The Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) has said President Bola Tinubu deserves commendation for reversing himself after realizing he had been misled into including the names of undeserving Nigerians on the list of those recently pardoned.
President and Chairman of Council of the NIPR, Dr. Ike Neliaku, said this during the October edition of the NIPR monthly meeting in Abuja on Wednesday.
Neliaku said, “It is not wrong to make mistakes. It is wrong when you fail to acknowledge your mistake and then pretend that it is the right thing, that is not reputation, that is not integrity, that is imposition of thought.”
He explained that he overheard someone accuse the president of “always reversing himself” and went on to give some examples, including the removal and reinstatement of the Director-General of the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA).
To which he replied, “And I said, the mark of leadership is to acknowledge when you are wrong and correct yourself when you realise it. I am among those who believe the sacking of the NTA DG was wrong.
“So, when the President corrected it, I was one of those who felt he did the right thing. I believe that people told him ‘you did what you ought not to have done’ and he realised that he was sold a wrong dummy, which is what happens to leaders.
“When you see what I go through, you will know that leaders are vulnerable to being misadvised and to being misguided. So, if you are not on your toes, you are on your own.
“When leaders are misled and have a way of finding out that they were misled, there is nothing wrong in reversing it. That is rather a mark of leadership.
If the president realised that he was misadvised and owned it and said, ‘I must do the right thing. It is not wrong; that is what reputation is all about.
Recall, President Bola Tinubu had, in response to public outrage over the pardon he earlier granted to convicted murderers, drug dealers, kidnappers and fraudsters, on Wednesday reversed himself.
