The prophet, the promise and a country in disarray

Napoleon Bonaparte, the French General, must have been deliberately cheeky when he counselled that the best way to keep one’s word is not to give it. Some organisations heed the advice and operate without a definite promise to their customers. But most forward-looking business outfits are quick to kick the counsel into the trash can and make a 180-degree turn from it. They have kept their word by giving it and are not the worse for it. By giving their words, these companies give their customers an overview of what they stand to gain by buying their products or engaging their services. The brand promise varies from one company to the other but it summarises the essence of an organisation because as espoused by Peter Drucker, father of modern management, a company does not exist to make profit or create employment as important as those are, it exists primarily to create and keep customers. For TNT, an international courier company, the brand promise is “We promise to keep our promises.” For Fidelity Bank, it is “We are Fidelity, we keep our word.” For McDonald, it is “Simple, easy, enjoyment.” For Phillips, it is “Sense and simplicity.” For BMW, it is “The ultimate driving machine.” And for Kia, it is “The power to surprise.”

When organisations articulate their brand promises, they put themselves in a strait because they provide their customers a mallet with which to hit them in case of poor performance. The brand promise is an index by which their performances could be measured. With the promise stated, it becomes easy to gauge customers’ satisfaction vis-a-vis the company’s avowal. Because many of these companies keep their promises to their customers, they stay afloat and enjoy customer loyalty which always buoys the bottom line. But when they fail to deliver on the promise, they are taken to the cleaners by the customers and the bottom line plummets. Because it is a buyer’s world, brand loyalty shifts and the customer goes elsewhere to seek satisfaction. Hence, no serious company jokes with its promise to its customers.

But making promises and keeping same predates corporations. When he had yet to have a child, Prophet Ibrahim made a vow to Allah to sacrifice to Him a son if He would bless him with one. When he was reminded of his vow by Allah after the child had grown to become a son, he did not vacillate but made all necessary preparations to fulfil his promise. It was at the point of slaughtering the boy that Allah stopped the prophet and provided him a ram in place of his son. Eid al-Adha, which Muslims worldwide just celebrated, is a reminder to humanity on the need to keep promises.

A soldier, Uzonna Maduabuchi, last Wednesday, shot and killed an Army officer at 202 Battalion of the 21 Special Armoured Brigade in Bama, Borno State. According to the Nigerian Army spokesman, Colonel Sagir Musa, Maduabuchi was suffering from depression. However, what the Army image maker left out is that the soldier’s depression was triggered by his withheld allowances and the refusal of the authorities to grant him pass, both of which contravened the terms of his engagement. Pray, why would a soldier fighting insurgents be denied his allowances? Why would a soldier be denied right to pass if that was part of the promises made to him? Now, the Army’s failure to keep its promise has resulted in the death of an innocent officer and is going to cause the soldier his life, both of which are avoidable.

But the unfortunate incident should set our leaders thinking. While they may not realize it, failed promises result in depression. A promise creates a hope. When the promise is not fulfilled, the result is delusion, which is the forerunner of depression.

The soldier who killed his superior would not have ordinarily wanted that but he was pushed to the wall by the deprivation he was subjected to by the system where he found himself. Before the snap in his brain which caused him to shoot the Lieutenant superintending over him, there must have been a discontentment with the system, a distancing from his colleagues and a steady decline in his productivity. All of which built up to the depression that pushed him into killing his superior.

That is the effect of breached promises and that is the experience of most Nigerians. Repeatedly, Nigerians have been disappointed by their political leaders who promise one thing and do the exact opposite. Every electioneering cycle, politicians come round with bags of promises; they promise to fix the roads, the hospitals, schools, electricity, the environment and create employment opportunities for the teeming youth. But the moment they get elected, they start scheming for the next election and forget their promises. So, they leave the electorate worse off than when the promise was made. What they, however, fail to realize is that doing so builds discontentment in the country, creates frictions among the people and results in a decline of the people’s productivity.

If our leaders live up to their promises by fixing the infrastructure and creating an enabling environment for people to thrive, the average Nigerian would be so busy creating wealth that ethnicity or religion would mean next to nothing to him. But since those facilities that make life meaningful are absent in the country, everyone seeks refuge in clannish groups and religious sects and those are the factors that push the country apart.

So, when leaders keep their promises, the country experiences peace and prosperity.

Barka de Sallah.

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