TRUTH IS LIFE

Chukwudi Eze

T here is a common Nigerian word “Hankali,” which has general usage with another popular adage “Gaskiya tafi kobo.” Respectively, they mean “Handle carefully” and “The Truth is more important than money.” These words, which are crafted in a language tradition adorned in poetic beauty, suggest very deep meanings. The richness of this tradition reaches its ultimate expression in another adage “Eziokwu bu ndu,” which means “Truth is life.” Together, they tell us that our precarious national condition needs careful handling nurtured by the truth.

Stripped of these essential nourishments, the Nigerian nation becomes like a rudderless boat adrift in turbulent sea, tossed about aimlessly with little control over its destiny. We become victims of strange doctrines and policies, whose net effects prevent the celebration of our natural endowments and the sacrifices of our heroes past.

Lacking therefore in the moderation fostered by reason, the vibrant expression of free and divergent viewpoints, the universal application of justice and the rule of law, we are blackmailed into extreme positions. Under such circumstances, caution is thrown into the waste basket and truth, which in all its richness epitomises life, is relegated to the archives and rendered in-operable. Actions taken subsequently become precipitous, ill-motivated and growth arrested.

Prompted by an aggregation of myopia, corruption and selfish impulses, the military as custodians of the instruments of coercion and their corrupt siblings in political garments, have rendered this great land of unusual endowment impotent. The giant in the sun and Africa’s showcase to the world, so richly blessed with the best of nature’s resources, has mismanaged itself into a debt-ridden beggar-nation.

What an irony! And, if we have become a mockery amongst the comity of nations, it is because we have erected an altar on which illogicality attains legality, falsehood begets falsehood, mediocrity is enthroned and justice has taken flight.

Also the reward for hard work, the pursuit of excellence and the operational virtues of truth and integrity are sacrificed before the altar of inconsistencies, gross irresponsibilities and high pretensions. And so, we find ourselves gradually translated into a wasteland where anything and everything are possible. We celebrate the shameless brava- does of bandits, who loot our national treasury and make considerations of sources of wealth, to be of little importance in our strategic calculus. Eldorado becomes a phantom; and, the Promised Land a distant mirage.

Like a juggernaut on the edge of a suicidal bent, we destroy our national icons, immobilise the vitality of our gifted and set into motion unprecedented acts, whose repercussions only bring grief to the heroic struggles of our founding fathers. The eye finds difficulty in comprehending that which it beholds, and instead, seeks solace in Martin Luther King’s exhortation that ‘unearned suffering is redemptive.” Soon, it becomes obvious that we have finally found the enemy, and behold, ‘it is us’.

For while we responded with patriotic zeal to the leadership call to embrace Economic Structural Adjustment Programme, through collective economic sacrifices, in order to rescue the country from imminent economic collapse, behold the initiator of the programme was engaged in the construction of a palatial country home unmatched in expense and grandeur this side of the Atlantic.

And as we recovered from that trauma of leadership insincerity, we soon discovered that those who had enacted policies which made basic social services inaccessible to the poor were stealing our common wealth, while the people starved. And when we looked into the nation’s real estate ownership, we found to our surprise that the same set of individuals entrusted with positions of leadership have cornered the entire lot, thus denying the vast majority of equal and fair access.

Invariably we must demand that Truth speaks. We must seek wisdom through reason. We must seek dialogue with honour. We must interject sanity in our polity. We must encourage men and women of incorruptible leadership to partake in governance. We must provide hope to our children. Yes, we must indeed seek a peaceful resolution of this destructive drift, and transform the uncertainties of the moment into a new dawn of justice, equal opportunities, enhanced cooperation and assured collective security.

For only in that context, when responsible behaviour becomes our operational norm, can we justifiably lay claim to the mantle of leadership, as the world’s largest and most endowed black nation. This piece was first published in THISDAY 20 years ago

AS WE RECOVERED FROM THAT TRAUMA OF LEADERSHIP INSINCERITY, WE SOON DISCOVERED THAT THOSE WHO HAD ENACTED POLICIES WHICH MADE BASIC SOCIAL SERVICES INACCESSIBLE TO THE POOR WERE STEALING OUR COMMON WEALTH, WHILE THE PEOPLE STARVED