If I were Buhari’s media aides, I’ll disclose his health status ―US-based Don

AN Associate Professor of Strategic Communication, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas, United States, Dr Amiso George, has disclosed that if she were one of the media aides of recuperating President Muhammadu Buhari, she’ll disclosed the nature of the president’s ailment.

Dr George expressed her mind to journalists at the Pan Atlantic University, Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, while fielding questions from Tribune Online on communication crisis in the country and other national issues.

When Dr George was asked: “There has been a problem with managing information concerning the health of the president, if you were in the shoes of Shehu Garba and Femi Adesina, how would you have handled the situation?”

The US-trained communication strategist replied: “The president is a public person; Nigerians ought to know.

“He is our president, he is elected to a public office and Nigerians deserve the right to know; he’s not a private citizen; he has a right to privacy.

“Perhaps, if he weren’t a president, but as a president of a country, people are concerned and they want the best for our president; they want the best for our leaders.

“We want to know that he is in good health or whatever the case may be. We pray for him, we wish him well but we ought to know what is going on.”

Speaking on the extent poor management of communication crisis can affect the corporate existence of Nigeria, Dr George, who was at PAU for a short sabbatical, said poor communication crisis management could affect the corporate existence of the country in a “big, huge,” way.

According to her, communication managers in government and establishments should always endeavour to tell the public true situations of happenings before the public unravelled them.

“Nigerians are very smart people, tell them the truth. Tell the linking, the truth as opposed to beating about the bush, trying to cover issues even when people can read because we are all connected in one way or the other.

“We can get information about Nigeria that the Nigerian government is not making available. All we have to do is to go online, we can get it.

“Tell people the truth. In fact, it’s an advantage to any entity, as a government or an organization because people are going to find out subsequently.

“So the bottom line is, if you want to be on top of things, tell people what it is, you don’t have to share government’s secret, but anyone who runs for office, who is in public position should know that now you are our business, therefore we must know and we deserve to know the truth because when we are not told the truth, what often happens?

“Speculations, fake news, people making all kinds of stories, rumors, and you know we thrive on rumors in Nigeria. So, what happens is that people now get confused which is the truth and sometimes the rumors tend to overtake, so it is to the disadvantage of that entity whether it’s a government or an organisation.

“When rumors overtake, people don’t know what else to believe and then when they come subsequently to sort of grudgingly tell the truth, it’s already too late because credibility is in tatters, ” she noted.

Speaking further, Dr George added that: “Again, tell the truth and you’ve got to tell it often. When a company finds itself in trouble and you heard me say earlier that the best crisis management is the one that didn’t happen, the one we didn’t read about because it was handled very quickly and very effectively.

“But where a corporation decides to forge the story, forge the numbers, in some cases outcry lie when it is quite obvious what the story is, what the truth is, it affects their credibility and Nigerians are very smart people; they are going to find out online; they are going to call them out; they will call the corporation out and you hear often times that they bring in the public relations people when things go bad, no, bring in the public relations people from the beginning and understand that crisis communication really should be a part of what a smart organisation does.

“So, we talked about understanding issues and risks and managing those and when all of that is done and you still have crisis, you have to respond, think of what we have just discussed this afternoon, get the information out there, tell the truth, tell it quickly and tell it often. If the organization does not, then eventually the truth is going to come out.”