Specialists of body language know it well that from the facial expression of an individual one detect what’s is deep inside the heart. They know that an angry man will exhibit a difference facial expression from a joyful man. They also know that a man who is in serious problem will unknowingly show it off. Our facial expressions speaks more than we might know it. It betrays us even when we try to hide it. In some cases, people try to put up a new look, what specialists call faking a body language, but one who knows how to read facial expression will surely detect it.
When this is known, one understands why serious security agencies like CIA or FBI discovers a culprit before he acts. They simply read the facial expression of a suspect and follow his movements and no matter what he does, at a point his expression betrays him. At that point, they damask his or her faked body language and go beyond what a lay man will see either as calmness or cleverness. It is this technique that helped John Larson in the invention of lie detector (polygraph machine).
This having been said, we will want to analyze the body language of Mr. President Jonathan Goodluck during and after his inspection of the bomb blast that took place recently in the nation. Though we are aware he is a calm individual, always at ease, but on this particular occasion the calmness and ease looking of a President, of a Chief of Army Staff, before such a scene goes contrary to an Igbo proverb which says: “a man whose house is on fire do not chase rat”. My dear president has chased a rat when a strong fire is ravaging his house. How can someone, I mean, the President of a country whose country is being destroyed by a group fanatics look so calm.
This has made us to think that, is either the President do not understand the full consequence of what’s going on in Nigeria or that he does not know how to tackle it. We are more convinced of the first option, that’s that he does not know the consequences of what’s going on in Nigeria for amidst confusion his expression should be like this.
But even after the inspection, during his discussion with the journalist, he could not also fake his body language. And that’s why a president after seeing how a group of individuals bombed, not just any police station, but the National headquarter at the Capital Territory Abuja, was like this:
No one then should wonders why after all said has been done he remains unmoved. We can remember quite well that when this happened, closed to the Eagle Square, before many foreign dignitaries, on the day of the 50th anniversary of Nigeria, the same president vowed to bring to book all the culprits. Has he done so? His expression tells us he might not even do anything this time again. In countries where human life matters, the reaction of their leaders tell us they will do something. George W. Bush three days after the 11th September phenomena, reacted differently from my dear president. And maybe that’s why he fought till the end.
Finally, without neglecting the limit of comportemental psychology, we think that our humble President still need to think twice on this issue because from his facial expression, one might conclude he is yet to understand the situation in which Nigeria is plunging into.
”The truth might be hard to say, painful to bear or even drastic for the truth sayer but still needed to be said”. ALISON.
