A face-saver is a compromising principle that allows a negotiator to give up some of their demands to make the other party feel as if their efforts yielded fruits and rewards without losing their original intentions.
Mr. Godwin Emefiele of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Prof. Mahmood Yakubu of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have perfected the art of face-saving tactics that always make their worst adversaries, and the National Assembly falls in love with them.
Each time the CBN and the INEC set deadlines, members of the National Assembly, as the representatives of the people, would usually side with the people they represent to ask for longer dates for implementing any new policy pronouncement.
Take the CBN currency swap, for example. The CBN initially set January 31, 2023, as a deadline for swapping old notes with the new Naira notes. The Senate met and gaveled the end of July 2023 for the deadline.
Emefiele knows too well that he needs the National Assembly in many ways. So, it will be an overarching power play to gloss over the latest gavel and the cries from Nigerians. I am sure indirect negotiations took place, and bam! The CBN extended the date to February 10, 2023.
The CBN gave the National Assembly a face-saver and saved its face from the disgrace of a policy failure. If the CBN did not bulge, many states would have erupted in violence because many peasants had no food from last weekend as food sellers stopped taking the old Naira notes. In the end, common sense prevailed. This outcome is what is expected of every Negotiation.
Parties must weigh their strengths and weaknesses before embarking on a negotiation strategy. As we saw with the latest CBN tactics, negotiators should avoid competing and avoidance strategies. Parties should try to adopt compromising, accommodating, and collaborative principles that allow negotiators to give up some of their demands to make the other party leave the table co-winner.
Grace and peace!!!
