"The most painful thing was that they went and hid the President in the Villa and did the celebration away from where every Nigerian can be a part of it.'That was a Nigerian. A youth. He spoke on TV, and about the October 1, 2011 51st independence anniversary celebration. If that was not beating a retreat for the nation's government, nothing else was; the decision to go behind perimeter walls in the Three Arms Zone of Abuja to celebrate, that is. Some officials overdid it this time, hiding the president so conspicuously, which must have been the reason they mentioned 'low-keyed celebration' ahead of the event. No official seemed to have given thought to the psychological effect of such a step on Nigerians. And in the end, Nigerians will continue to wonder for days to come what will be their lot in a situation where the country so unsafe, that government officials hid their president.The last time the government called for any celebration at Eagle Square in Abuja was on May 29, 2011. Mobile phone lines in the FCT were shut down, all roads were closed to incoming traffics. It sounded wise at the time. And it sounded wiser this time to lock the president up from view because of the security challenges confronting the nation. The question is: If locking the head of the house up out of fear of bomb-throwers is a solution, who will instill confidence in millions of Nigerians'Winning a war, or war on terror is one thing, winning at the psychological front is another. Lawyers would say that the way to make a witness stumble is to make him lose his confidence. It may be applied to lawyers themselves in the court of law. When nations battle enemies, their leaders do one thing first. They rally the citizens around them. The man at the top doesn't just address the nation from time to time. He loosens his tie, folds the sleeves of his shirts, and generally gives the impression that, as the Commander -in-Chief, he is in front of his soldiers, a thing that makes the actions of President George W. Bush after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the Unites States come in for an example.Bush talked with kids in an elementary school in Florida, far away from the White House, when terrorists struck at the New York Twin Tower that day. Before he got back to Washington DC, he knew he needed to re-assure Americans and instill confidence in them in the face of what was going on. 'The job of the president,' Bush said years later, 'was to say here are the facts, here's what we're dealing with, and deal with them'.I felt like I had the capacity to deal with the crisis, and you don't know until it happens. When I look back on it, I don't feel a sense of being overwhelmed.' So he spoke to his citizens twice as he made his journey back to Washington DC. And he didn't want to. He actually wanted to get to the White House, sit in the Oval Office, get the image across to Americans on TV that he was in charge as the Commander-in-Chief, and from there speak. 'I wanted to speak from the Oval Office. I wasn't going to address our nation from a bunker,' he said. 'It would have been a huge psychological victory for the people who attacked.'That was a leader who gave full thought to his people. What would go on in the mind of the citizens if they realised their leader spoke to them from a war bunker, or shied away in the face of threat to them was a question he considered. Bush understood what psychological war entailed, and part of his speeches were meant as boosters to the confidence of his people, assuring them that his country would not beat a retreat in the face of terror. The manner Bush handled the entire September 9/11 saga made Americans queue up behind him. Mr President did not hide for a moment. He never gave his people the feeling he was hiding. And he rallied them round himself such that the Congress was compelled to give him all the cents he needed to prosecute the war on terror from that moment on. And of the eventual tracking down of the man that inspired the September 11 attacks, Bush said it began the day after 9/11. Keeping a clear head after an attack is crucial to the strategy in winning the war on terror. This is because some possible pathological responses can hamper effective action. It is tempting for the government to rally round itself over-idealised leaders, blame others, or stop talking to people that government officials misunderstood or who cautioned against the line of actions that are not thought through. In Nigeria's case, any of the security agencies that might have given thought to the psychological advantage attackers would have by not letting the president face Nigerians from Eagle Square on October 1, 2011, would have preferred to remain quiet so as not to be blamed, if anything goes wrong. And this was more likely to have been the scenario since, under threat, group emotions can become irrational, and those in official capacities can take decisions that give psychological advantage to attackers.The problem with October 1, 2011 is not with that day alone, it is the whole atmosphere of beating a retreat that seems to characterise the reaction of each successive administration to major challenges. This has been a tradition of some sort, and it permeates each of the major institutions here. Some decisions and reactions sound like something a grade four pupil could think up. They were decisions that would make anyone wonder if enough thinking-through went on among decision makers. Officials had been saying it lately that the reason most of the decisions in several areas of the nation's life fail is because there is no adequate planning. From privatization to power generation, the story is the same. The manner the security challenges of the nation are being handled at the moment seems to have the same colouration, without what may be termed a holistic approach to the issue.It has always been said that leaders here don't deliberately set out to inspire citizens behind any major course of action. Yet, it is the work of leaders to, not just stand before the camera and make speeches that Nigerians have heard 10 times over, but show leadership by their actions. Hiding the president from his citizens on October 1 did not do anything good to the confidence of Nigerians; it did not show them that the leadership was on top of the situation as regards war on terror in the country. And if any security officials thought the psychological well-being of Nigerians can be damned while they go after bomb throwers, they he might as well consider the battle lost long before they would fire the first shot.
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