In my last series, back in the day, I used to write a few “self-help” columns: how to write CVs, attend interviews and so on. So an article I read in a prominent national daily about the etiquette for public speaking particularly fascinated me because it was SO Nigerian. You would never see such content in any international management guide. For example, I was enthralled over the advice given about the difference in use of a handkerchief and the use of a face towel. That is one piece of etiquette George Osborne would not have worried about at his Mansion House speech or Obama at G7. The expert’s guidance was that “you only dab your face with a handkerchief and should not wipe with it while you can wipe your face with a face towel”. The trouble is, I do sweat a lot. Should I now take a handkerchief for dabbing AND a face towel for wiping? So, what’s the etiquette for walking round with pockets bulging with multiple soft items? What about paper tissues? What colour should the face towel be? I thought this raised so many unanswered questions I was struck with worry for my next speaking engagement.
The problem didn’t stop there. The expert counselled not to engage in “twitching, scratching, or restless movements”. The mind boggles especially as the previous paragraph told me not to “look continuously at a particular person in the audience”. I assume if I was twitching while looking continuously at a female it could be misconstrued. Would it be dangerous to look continuously at someone who was scratching in case that started you off and eventually the entire hall would be full of scratchers? I did wonder to whom these pearls of wisdom were addressed when our man (for indeed it was a man, I cannot for the life of me feel a woman would have said this) made the following point: “As a public speaker one cannot afford to expectorate either on the microphone, the audience (I am assuming they had not already been frightened off by the dabbing, wiping, twitching and scratching) or the atmosphere.” However, he did not elaborate that if you felt a sudden need to expectorate, should you use your handkerchief or face towel? Serious points indeed.
Of course, public speaking is no joke. Careers can flounder when young managers present badly, contracts are lost from poor sales pitch delivery and even marriage prospects damaged if you fail to address your future father-in-law correctly. In politics the ability to speak in public is what stands you out and how you articulate your beliefs. In developed democracies it is a sine qua non of electoral success. Great orators capture the imagination and elevate ideas from the mundane to the inspirational. John Kennedy and Martin Luther King will ever be remembered for their speeches. Churchill was in many ways a failed politician but his oratory at a critical moment in history gathered a nation behind him. Even on television and video personality can come across negatively or positively, which is why televised electoral debates have become so important. It is widely believed that Nixon’s failure in the 1960 debate with Kennedy lost him the election and changed the global nature of electoral politics forever.
Nigerian politicians of modern times have not been known for their articulation. Zik and Awolowo knew how to draw a crowd but modern Nigerian elections seem more to have been delivered behind closed doors than on the soapbox. Our recent ministers and their spokesmen have generally been underperformers in the public domain. Poor body language and posture, weak articulation (usually as a consequence of bad briefing) and even bad dress sense have tended to bedevil our representatives either with their international peers or on media. It was reassuring, no matter which political view you might take, to see President Buhari’s assured elegance at the recent G7 meeting. GEJ used to look as if he had wandered into the wrong room in error and OBJ would spend half his time managing his unruly Agbada. Whenever a public servant is on BBC’s Hard Talk, CNN’s Amanpour or our own Straight Talk with Kadaria, they are the outward face of Nigeria. However, too often they are poorly briefed about their topic and their whole demeanour gets more and more defensive over the duration of the interview. This is unacceptably sloppy, unprofessional and reflects badly on the nation as a whole.
Clearly, it is important to maintain the momentum of international goodwill Nigeria has gained so when our new ministers are appointed they should be given formal media training. All senior public officials should be taught how to manage body language on media, particularly on international television. They should be fully briefed and prepared by their team, while they too should do their homework. Let us not have reactive ex-journalists as advisers but strategic communications professionals who know how to create a proactive story. Let us feel proud when our representatives speak! I assume that our senior politicians know the difference between a handkerchief and a face towel? Let there be no more twitching, scratching and expectorating!
Keith Richards
