By Comrade Ogbu Alexander Ameh
It was the famous Greek philosopher and cynic Diogenes who went around the street of Athens, lantern in hand .looking for an honest man. This was over Two Thousand years ago, but I presume that Diogenes would have a little success in his search today. Lying seems to be an integral weakness in mortal characters. I doubt that a single human being would be as brash as to claim that he has never lied in his life ,told at least a partial untruth .Indeed ,one Philologist goes so far as to theorize that language must have been invented for the sole purpose of deception. Perhaps so, it is certainly true that animals seems somewhat more trustworthy than humans, may be because they are less gifted mentally.
So why do people lie? To increase their sense of Importance, to escape punishment, to gain an end that would otherwise be dammed them, out of long –standing habit, or sometimes because they actually do not know the difference between fact and fancy .These are the common reasons for falsification. No doubt there are other fairly unique motives that impel people to distort the truth .And come right down to it, can we always be certain what is true and what is false?
If lying is a prevalent and all-too –human phenomenon, there would naturally be a number of interesting words to describe different types of liars. In linking the concept or phenomenon of lying to the society and the human elements that make up such society is the thrust of this thesis. Truth is a representation of things as they are, any attempt at distortion of it amounts to falsehood. This of course has been human’s greatest weakness for the simple reason why human beings lie.
The epidemic of lie ravages through the entire gamut of all human endeavors, even religion that ought to be a sacred reserve of sanity is not left out. No wonder, today the world over and Nigeria in particular, killing, plundering and terrorism in the name of God have become the order of the day. On the other end of the nemesis of lying is plethora of socio- political anomie that portends a gradual slide into social extinction
Such monumental and destructive lies are those built around the sanctimonious supremacy of one religion over the other. From the outset of human civilization, this falsehood has caused human societies great lose and pain. Differences based on ethno- religion, color or race is primordial, uncivilized and backward. Human differences today in this super technology age are predicated on economic social stratification where the gap between the super-rich and the abject poor is ever increasing in chasm.
In most parts of Northern Nigeria, deteriorating security situation has led to a decline in socio- economic activities. In such environment it is the poor who suffers the loss and pain. Why can’t we unite across all the lies and falsehood that held us in bondage to the great divide? These aimless and endless attacks and killing of innocent citizens which has become a recurrent decimal all in the name of falsehood is a reminiscent of the horrific inter-ethnic and religious war that marked the violent breakup of the old Yugoslavia.
Nigeria must not take this road to self-destruction or disintegration, for when the rich make war it is the poor who suffers. These violent realities today are the prize of insincerity glorified in a society through institutionalized corruption. Nigeria is just having her fair share, let’s unite the proletariats to dismantle the bourgeoisies of this country and we have peace to become free and truly a great country. A change is possible, especially when initiated and carried out from below among the masses. A point of departure here is, if the age-long tradition of lying we have inherited as a human nature can be abandoned. We have lied as a people for too long, let each of us as a citizen or indigene of any part of this contraption called Nigeria give up his/her variegates of the lexicon of lie. Perhaps, it will complement the Change Begins With Me mantra of this government to resonate in the hearts of discerning Nigerians.
We shall have peace, speak in one voice and act as one to build a strong and viable society, when the notorious, consummate, inveterate, incorrigible, congenial, psychopathic, unconscionable, glib, egregious liars we have in the family, school, house of worship, office, market and the street turn a new leaf. Lying destroys a nation; history is replete with chronicles of such, let’s avoid entry into such infamous history book. The new order in the world is gradually giving birth to an era of value oriented individuals, those who seek to use their intellectual prowess to establish certain values in societies. These are the individuals government should encourage by creating the enabling environment as a platform to impact society.
The solutions to social problems require a deeper level of thought than that which is required in acquiring personal wealth through trade, scam or loot. It is this clarion call in the soul of men that the government must try to answer as a panacea to what seems a gradual slide into anomie. It seems therefore that part of the challenges that we have to interrogate is the huge capacity of governance deficits that may be severely hindering the country from being able to autonomously fashion and implement a permanent solution to the long security challenges.
A state that is failing to deliver basic social, economic and political goods to its citizens should not be expected to competently manage a response to complex long running crises. It may of course be argued that such a failure is much more a consequence of a lack of political will and commitment to good governance than of lack of human and institutional capacity. The capacity and honesty required of public servants and public political office holders, even religious leaders have long been sacrificed on the altar of CORRUPTION in Nigeria. It is the glaring reality of the dire consequence of corruption that we find ourselves at the cross-road of nation building today.
Comrade Ogbu Alexander Ameh can be reached via the email: Onwaters2011@gmail.com
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