BBC 0, Nigeria 4

Of late, the British Broadcasting Corporation has not scored a single goal against Nigeria but we have scored four. Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, was the fourth Nigerian that I took note of who scored on BBC’s HARDtalk interview programme. Others were former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the President of the International Criminal Court, Chile Eboe-Osuji (I interrogated the interviews of these two personalities on this page), as well as the World Trade Organisation boss, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Ahmed was on the media platform recently and, to me, she proved two points: One, people who’re clever with numbers can be good debaters, too. Two, body language of hers helps play a part in showing the BBC that Nigerians on its hot seat can’t be floored.

The reader would understand the relevance of the first point if they knew I was ever under the impression that only people in the arts/social sciences make good debaters.  This view was moulded at the time I was at Ibadan Grammar School. There was this occasion when the Old Student Association organised a Quiz Competition to mark the Founder’s Day. I was in the classroom when a science student showed up and said our House Master, Mr Olowu, asked me to join him to represent the House in the school auditorium where the judges were already seated. So, I got a notice of less than five minutes for a major event. My colleague answered all the science/mathematics questions correctly; I answered all the arts/social science-related questions correctly.

I had so much respect for my colleague (as he too would later confess he did for me) that I was happy to let him collect the trophy from the organisers, and together, we ran to Mr Olowu to present the trophy to him.  So, I know science/mathematics students are good at quiz too. As for debate, I represented the school (and was the Director of Debate under the umbrella of the school’s Literary and Debating Society), but I didn’t recall any science/ mathematics student who was a member of the school debate team. On the BBC’s HARDtalk however, Madam Ahmed’s performance shows a few things different from what I’ve always believed, even as she, like her predecessors, demonstrates that Nigerians can take the global stage and shine.

Now, HARDtalk takes pride in asking all the “tough questions.” There’re some interesting things about the programme. As I stated in the past, I enjoy the programme most when it discusses literature, because outside of journalism, I’m literary-minded. There’re also the diplomats that I like to hear, as well as spokespersons for governments that I like to listen to as they struggle to sidestep landmines which HARDtalk’s interviewers relish laying for them in particular. Besides the interviewees, there are the interviewers as well for whom I have great respect. They do their research well; they seem to me to have a sharp mind that follows the interviewee’s responses and at the same time wrap those responses into equally intelligent follow-up questions. The interviewers have this and much more going for them. The only time I don’t give them credit for anything is when they host a Nigerian. Of course, I don’t want HARDtalk’s tough questions to make any Nigerian come off looking bad, so the reader would understand why I’m an unbiased judge and the only mark I can graciously give BBC is ZERO.

The fact is that HARDtalk’s interviewers dig up facts, and based on this they ask questions that can knock down their guests flat. So I was ever apprehensive each time any of my compatriots was the interviewee. But I’ve since discovered that our people are able to defend us on each occasion. Ahmed was the latest to do this and I was pleased by the time the show ended. Meanwhile, it wasn’t as if the interviewer, Zainab Badawi, didn’t fight hard to catch Ahmed on that occasion.  It was just that Ahmed proved to be a good debater and as far as I was concerned, with her explanations, she was able to “convince the distinguished panel of judges” on that global stage that there are always two sides to any story.

No doubt there are different ways one could review an interview. It happened that as the interview aired, I paid attention to a few things not related to the questions and the answers given. This is important when reaching a few conclusions has to do with an interview in which the guest essentially defends a government.  In any case reaching any conclusions about the questions posed, as well as the responses from a government official must have those who propose and those oppose. So what I focused on in the course of that interview was how the interviewee approached it, the body language, rather than what she said.

I’ve heard comments made by some that they don’t know what people mean when they make reference to ‘body language’.   I do. Although I began journalism as a political reporter, in years that followed I ventured into literary reporting for obvious reasons. As literary reporter, story-teller, book developer, former stage actor, and award-winning playwright, I know that body language which I consider nuances in things said and unsaid are actually vital  tools in those stated fields.  Knowing how to use the tools helps one to do well in these fields. The good literary reporter must see and hear nuances that other people don’t at literary events, in stories, staged dramas etc – it’s a flavour in any good literary report. The literary reporter who cannot deploy this tool effectively would have dry reports that feel like swallowing pebbles to the reader.

As a story-teller, a good description of body language is a powerful tool or element in the trade. A story that has it in good doses could almost be licked as a child licks empty plate after a sumptuous meal. I had acted under the supervision of the respected playwright and theater director, Prof. Femi Osofisan at the University of Ibadan who, in my presence, once positively commented that I “peak” during rehearsals faster than fellow actors. In acting, I know body language can say things that a polished audience would find  more intellectually stimulating than words.  In any case, paying attention to the unsaid, the body language of major actors at public events, was one of the earliest practical lessons I learnt when I started out in journalism in 1997 at The Guardian newspaper. Here, I won’t go into the details so that I can return to how Ahmed scored the fourth goal for Nigeria on BBC.

In the course of the interview, Ahmed appeared composed to me, unruffled by any of the hard questions Badawi brought her way.  Why is this noteworthy?  A huge chunk of the news about Nigeria at this time makes it a tough task for any Nigerian official to make the global audience think differently from what they see in the news.  We know Nigeria has often been projected  negatively, and the fact that security challenges have compounded this couldn’t have made Ahmed’s task an easy one. However, she  logically  presented her own perspective and I imagined that the fact that a woman was the one doing this might have gained for her more sympathetic ears as well as better understanding.

I also noticed that Ahmed didn’t struggle with her responses. She presented them in a calm manner which wouldn’t have failed to impress even her interviewer. I watched Ahmed’s calm facial expression and gestures, and I concluded that she presented a good image of Nigeria, responding to questions as any good debater should. I think she responded to HARDtalk’s charged, provocative and surely-your-government-is-guilty questions in the manner I have always stated Nigerian government officials ought to respond to journalists.

For an interview, any opportunity that officials have to respond to a journalist’s so-called ‘ignorant’ or ‘offensive’ question, is an opportunity to  take the bottom off critics’ accusations and suavely present the government side of the story. But most officials in Nigeria miss this, responding to questions as they sometimes do in less than polished manner. Ahmed showed polish, and performed excellently well in the manner she made her presentation of the government’s side of the story. In doing this I think she outsmarted the BBC that time.

tunjioa@yahoo.com 08036683657

PUNCH

Leave a Reply

Verified by ExactMetrics