“Stories have been used to dispossess and malign, but stories can also be used to empower and humanize”.
BY GLORY ESURUA
Early this week, I watched Chimamanda Adichie’s TEDtalks, a talk that I recommend everyone listen to. After listening to her, I decided to give this write-up a title, same as her talk - The Danger of the Single Story.
Consequently, let me crave your indulgence to use quotes from her talk, liberally, in this article.
The maybe unintended, but sad, consequence of a single story about any situation or person is that many listeners/readers tend to go away with just one perception of that situation or person, thereby never able to assess the situation or person holistically.
To write about a situation or person “as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again” so that they become that thing in the minds of the majority of the people, who are often too distracted to put their enquiring minds to work, is to create “the definitive story” of that situation or person.
It is this need for “balancing the stories”, as Chinua Achebe called it in his Home and Exile book that prompted me to look at the breaching of protocol story from another perspective.
Lo and behold, my perspective jogged Mr Franklyn Isong’s memory and the very next day (January 8, 2017) he decided to publish a phone conversation of January 4, 2017 between himself and Senator Godswill Akpabio , the Senate Minority Leader. A conversation that was reported four days too late! A conversation that was initiated by the Distinguished Senator! A conversation in which the Senator (1) not only debunked the suggestion that he always breaches protocol, by citing event(s) when he arrived long before the Governor;(2) regretted when it happened unavoidably and in fact apologized.
At the very minimum, Mr Franklyn Isong could have taken to Facebook, again, the next day, to give us the reading public a summary of the other perspective that he had received firsthand, pending when he could publish the full details in his Newspaper.
At this juncture, Mr Franklyn Isong, let me state that this article is not about you.
This article is about using stories to empower and humanize rather than using stories to dispossess and malign; by giving more than one perspective, thereby balancing our stories.
So, when the Osondu Ahirikas of this world write stories like “AKWA IBOM STATE: Where are your first eleven?” ; or the Ubon Marcus’ of this world write stories like “On Reigner’s Church Tragedy: Appealing to the Mind (1 & 2)”, they give us other perspectives and make us less vulnerable in the face of a single story.
To the men and women of the ‘fourth estate of the realm’ who are showing exemplary leadership in this noble profession, I salute you!
Glory Esurua - Phone: 07089842751 (SMS only)
Email: leadershipcultureanddiversity@gmail.com
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