How to steer clear of office politics

Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the apex umbrella bodies of Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, have been warned to, henceforth, stop meddling in the political affairs of the country or face public disgrace.

A group, National Democratic Front (NDF), gave the warning to the religious organsations, saying it was appalled by activities of the groups as “they continue to rapidly evolve into political parties.”

Its secretary-general, Dr Bolaji Abdulkadir, who gave the warning on Monday at a press conference, said “the trend is a dangerous slide into chaos, one that must be avoided at any cost.”

Abdulkadir said CAN, NSCIA and other groups had become cheerleaders for political parties in their own interest.

The group also frowned on the failure of both religious bodies to contribute meaningfully to addressing the security challenges posed by terrorism, separatist agitations and militancy in the country.

He said: “In the period leading to the general elections the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) became fully partisan. It started by leaning towards the endorsement of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP’s) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. To drive home the point, many Christian clergy were to later desecrate their altars by going full blown partisan and presented their campaign for PDP as Sunday sermons.

“If CAN’s indiscretion is cringe worthy, the decision of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) to join its counterpart in the mud is beyond describable. NSCIA castigated CAN in a way that is capable of triggering a tit-for-tat, which could in the long run escalate into physical face-offs. It is a clear case of two wrongs not making a right.

“Ironically, in our view, CAN, NSCIA and other groups that have become cheerleaders for political parties are not even doing so in order for reputable persons to emerge.”

Continuing, he said: “What we further find confounding is that neither CAN nor NSCIA has productively intervened in areas where they are needed. If we take the scourge of kidnap for ransom, for instance, perpetrators are often adherents of Christianity or Islam yet these umbrella religious organisations have not been proactive enough to leverage on their spiritual influence to address the problem and preach against it. They have also failed to contribute meaningfully to addressing the security challenge posed by terrorism; separatist agitations and militancy as it appear they have elected to ignore these issues because contributing to their eradication will not translate into financial gains for them.

“The most glaring area of failure on the part of both organisations is their open endorsement of corruption and theft of public funds. Politicians in Nigeria identify either as Christians or Muslims and it is highly unfashionable for those seeking elective offices to identify as skeptics, agnostics or atheists.

“It is our earnest expectation that both religious organisations will retrace their steps and return to the founding ideals that bought them into existence. They can continue to contribute to the polity by leveraging on their position to discourage the faithful of the religions they represent from engaging in corruption, extremism, terrorism and other acts that are inimical to the wellbeing of Nigeria. They should stay off partisan politics, focus on governance and involve themselves more in community development and service to humanity.

“Once they return to doing this, CAN and NSCIA would again find themselves as reputable organisations whose words would be taking as final when they weigh in on national issues.”

Beware of conflicts and gossip, which can damage your career.

Many young professionals, no matter how hardworking and dedicated, find it hard to avoid the inevitable watercooler chitchat. They’re often caught off-guard when colleagues use these talks as a forum to criticize others and office drama ensues. Gossip and drama occur for many reasons: frustration with the boss or peers, the need for human connection, the desire to belittle others to feel better about oneself, boredom, or the need to talk about something.

What’s more, added Dave Molenda, business coach, author, and the founder of coaching firm Positive Polarity in Waukesha, Wis., most professionals spend more time at work than home, with people they might not choose to interact with in other settings. “When two personalities clash, whether in a relationship outside the office or inside the office, you tend to have drama and disagreements, and tend to have conflict,” he said.

But if left unchecked, office gossip and drama can lead to professional discord, reduced productivity, lower morale, and a breakdown of teamwork, collaboration, and good customer service. Office gossip can also derail a person’s career if he or she becomes known as a rumormonger or someone who talks badly about others. “It’s like a cavity or cancer—if you don’t deal with it or address it, it rarely gets better by itself,” Molenda added.

So how can you steer clear of—or manage—office drama and gossip? Here are some tips from Molenda and experienced CPAs:

Know yourself. Many professionals do not realize their role in perpetuating workplace gossip or drama and have blind spots when it comes to their own character traits. Ask yourself tough questions: Are you ever an instigator? Do you try to stop gossip or communicate with the person starting it?

Recognize gossip, then refrain or redirect. Friendly banter happens at most organizations, but sometimes banter can turn negative and critical. It’s important to identify when someone crosses the line and goes too far—“and then take a conscious stand not to participate in it,” said Kristen Rampe, CPA, founder of Kristen Rampe Consulting in Grand Rapids, Mich., and a scheduled speaker at this year’s EDGE Experience conference, Aug. 2–4, in New Orleans.

If gossip or drama is making you uncomfortable, leave the conversation or attempt to change the subject. Tell your colleagues you are busy and have work to do. Say, “Hey, I need to take care of things at my desk,” or “How about those Cubs?,” she suggested. Having the courage to remove yourself from these situations is a behavioral trait of great leaders.

Be professional and painstaking. Colleagues are unlikely to gossip about you if you work hard for the benefit of the organization, your colleagues, and yourself, noted Steven Roudebush, CPA, a staff accountant at Somerset CPAs in Indianapolis. “Your responsibilities are to give 100% effort when you are at work. So work hard and communicate your workload with your manager on the job and just do your job to the best of your ability.”

Also, always be courteous and professional when talking with colleagues or clients, and listen more than you speak. “You don’t have to like everyone, but you do have to be respectful,” said Pamela Ditch, CPA, tax supervisor at Anders CPA + Advisors in St. Louis.

Offer to help. If your co-worker complains about or criticizes another colleague and you feel compelled to weigh in, “try to help the person gossiping to find the right outlet,” Rampe said. “Is there a manager or partner or peer they can talk to? Find a different way to route that energy.”

Ask for advice. If you are the subject of gossip, or if office drama is affecting the organization or a colleague in a serious way, it may be time to talk to a manager or supervisor whom you trust. Ask your superior how you should approach a situation and how you can possibly resolve it. “If it’s something you can’t work through, then that’s the point where you’ve got to start getting somebody else involved,” Molenda said.

Managers, set the stage. Gossiping and drama cause stress and division within teams, so supervisors must act as examples in terms of how to handle such problems in the workplace. Establish a no-gossip policy early on within your group, and talk with any gossipmongers directly, rather than in a roundabout way, to nip the problems in the bud. State you have heard them talking about someone and that it makes you uncomfortable. “If you can nail that early in your career,” Rampe said, “you have a huge success path ahead of you.”

Cheryl Meyer is a California-based freelance writer. To comment on this article, email senior editor Courtney Vien.

The Calcutta High Court on Monday ordered the District Magistrate of Cooch Behar District in West Bengal, to act as an impartial authority and to steer away from any sort of arbitrariness that might stem from his own political motivations. This order was passed in a writ petition filed by one Biswanath Chowdhary, who had alleged that the rules laid down by the Bar Council of India.

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The Calcutta High Court on Monday ordered the District Magistrate of Cooch Behar District in West Bengal, to act as an impartial authority and to steer away from any sort of arbitrariness that might stem from his own political motivations.

This order was passed in a writ petition filed by one Biswanath Chowdhary, who had alleged that the rules laid down by the Bar Council of India had been broken inasmuch as a law college, affiliated with the Cooch Behar University, had been established in the same premises as another educational institute.

Allegedly, the building of Uttarayan Law College was also being used for conducting classes for the B. Ed. course. It was submitted that a law college cannot be run from the same premises, as per the Bar Council guidelines.

When such allegations were made, a Division Bench comprising of Justices Sanjib Banerjee and Hiranmay Bhattacharyya had promptly ordered the District Magistrate of Cooch Behar, namely Pawan Kadyan, to visit the said premises and conduct a thorough investigation of how the law college had been functioning.

On the next date, when the District Magistrate failed to file a report and it was revealed that he did not conduct any investigation, the Court initiated suo moto contempt proceedings the officer for failing to follow the instructions given to him by the Court.

During the hearing on Monday, the District Magistrate acknowledged that he had made a mistake. He further gave the Court a second report, along with copies of photographs that had been taken on his visit to Matikata and Jatrapur. He expressed his regret and gave the Court unqualified apologies for not following the Court’s original orders.

After being presented with a second report and an apology, the Court decided to drop the charges of contempt against the District Magistrate.

“In the light of the subsequent report prepared by the District Magistrate and the repentance shown for the earlier mistake, the District Magistrate is discharged. The contempt proceedings are dropped,” it observed.

The Court went on to say that the duty of the District Magistrate is to the citizens and that he should operate without any arbitrariness or bias.

“Since Mr. Kadyan has a long career, the court wishes him well but reminds him that his obligation every step of the way in his official capacity is to the citizen and to steer clear of the road of unfairness, unreasonableness and arbitrariness, particularly, at the behest of the political executive,” the Court said.

Since the report and the photographs have been submitted to the Court, the hearing for the matter has been scheduled to 21 st December, 2020.

Case Title: Biswanath Chowdhury v. Chairman, National Council for Teachers Education & Ors.

In the United States, the conclusion of the summer Olympics also means we’re fast approaching another presidential election. In fact, the way various elections are staggered, we’re never more than a few months away from an election of some kind. Perhaps in your country, you too are blessed to have the freedom to elect your governmental leaders. It’s a precious and hard-won human right that the whole world is destined to exercise.

Democracy is a core value of Baha’i life. The way in which we govern our own affairs is deeply democratic. We elect our leaders from the bottom of the administrative order to the very top. But we do it all without campaigning. We don’t put our own names or those of others up for election, and likewise we don’t engage in negative self-campaigning to remove ourselves from consideration. Baha’is simply and prayerfully vote for a slate of people they believe will best serve the community, and, in the case of Spiritual Assemblies, the nine top vote-getters are elected.

When it comes to civic life, we vote in governmental elections; however we are not to campaign, and a concern for unity would dictate that we not even discuss our preference with others.

This non-involvement in partisan politics is a new concept to most who encounter it. In my own culture, not only is it new but it runs afoul of longstanding social norms that hold political involvement as a virtue, not a vice. Standing up for this or that political initiative, full-throated support of your candidate, yard signs, bumper stickers, going door-to-door, participating in rallies or protests, posting your politics on Facebook – all of these are expected, and Baha’is are often conspicuous in their absence from these activities, having to gently decline to put a sign in our yard for our neighbor running for the school board or to donate money to a campaign or explaining why we’re not going to the polls to vote in primary (party) elections.

In the Baha’i Faith, prohibition of a given thing is sufficient reason to abstain from it, but I have found that contemplating the wisdom and real-world consequences of the Teachings has been a boon to my own faith. In thinking about this topic, I’ve identified six distinct reasons to abstain from partisan politics, over and above the fact that we’re required to.

1. Interpersonal Unity

Perhaps the best reason is simply to avoid hurting feelings and alienating others. When people understand that the whole point of the Baha’i Faith is the unification of humanity, they usually get fairly quickly the problem with partisan politics, which, by its very nature divides people and sets one side in a perpetual battle against the other. This state of perpetual conflict is not only true for the elected but runs all the way down to those who simply hold an opinion. Discussing political opinions with friends can be an amusing parlor game, but more often it results in discomfort between friends and family members and is a source of irritation. I’ve even known friends who have ceased to be such when they discovered each other’s political preferences. This is doubly tragic when we consider how seldom if ever such mutual irritation changes anything.

I recently saw and reposted an amusing but profound graphic on Facebook that read: “Your constant political posts on Facebook have finally turned me to your way of thinking. Said nobody. Ever.” At least half of my friends who “Liked” the post were guilty of the charge. Apparently, they only read opposing views as “politics,” while their own jabs and public political alignments are merely expressions of common sense or humor.

Having identified how partisan politics undermines the spirit of unity, I’ll move quickly through the remaining five reasons:

2. Protecting Oppressed Believers

Having a ban on partisan politics as part of the doctrine of the Faith helps to insulate Baha’is from charges of sedition in countries that lack freedom of political expression. “Revolutionaries? It says right here in our scripture we’re not even allowed to be partisans.”

3. The Baha’i Faith doesn’t fit on the traditional political ‘spectrum’

Members of the Faith cannot identify with a party because the teachings of the Faith will not conform to any party platform. Moreover, we can’t really even identify with a lower-case political ideology like “liberal” or “conservative,” because ideology itself breaks down in the solution of the Faith’s teachings. We reject the liberal-conservative spectrum in favor of a list of principles that refuses to be plotted easily on a typical spectrum. To use just two examples, reducing the extremes of wealth and poverty might be a sentiment in harmony with the political left, while the emphasizing the importance of work is a sentiment dear to the right. Progressive income tax, left. Capital punishment, right. And so on. (We can say, however, the Faith eschews both political extremes in explicitly rejecting communism and libertarianism.)

4. Politics as currently practiced is inherently unspiritual

Living through just a few political cycles as a Baha’i sensitizes one to how inherently unspiritual politics is as practiced today. Candidates are bound by tradition to engage in self-aggrandizement and the telling half-truths and lies about opponents to paint them in the worst possible light.

And if it were a spiritual practice, why does it seem politics appeals to ever more superficial qualities like good looks, smooth presentation skills, and fear.

5. Partisan politics appeals to zero-sum mentality

The exercise of politics after winning usually involves competition for resources based on geographic territory instead of the best interest of the whole polity.

6. Partisan campaigning wastes massive amounts of resources and energy

Finally, consider the resources – both energy and money – expended on defeating an opponent and defending one’s own side, both during and after campaigns. What could such human and monetary resources be used to achieve if they weren’t flushed down the toilet of history by political gamesmanship?

Abdu’l-Baha said, “Speak thou no word of politics; thy task concerneth the life of the soul, for this verily leadeth to man’s joy in the world of God. Except to speak well of them, make thou no mention of the earth’s kings, and the worldly governments thereof. Rather, confine thine utterance to spreading the blissful tidings of the Kingdom of God, and demonstrating the influence of the Word of God, and the holiness of the Cause of God.”

No word of politics? Or of worldly governments? That’s a tall order! But if you try it, you’ll find it’s a commandment that will bless your life in the exact degree that ignoring it has vexed all of ours.

Thousands of Trump’s supporters are gathering in Washington, DC to protest the 2020 presidential election results.

Alessia Grunberger , Patch Staff

Posted Wed, Jan 6, 2021 at 11:53 a m ET | Updated Wed, Jan 6, 2021 at 12:03 p m ET

ROCKVILLE, MD — Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich (D) is urging residents to steer clear of the Pro-Trump demonstrations in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday.

Thousands of President Trump’s supporters are descending on the nation’s capital in a last-ditch effort to keep the Republican commander-in-chief in the White House. For weeks, the president and his supporters have peddled baseless claims of election fraud. Their efforts come to a head on Wednesday, the same day Congress is scheduled to certify Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election.

“The right to protest is a fundamental right of every American. I have personally exercised this right for decades,” Elrich said. “But this week I am joining (D.C.) Mayor Bowser and other regional leaders in urging our residents to avoid demonstrations by protestors supporting President Trump’s erroneous claims that the election was fraudulent. These are not ordinary times, and these will not be ordinary protests.”

Elrich expressed concerns that the rally could turn violent, which may put residents in harm’s way.

“There is talk of disrupting the counting of votes in Congress, which would require extreme actions. This could create a volatile situation that may get out of hand, and we do not want people putting themselves in harm’s way,” he said. “Let Congress do its job, let the police protect Congress against whatever threats may evolve, and let’s do our part to make sure that the task confronting the police is as simple as possible. And let us hope that peace and human decency prevail at the end of the day. Please stay away, and please stay safe.”

Many critics of the president want retired general John Kelly and other retired generals to go full metal jacket on Trump. That’s a big ask for those raised in a culture to think not just about themselves but their successors.

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Last year, General George Casey Jr., the former Army chief of staff, gave a lecture at Boston College Law School about how essential it is to a functioning democracy to keep a clear line of demarcation between military command and civilian control.

Casey, who grew up in Allston and was the commanding general of multinational forces in Iraq, is the son of a general and teaches civil-military relations at the Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.

That day at BC, he talked about the importance of civilian leaders concentrating on matters of national strategy while leaving the tactics to military leaders. He stressed the importance of military leaders steering clear of politics, while stressing their parallel duty to question policies they believe are mistaken and to “tell unpleasant truths” to civilian leaders.

And he also said something that wouldn’t go over well in my world, where transparency is the buzz word for everyone who gets paid by the taxpayer: Discussions about national security strategy should be robust, but they should take place in private.

General Casey’s words are ringing in my ears now as so many people clamor for another general with Boston roots, retired Marine General John Kelly, to become a vocal partisan.

Kelly, who grew up in Brighton, not far from General Casey, is under increasing pressure from President Trump’s critics to come forward to confirm and even elaborate on the contents of an article in The Atlantic that quotes the president calling American war dead “losers” and “suckers.”

But Kelly, like another Marine general who served under Trump, former defense secretary Jim Mattis, is reluctant to speak out.

It’s fair enough to debate whether these former military figures should feel free to publicly denounce a sitting president, given that they retired from the military before volunteering as members of the administration, Kelly first as homeland security secretary then White House chief of staff. There is no easy answer.

By resigning from Trump’s administration, and even by offering a few withering words about the president, Kelly and Mattis have made it abundantly clear what they think of Trump. Wanting them to become talking heads on cable news shows ignores the military culture that produced them.

As Casey’s academic work underscores, it is not the military’s job to save democracy, but the American people’s, at the ballot box.

When a retired general jumps into the political fray, choosing sides, it can undermine those military figures still engaged in public policy roles.

I checked in with Casey this week and he agreed that a lot of what’s going on right now underscores much of what he tries to teach future leaders. Politics and the military can be a volatile mixture.

“I don’t want to discourage veterans from running for political office,” he said, “just the senior folks that get used by political campaigns.”

The Atlantic story is based on anonymous sources, but some of the derogatory comments attributed to Trump have been corroborated by other news outlets — even Fox News — and are not so different from what he has said publicly in denigrating the service and sacrifice of the late senator and war hero John McCain or the lack of decorum he has shown for Gold Star families.

Trump has called President George H.W. Bush, who as a Navy pilot was rescued by a US submarine after being shot down by the Japanese during World War II, a loser.

Mattis and Kelly could go public and confirm or deny any number of disrespectful and tone-deaf things the president has said over the last four years and it wouldn’t change one mind in the coming election. Trump’s supporters have showed time and again that there is nothing he could do or say that would lessen their support for him.

Trump himself said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and wouldn’t lose one of his supporters. As the president who, by The Washington Post’s count, has uttered more than 20,000 lies or misleading statements, he told the truth on that.

The factional Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State, Mr Henry Olatuja, has urged the national leaders of the party to warn the Chairman of Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Dr Kayode Fayemi, to steer clear of the state’s politics.

Olatuja stated this on Tuesday in Akure at a news conference, organised by the party over the mode of primary being considered for picking the APC standard bearer in the state.

He claimed that Fayemi, the Governor of Ekiti, was trying to impose his ‘friend’, the incumbent governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, on the party faithful in the state by pushing for indirect governorship primary.

Our correspondent reports that the primary election of the APC has been scheduled for July 20.

“We need to call the attention of national leaders of our party to call the Governor of Ekiti, Dr Kayode Fayemi, to order to avoid disgrace and embarrassment that may arise from abuse of his office as Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum.

“He should desist from facilitating undemocratic process, while trying to impose the incumbent governor, Rotimi Akeredolu on the APC by pushing for an indirect primary.

“The indirect primary is grossly inequitable and inimical to the success of our party in the general election coming up on Oct. 10.

“He should note that Ondo State is not an appendage of Ekiti, and as such, he should stop meddling in the political affairs of our state,” he said.
Olatuja further claimed that out of the 12 aspirants contesting for the APC governorship ticket, nine were working with their own faction of the party.

“It is, therefore, unthinkable and unspeakable that the list of party members submitted to assist the APC national committee coming to conduct the primary election in various ward and local governments was unilaterally compiled and submitted by the Ade Adetimehin group.

“This was without the input of our executive committee and other aspirants.

“We demand that the list in contention be discountenance in the spirit of equity, fairness and justice,” he said.

Olatuja said that the party was not unmindful of the coronavirus pandemic, but with strict adherence to the laid down procedures by the NCDC and INEC to achieve direct mode of primary for the choice of the party’s governorship candidate.

He, however, pledged his executives’ full support for and loyalty to the new leadership of the party under Gov. Mai Bala Buni of Yobe and prayed for successful discharge of the national assignment.

A group, Ondo State Progressives Network, has urged Gov. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti to steer clear of the July 20 All Progressives Congress (APC) primary in the state.

The Coordinator of the group, Mr Tunde Ajayi, made the call in a statement on Monday in Akure.

It was reported that there had been calls for Direct Primary to Gov. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu by opposing camps within the All Progressive Congress (APC).

Ajayi said that there have been pressure on the leadership of the APC to impose indirect mode of primary against the wishes of majority of the party member in the state.

“The attention of the Ondo State Progressives Network has been drawn to series of moves to lure some national leaders of the APC and some governors to mount pressure on the national working committee to announce an indirect primaries for the election.

“The Network, therefore, advise that leaders of the party in Ondo State and at the national level should be allowed to act appropriately.

“The group also condemn any move which will thwart the unity of the party in the state,” he said.

The coordinator advised Akeredolu to adopt the party’s leadership process rather than seeking to get an indirect primary process.

“We further appeal to the leadership of the party and members of the national working committee not to be intimidated.

“Only a direct primary process in the party’s guber primary can restore the hope of APC faithful in the state and move the party to the next level,” Ajayi said.

Meanwhile, Ondo State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr Donald Ojogo, earlier in a statement, said that the governor was not afraid of direct primary.

“First and foremost, we have not come out as a government that we are opposed to direct primary; neither had the governor expressed aversion to same.

“We’re not afraid of any mode of primary. I will want the public to know that the call for direct primary is to put out narrative that the governor is opposed to direct primary. In fact, we’ll even prefer a direct primary.

“For those who clamour for direct primary, the message to them is that Akeredolu is more prepared for any mode of primary than those who clamour for it,” Ojogo said.

Nokia Oyj Chief Executive Officer Pekka Lundmark said the Finnish networks maker plans to stand clear of geopolitics as the technology industry increasingly is thrust into trade and political conflicts.

Lundmark, who took the reins at Nokia on Aug. 1, is finding his footing in a tense situation that pits China — and Nokia’s rival Huawei Technologies Co. — against the U.S. and other governments moving to ban the Chinese supplier from their fifth-generation mobile networks.

“I think it would be a big mistake if individual businesses would start to drive their political agenda,” he said in an interview on Friday. “It’s very important that businesses play it straight and stay where they should stay. We do not have a political agenda, we are a pure business.”

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has been pressuring allies against using Huawei’s equipment, which it argues could pose a danger to network security. Huawei has forcefully and repeatedly denied these allegations. Huawei isn’t the only Chinese tech firm targeted: on Thursday, Trump moved to ban Chinese-owned TikTok and WeChat social media apps.

Huawei’s troubles have brought some business Nokia’s way, the company said last month. The U.S. and the U.K. have signaled they’re considering some form of aid to Nokia and its Swedish competitor, Ericsson AB, to ensure competition in the supply of 5G gear.

Nokia lags behind rivals in the 5G race, and that’s what Lundmark has been brought in to fix. Five days into his new job, the CEO said he is busy speaking with customers and has begun mapping a path forward.

“My goal definitely is that I would be able to say something more concrete before the end of the year” on “what next steps we should take on the market,” he said.

That may seem like a long time for shareholders, reeling from a 40% drop in the stock price since a 2015 high (on the day it announced the purchase of Alcatel-Lucent). They’ve been waiting since early March for Lundmark to take the reins, and many have expressed hopes he would act fast to start a turnaround. Lundmark said he has plans for an investor day “in due course” — a rare event at Nokia, which has only held two Capital Markets Days since 2009, the last one in 2016.

“We have had our ups and downs in Nokia’s performance and the company has gone through a fundamental transformation,” he said. “But I’m also cautiously optimistic about the situation right now.”