buthelezi, because he is well known to be Mandela’s close rival. It came as a surprise to many when Mandela invited Buthelezi into his first cabinet as minister of home affairs. But as Mandela explained, he had done it precisely because he regarded the Zulu leader as a dangerous political enemy that he needed to keep an eye on him.

Mandela knew there was no fail-safe method of preemptive attacks by rivals. But he believed that by taking a rival under his wing, he would make him at least think twice about it. And then, at least, he would be close enough to see it coming. To them, South Africa first, everything else fall secondary.

According to Thomas Paine; “He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.” And also, Harry S. Truman was quoted to have said; “John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were political enemies, but they became best friends. And when they passed away on the same day, the last words of one of them was,”The country is safe.” Jefferson still lives. And the last words of the other was, “John Adams will see that things go forward.”

Furthermore, Mandela’s commitment to seeing the good in his political rivals was on many times unable to see their dark side.There were untold millions of blacks in South Africa for whom vengeance was more appealing than reconciliation, who could not and did not want to forget the past as Mandela urged them to do. This is Mandela!

Naturally, criticism is part of leadership.and if no one is criticizing your style of governance, it means your are not steering the ship of governance correctly. Leadership is not all about popularity contest, it’s about doing what is the best for the interest of the nation you’re serving. Leaders get paid to make so many difficult decisions. But many leaders don’t really know how to steer the ship of the state, they waste their cost time trying to satisfy the agenda of political friends and the so-called loyalist, than focusing on the goals and objectives of the nation and people they are paid to serve. Leadership requires mental and psychological toughness. If you are not being criticized, you are not leading and guiding the nation to move forward, innovate and explore endless possibilities. You need to be strong and objective to whatever criticism people splash on you.

Hitherto,I can boldly say in Nigeria, reverse is the case. We find it duty bond to clampdown and crush our critics, we call them Anarchist, enemies of the state and we even go as far as arresting, prosecuting (treasonable felony) and jailing them. We prejudice and make mockery of them. Rush Limbaugh said and I quote; “I’m falling back on what some of the standard protocols for politics are after victory. We in America do not prosecute defeated political enemies.” Also according to Evgeny Morozov he said; “A vibrant civil society can challenge those in power by documenting corruption or uncovering activities like the murder of political enemies. In democracies, this function is mostly performed by the media, NGOs or opposition parties.”

It’s perplexing, our leaders feel very bad when they are criticized, they do not see anything good in those criticisms and that’s why they will never think of converting them( criticisms) into opportunities. They do not evaluate and consider whether those criticisms are opportunities to learn. Perhaps, they are not aware of something, or it’s entirely possible that they miscalculated or moved too quickly. None of us is perfect! Our decisions will not always be good ones and considering that criticism helps us learn for the next situation, and also the next decision.

Facing criticisms or discontents can be challenging. As Norman Vicent Peale (The late Author of The Power of Positive Thinking said; “The trouble with most of us is that we’d rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism”. Great leaders are very good listeners, they consider multiple point of views, review fact’s and important information related to issues and then they implement the decision they believe will mostly benefit all.

In Nigeria, we consider criticisms as something unacceptable, because our leaders always feel they are doing the right thing. So, they always resulted to calling those criticizing them as wailers, enemies of the state; they also take it personal. They play the victim, react impulsively, blame others for their abject failure,return criticisms and even ignore opportunities to learn. I recall recently, President Buhari’s Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina’s article titled; “ENEMIES OF THE COUNTRY WILL LOSE LAS LAS”! There’s no doubt Nigeria as a nation has enemies, both within and outside! But we don’t know whether those criticizing the government are the enemies of the country.

However, going down the comments box of the article, I came across a deserved and well articulated response by, Mr. BM Dzukogi as follow; “The problem with you guys in Aso rock is that, you take pride in your narrow perception of what leadership is. You don’t know how to be honourable and tend to forget that great leaders woo their so-called enemies to become responsible supporters knowing that ‘enemies’ are part owners of the country as well. Then, there is the tragedy of labels where non-party members of the ruling party become automatic enemies. In fact, even free citizens who do not support you have all become enemies because they criticize policies and your party members. So, you guys are the actual enemies of Nigeria”.

We all have to accept that one of the most important quality of a leader is to be a very good listener and applying justice as much, if not more when you are being criticized. Never try to shut down the volume of the so-called political enemies. Too many time, leaders turn these criticisms around on the person speaking up, rather than seeing it as an opportunity to learn from someone else.

To listen to criticism is leadership responsibility that does not appear in the job description, but it makes you a more honest, effective and trustworthy leader if you handle it constructively.

Abdullahi Hassan
Department of Political Science and International Studies.
A.B.U Zaria-Nigeria