Gloria Mabeiam
In trying to find out how we can build a country for all time, I had the rare privilege of moderating a radio discussion about how the nation’s trustee (government) holds faith and hope in trust for its people. On the panel was Mr. Reuben Buhari, former spokesman for Kaduna state under Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa.
Reuben has vast experience in government engagement having also served as Special Adviser media to a former minister for environment, worked as reporter for Thisday newspaper and editor for Leadership newspaper.
The first issue was how government communicates to its people. Why does government lie? Mr. Buhari was unequivocal when he said government lies to its people some of the time and that there is no government that has not lied to its people. He painted scenarios that justify the art but regrets that government runs in that manner.
Paul Kalu esq, legal practitioner and public commentator as well as Mallam Musa Suleiman, a public affairs analyst of the United Arewa Youth Organization, were all on hand and waded into the subject. While Bar Kalu was of the opinion that the integrity and sustenance of a nation depended on solid principles and that a nation built on a heap of lies cannot stand the test of time.
Mallam Suleiman took the mid-point of proposing that a government should be given the benefit of doubt to act on its discretion.
The matter intrigues. How is it that when people lie to government, it is a felony but when government lies to its people, it is politics? In street terms, why would the N5, 000 promised to the unemployed during campaign be denied or redesigned in form as eligible only to those who would go to the farm? The promise on reduced oil price, free education, return of the Chibok girls, deadlines for eradicating security challenge, constant power supply…where are we on them?
It will not be difficult to find government’s art of lies commensurate to the root meaning of its name. For those who believe in the power of names, the word government springs from the Latin word guvernare (to control) and mentis (the mind).
A people’s tragedy is sustained when government as trustee forget the universality of the problems of the human spirit as it pushes to project an image of control and perfection- an image veiled with so thin a veneer that anyone can see through it.
The veneer exists when government buys into the falsehood that her people are free as long as government controls resources, currency, internet, justice, land or response. We must teach it again and it must be relearnt that truth is a virtue and not a vice. The verities we teach are the ones to be imbibed in private and public life. If we teach children to say the truth, to have honour, compassion and sacrifice, we cannot be found to trade the meaning of what we teach with political or social expediency; for if we do, our country shall labour under the yoke of love that is lust, victories that are defeats and policies that hold no meaning to the human soul.
But there is even more to it: governments come and go but humanity stays the same. Ironically, it is the people (humans) that choose their government. They choose in hope and faith of better things. They crystalize their expectations in creeds and statutes as a reflection of the premium they place on the values they seek to rule them and the standards they want to be judged by. How else did we have a section 14 in the 1999 constitution which provides that the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be a state based on the principles of democracy and social justice? Indeed, the section confers sovereignty to the Nigerian people and declares that government shall derive all its powers and authority from the constitution.
The said constitution goes further to sculpt its social objectives on the ideals of freedom, equality and justice. These social objectives are incompatible with falsehood; rather, they propose for a regime where every citizen shall have equality of rights, obligations and opportunities. It seeks a scenario where the sanctity of the human person shall be recognized and human dignity shall be maintained and enhanced. It craves for government’s actions to be humane and for the prevention of exploitation of human or natural resources in any form other than for the good of the community. And when all is said and done, the independence, impartiality and integrity of courts of law and easy accessibility shall be secured and maintained.
But someone may argue that government lies to its people sometimes for good.
That in a crisis situation for instance, it is ok to expand or shrink casualty figures depending on the situation. Given, government owes it at its duty to release certain classified information on a need-to-know basis. Yet, the rationale by which the decision is reached is more important than the decision taken. When casualty figures are toned down or hiked up, what does it say about the sanctity of the human person? Would we not have reduced human life to rubble or attach a life to a tragedy that did not exist thereby desecrating in part section 17 of the constitution? What would be the government’s win in such an arrangement?
Government’s lie is more than a moral question; it goes deep down to the roots- the foundation upon which a people build its identity and how it seeks to project its present and future. A country built to last must rest on trust, trust is built on truth. There needs to be a reason that foists belief on the people. What does it mean to live under a government that lies? It causes the people to question every move.
Is the economic decision fair and necessary? It is hard to say when the government lies. Is the exchange of the dollar to the naira N300 due to market forces or a ploy? No one can say for certain. Is the corrupt money recovered used for the greater good or set aside to be plundered again? Are taxes legal and used for public purpose? No one would say for sure because the delusions collide with reality and the truth that emerges is often too bitter to take.
When George Carlin said he lives by the first rule of not believing anything government says, he amplified a skepticism that permeates people across continents and nations- a phenomenon that destroys rather than build nations.
I didn’t set out to write this piece this week merely to fill a column. My mission is clear and deliberate: No government enhances the building of a nation by lies and cover ups. The flip side is also true: No government is required to be perfect for perfection reigns only in the realm of illusion. Still when government leads, there ought to be a firm reminder that people and not concepts are being led; and that rather than bury its head in the sand, government earns honour from its people when it apologizes rather than rationalize.
As you read this piece, there are country men and women who have stuck to their guns and have vowed to stay true to truth. It is my prayer this week that they would not merely endure but continue to valiantly project that the reward of staying true is not money or anything mundane but good in and of itself. I hope that by putting these thoughts down, it would be my privilege to uphold the courage and honour of those who have remained the emblem of truth and by so doing stand as the pillars by which not only our country rests but of which the true essence of being thrives.
