The international backlash over a widely unpopular granting of amnesty to the former governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alameiyesehia by the Jonathan administration was quite strident. In an uncharacteristic manner, the US ambassador in Nigeria had publicly expressed the US government’s displeasure with granting amnesty to a public official convicted of corruption.

In 2004,under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, then governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alameiyesehia had been arrested when he travelled abroad on money laundering charges and convicted by a UK court. Ironically, current President Dr Goodluck Jonathan had been Alams’ deputy as the former governor is fondly called by his admirers and Jonathan subsequently replaced him as governor of the state.

In spite of his debacle however, Alameiyesehia has fought back gamely and his find patronage from his old deputy and confidant—President Jonathan. It is noteworthy that Alameiyesehia, who is quite charismatic and popular among the masses had also been governor-general of the Ijaw nation, the ethnic group that form the bulk of the state..

Two years ago, when President Jonathan was seeking re-election it was to Alameyesehia his old boss he turned to as a trusted ally to do a lot of things howbeit from the background.  Since then, say sources, the president had sought to ‘rehabilitate’ politically Alameiyesehia.

The President is believed to have made the move when the issue of state pardon came up at the recent Council of State meeting, where he is believed to have actively sold’ the Alameyiesehia pardon to the gathering of former heads of state which included ex-President Shehu Shagari, General Yakubu Gowon, Chief Ernest Shonekan, General Abubakar Abdusalami and his political arch-rival General Muhammadu Buhari.

Curiously, Buhari who has been using an anti-corruption platform to gather political support against the President is yet to issue a public statement over his role in the state pardon for Alameseiyehia.

Critics hold President Jonathan personally responsible in this case the close relationship between the disgraced former Bayelsa governor and the President. Worse, Dr Jonathan appears to have given more fodder to his rabid critics who have built their political capital on Jonathan bashing for being soft on corruption. Matter of factly, this premise was believed to have informed the choice of erstwhile anti-corruption czar, Nuhu Ribadu as the presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria in the last general election in 2011.

It seems reasonable to assume that the President who had long sought to rehabilitate Alameiyesehia politically, thinks that this was the best time to do it—at least a year ahead of 2014 ,when perhaps, the pardon would have been long forgotten and overtaken by events. This is well before the start of political campaigns for the next elections which should take place in early 2015.

But if the President was expecting a backlash, he probably did not expect the magnitude and unanimity of opinion among both friends and foes. Indeed, condemnation of the Alameiyesehia pardon as been equally vociferous both at home and abroad. If the President thought that close economic relations between Nigeria and the US especially key Nigerian crude oil imports to that country would stop a US condemnation he thought wrong. And erstwhile, colonial master, Britain has made it clear that it would continue to press for an extradition of the ‘pardoned’ former governor to London to face prosecution on money laundering charges which date back to 2003.

Did the Jonathan administration handle the issue well both in terms of a pre-pardon engagement with the Nigerian public to explain its position? Or a post-pardon’ communication engagement to explain why it was done?

There was no pre-engagement-- a kind of’ softening up’ of public opinion or putting out the issue in other to gauge the tilt of public opinion which may influence eventual decision—whether to grant pardon or not.

Then, post-pardon. The president’s Media adviser, Dr Reuben Abati came out with a public statement on the issue. But that did not seem to do the magic. It appears Abati’s strategy was to counter-attack critics of the pardon rather than address the issue of the pardon itself..Perhaps, bring to the fore issues surrounding the granting of the pardon which may not be widely known to the public. Rather, a testy Abati accused critics, nay Nigerians of “sophisticated ignorance” over the issue.

As it happened reasons which may have helped the government’s case were downed by Abati’s name-calling of the critics.A good indication of the failure of Abati’s crisis management communication strategy was the response of highly influential social critic, Professor Wole Soyinka who said that if Nigerians were indeed ignorant as Abati wanted us to believe, then he would gladly want to be counted among the lot of ‘ignorant” Nigerians who have roundly condemned the Alams’ pardon.

Following the strident public criticism of the pardon ,the Presidency is not saying much.The President himself has not said a word on it .After a single statement on the issue by presidential media adviser, Abati, his communication aides have been silent, it would appear the strategy is to grit their teeth, hoping that the storm would blow away, soon enough.

So what crisis management communication strategy would perhaps have worked better? The bigger issue the overwhelming.

It is difficult one, managing politicians is a difficult one, one pre-condition is that my view should be sought before some decisions are taken.You know the feeling of generality of Nigerians against the pardon is so overwhelming. Because the issue of corruption is so pivotal to our development.I think granting of state pardon to Alams makes us look like a joke, in the face of the world.

Some argue that Alameseyehia had been singled out and made a scapegoat by the Obasanjo administration and a pardon was in order, more so given the massive ongoing fraud by political office holders. The government also argues that Alams has been of great help in keeping restive youths in the Niger delta under control, which otherwise have negatively affected the country’s crude oil production.

“I think there is a bit of an emotional argument here. Because the President had worked with Alams, he had worked under him as deputy governor, so its easy to see the emotional consideration,” says Okoruwa, in response.

Only after I have been consulted should the decision be taken, says Okoruwa, PR consultant and managing director of XCLR8,a leading Nigerian PR firm. Going by experience, it would seem most political office holders have a different way of doing things.

There is ample evidence that top ranking political office holders do not consult their media or PR advisers prior to a policy decision, even though the latter would have to manage whatever negative fallouts that result from such decisions.

For Mike Nzeagwu, Head consultant at Metro-Media,a PR consultancy, wants to situate the Alams’ pardon within the context of contemporary Nigeria. On one hand ,if you juxtapose Alameseiyehia’s case with those who have stolen billions of naira and are walking the streets freely ,then you can say, the former governor who committed that crime long ago should be forgiven. Even more so, when you have some corrupt people in the Senate or house of Representatives. Within that context, his pardon may be justified.

Again, when you consider the outrage that has accompanied the pardon, this is quite understandable. Because they (government) say they are fighting corruption and they go and pardon somebody who was convicted of corruption.It seems like a contradiction.”

On how the President’s media aides handled the PR crisis resulting from the pardon, Nzeagwu says “unfortunately, the President’s men resulted to name-calling, which is not a good strategy.”

“It is a big political and PR issue for the Presidency, It is a big crisis,with international dimensions,” he says.

On damage control strategies, Nzeagwu says if he was advising the Presidency, he would have adopted a “confidence building” strategy. That includes coming up with more explanations.”He can state their case, not result to name-calling. Abati should apologise to those he has insulted,” Nzeagwu says.

“There is the need to strengthen the judiciary and strengthen the laws of the country to take care of corruption. The Media can be employed to explain what the President is doing in this area to Nigerians. It should not be a defensive weapon or be used to attack opponents”, he concludes.