Stories of Self, Us and Now: Its Use, Misuse & Abuse

In many ways, the world needs hope, and leaders are often looked up to for it. Leadership usually becomes expedient when people feel lost, uncertain, and hopeless. That is where leadership demands visibility. Hope is one of the most precious gifts we can give each other and the people we work with. And storytelling is an important tool to give hope. Historically, great leaders have engaged the power of storytelling to inspire great actions in people. Barack Obama is an example of such a leader who uses the power of stories to inspire collective action in people. Storytelling always works because when we tell our stories of self, we connect with people. When we connect with people, we have a chance to inspire and influence them. When we share our stories, we connect with ourselves and begin to shape our own narratives in public, and we give others something in us to connect to. As we connect and listen to other people’s stories of self, we realize that our deepest pain is most common to all. In that commonality lies criticality — the recognition of our pain.

During the tour of her book, Becoming, Michelle Obama noted that everyone is a statistic until you listen to their stories. Data — numbers and statistics — are powerful, but humanity can get lost in them. For example, the 80 million people living below the poverty line in Nigeria isn’t just a number but the reality of unique 80 million humans who, on a daily basis, deal with the pain of hunger and the various associated realities that come with it. These are people with identities, rights, and aspirations. Storytelling gives us a chance to see beyond faceless numbers.

When we connect our stories of self, we have a story of us, and that is the beginning of hope. The feeling that we are not alone and that others have dealt with what we are currently going through. This realization is an important reason why people follow their leaders. When they see themselves in their leaders, they open up for inspiration; they are hopeful — the recognition of what is possible. This is the foundation of community building. Powerful stories lead to actions because, according to Ganz Marshall, criticality and hope create tensions — the knowledge of the difference between what is and what can be. This knowledge often leads to anger — demanding that we take action now!

The responsibility of the leaders becomes guiding their community to take the right actions through values that must have been established through stories of self and us. The recognition of what is ‘possible’ helps us see the need and urgency to take action, giving us a story of now. Therein lies the agency — the recognition of our collective power and the need for action. It is in our collective actions that we find the strength to demand change. This is ultimately the power of storytelling: our ability to use our stories to inspire hope and action in our community.

Leaders who win use the stories of self, of us, and of now to inspire people to action. It is not just the grass-to-grace stories but the empathy that comes with our stories that make the difference. It takes empathetic leadership to recognize these pain points and inspire others to decisive positive actions. Too often, we have had political leaders who have experienced such low-quality existence and have, through providence and interventions, moved significantly up the socio-economic ladder. Yet, instead of doubling down on reversing the dysfunction through social investments, initiatives, and interventions, they choose to weaponize stories and communal identities instead — riding on pedestrian sentiments instead of encouraging shared prosperity.

This signature grass-to-grace approach to public narrative has worked for a lot of people for the longest time. Well-intentioned leaders have used it to evoke camaraderie and consensus amongst their constituents — signaling that they are ideological synecdoches of the respective communities. This behavior is evidently manifested more during electioneering; the 2023 General Elections in Nigeria, unfortunately, will be no different. Storytelling is not exclusive to genuine leaders at all, but also to unscrupulous politicians who have mastered the art too. They have become master storytellers as a way to exploit people of their stories without the intention of allowing their agencies. Such leaders will become prominent as elections approach, and it is important that we become aware of the dangers of master storytellers without communal values.

This is where the electorate has to be on the alert; to be wary of those who, instead of making a case for their competence, capacity, and character to deliver the greatest good to the greatest number of people — choose to invoke groupthink sentiments and play the identity politics card. Candidates must be scrutinized for their antecedents and interrogated on their submissions. The challenges we face as a collective are agnostic to religion, ethnicity, and partisan affiliations; positive change only comes from stellar leadership and forward-thinking minds.

Too many times, political figures, well aware of the fact that Nigeria is shamelessly the poverty capital of the world — try to draw parallels with their story of underprivileged origins. This attempt at drawing sympathy has been crudely weaponized and bastardized. Almost every person seems to have grown up “without shoes” or gratuitously had their education funded. These stories, whilst they may be true, are often used to obfuscate from having issue-based campaigns.

Elections have consequences. If we allow people without character but with great elocution and erudition to sway us by a false sense of patriotism, we will be collectively worse off for it. We would have exchanged precious gems for worthless rocks. This is why we must be both active and proactive in countering such pseudo-narratives so we can separate the wheat from the chaff. The most powerful political position in any democracy is The Office of The Citizen. Nigeria doesn’t need more activists; she needs more active citizens. Here are some things we can do to identify the weaponization of origin stories by shady politicians:

• Ask questions: communication is a two-way street. Don’t be satisfied or blown away by monologues and unilateral speeches. Intelligently interrogate claims made by politicians, especially on critical issues. Refuse to accept vague pronouncements and placebos. Ask them what they have done before now to solve or contribute to solving the challenges of the communities they claim affinity to.
• Investigate: I am not asking you to run CIA-type background checks or anything like that. Start with what you have — the internet. Look up things that are low-hanging fruits, write to certain institutions to verify academic claims, and reach out to former colleagues of such persons to gain more perspective. Beware of fake news and misinformation.
• Reinforce community values: Regardless of whatever you’re being told, remind your community members about the things that are sacrosanct to you and the things that are expendable. Don’t compromise on your convictions owing to outlandish rhetoric by such dubious politicians. In every election, it is not your vote that is put to the test; more importantly, your values are on the ballot.