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A Government That Lies: Obasanjo, Atiku, Borishade And Others (How Not To Tell A Lie) By Prince Charles Dickson Jos, Plateau Nigeria
You can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what a man wishes, that he also believes to be true.
He who is not sure of his memory should not undertake the trade of lying, these were the words of Montaigne and it best describes the situation that Nigeria and Nigerians have found themselves with the government of the day. After all the fashion parade of a Presidential aviation forum in which the President barked and insulted everybody we have witnessed more air disasters...the Air Vice Marshall Dike audit report has not seen the light of the day. The Civil Aviation Bill 2005 in the Senate has only passed the first reading, yet to go for the second reading, before we talk of committee work, and then public hearings. This is just a scratch and yet the sector we are told has undergone reforms...lying truthfully.
The former aviation chief Professor Borishade truthfully lying had no fear for the dead but choose to look for a scape goat in the deceased Pilot of the ADC crashed plane...in his explanation the former Minister said the Pilot disobeyed control tower instructions...somehow the two planes that left barely minutes before the ill fated ADC did not crash and did not disobey the tower, it is also strange that the Aero contractor that was sited to have obeyed was not airborne till 2.30 in the afternoon. When a nation is governed by men that cannot take responsibility for their actions then they are cursed with an era of deception.
If the President recalled his self praise barely a week earlier at the Lisa village scene of last year's Bellview crash it must then be the reason he was personally grieved but still he had to quickly leave for China, after all life must go on.
When in doubt we were thought to tell the truth. the art and act of lying is one that this government has elevated to enviable heights. The Inspector-General says that he had been directed by the Supreme Court to maintain the status quo ante bellum, the Supreme Court denied the claim, few days later the nation's attorney general confirms the IG's anticipatory statement.
In Nigerian politics the first pre-resiquite for partisan politics and leadership is the ability to lie truthfully. In talking about the reforms embarked by this present administration one must painfully state that on paper they are wonderful, but like has often been the case, the greatest enemy of the truth, of reality is not the lie, nor the deliberate, contrived intent at dishonesty but the myth...the myth which is persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. This to most people sums up the frustrations Nigerians have to grapple with due to the leadership of the crooks of PDP.
2003 was most important in the life of this nation and its people when we allowed the fraudulent and massive ascension to power of the PDP led government without as much of a resistance. It proved to be the saddest lesson of our democratic existence, as we continue in the democratic march the fact is that we have been long bamboozled, and a sizable number of us refuse to accept any evidence of the bamboozle, we have been captured, we see a semblance of progress and hope. However the unadulterated fact is that once you give power to charlatans, you almost never get it back.
We seem not to know that truth is beautiful, without doubt: but so also are lies. This brings to fore the utterances of the principal of the EFCC, Mallam Ribadu, in recent times, it has been all about the billions that have been looted, but I have closely scrutinized the figure and please I beg not to be misconstrued, the veracity of those figures lie. There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics. The fight against corruption is the best this false government has done and hate the government for all one cares it is a start but the EFCC and the Presidency in fighting the monster called corruption has continually abused our rationality.
The fight ha been one through which the government has continued to undermine the trust in society. through its inconsistencies, they have used the humanity of the masses as a mere means to their end, they bypass our rationality and in effect make decisions for us, rather than us making the decision. They score themselves rather than we rating them.
The lying nature of this government has been more obvious as it gradually grinds to a halt. The feud between the President and vice Atiku on one hand and the impeachment drama, EFCC state hunt are case studies of how to tell a lie. The Vice in all his statements has been defensive, so also most of the Governors accused of abuse of office. Just like the President has rather than face his interviewer, answer questions or make explanations has resorted to humor and sarcasm to avoid a subject.
In the PTDF drama one thing that stands out, that is, all parties are going beyond the natural, adding unnecessary details to convince Nigerians on who the real thief is, both parties are not comfortable with the silence or the pauses, so they all must talk, and say something. While ordinarily the Nigerian on the street would have not know that there was a meeting between the President's boys and Atiku's brokers, but both camped resorted to a one way symmetric flow of propaganda. Feigning the truth, an element of lies in the truth and telling the truth falsely.
In the last 15 months the NTA has bored us to death with the President's face on occasions without number, one presidential forum after another but to say the least one observation I have made in all these appearances especially the recent ones, like the Niger Delta, the Education Forum, the Aviation forum, Fertilizer summit, State of Emergency broadcast et al is that the President 'possibly' unconsciously has been lying to the entire nation. How do I know...he avoids eye contact, the timing and duration of his emotions, gestures, jokes are off pace.
During the Anambra visit you could see a President that was saying 'I love you' when receiving a gift, and then smiling after making the statement, rather than at the same time the statement was made. In the confrontations of the President with his foes, from the Atikus to Ogbehs, Orjis, and Dariyes and the nation, one notices the frown when the President says "I care". This is the sum of the present leadership and it is not as much as Obasanjo's guilt but the deception of the entire cabinet. On that has learnt to fake emotions.
In this lying nature the government has learnt to avoid lying sometimes by not making direct statements, they imply answers instead of directly answering or denying. They use our criticism to make answers and to drive home the lies, it is collective, they often say we...we, we, and we, and the bitter truth is that its about them and the selfish I but then they leave out the pronouns intentionally so as to escape responsibility.
The nation is in this state of disorder because we have found falsehood to be easy and truth difficult. By practicing the art of deceit we have woven a tangled web around ourselves so, we know the truth but because we cannot tell the truth about ourselves, we cannot tell it about other people. I end with the words of Otto Von Bismark "People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election" (emphasis mine). The more we look as the days go by the less we are likely to understand from Abuja to Anambra, Ekiti to Plateau, PTDF to ITF, PDP to AC, INEC to Central Bank, Population Commission to Ministry of Education, many more lies would have to be told and don't ask me why if we listen carefully we will hear.
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