Crossfire: Senator Nwaebonyi Vs Dr. Ezekwesili – Frank Ofili

At a time of extreme provocation, leaders are expected to maintain the strictest standards of tolerance and self-control.

By getting so emotional and joining the fray in an uncontrollable public uttercation, you effectively lower those standards. A profound mistake which shows you as not different from the aggressor. For a Senator representing the Senate President (a man already accused of bullying and sexual harassment) Nwaebonyi was tactless.

A simple African wisdom. As a man, if a little boy slaps you and you retaliate, then an onlooker will not notice the difference between both of you.

So, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili disrespected Senator Nwaebonyi, but the Senator by losing his cool disrespected not only the Committee chairman who was restraining and pleading with him to calm down, but also the entire Committee itself.

A more profound and dignified thing to do would have been for Senator Nwaebonyi to restrain himself and then demand a public apology from Dr. Ezekwesili afterwards for her verbal attack against his person. There is a reason for this. Decorum.

If you have ever engaged a labour union in a crisis or negotiation for instance, you would notice that their representatives sitting at the opposite side of the table would sometimes deliberately irritate you to throw you off guard so that you lose your strategy. What if Dr. Ezekwesili came with similar tactic? That is why Senator Nwaebonyi should have maintained his cool.

Even in sport if you are fouled and you retaliate you become the aggressor and hence liable to be penalised. You do not take the law into your own hands. You let the rule of the game take care of the situation.

Yes, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili was rude to Senator Nwaebonyi, but I am sorry to say that the Senator failed to show the difference. He failed to show at that moment of emotional outburst that he is truly a leader.

With this kind of horrible leadership temperament publicly displayed by Senator Nwaebonyi it is now not difficult to understand why the Senate hurriedly suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan even without availing her fair hearing.

By the way, Senator Onyekachi Nwaebonyi is Deputy Chief Whip of the Nigerian Senate.