By Fola OJO (PhD)
A man called Dr. Dokun Bojuwade was my Professor and Director in journalism school in Nigeria 40 years ago. Dr Bojuwade always spoke these wise words that have stuck with me when dealing with people: “No man will state his case to attract the guilty verdict”.
I agreed with Doc then, and I still do till today. People always tell their own side of a story, not necessarily the true story. Why? Because human beings often tell their own side of any given story with fragments of deliberate or inadvertent prejudices to attract sympathy or fulfill an agenda.
Many times, I have fallen for stories I was told; but later, I found out that many storytellers are fathers of lies, mothers of deceptions, and heartless content creators of cock-and-bull balderdash and malarkey. This has taught me to take stories told by people with a grain of salt.
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When told stories, I listen to both sides exhaustively, I sift the wheat from the chaff, separate facts from fictions; and then decide what and who to believe. This is one the virtues of leadership I teach young people all over the world. And It has become my life mantra.
If a leader-father, mother, boss, pastor and all take actions based on words from the mouth of men about other men and women; such leader is leading from behind. And he is pulling down what he may have built with blood and sweat.
It’s wise to always hear out all sides of an account even if people you are not fond of are involved in such stories.
JAMES 1:19- Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath
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