In Nigeria Truth Is A Distraction

By Eugene Onyeabo Aligbe

In May 2018, the Nigerian airwaves were awash with musical lyrics from Folarin Falana, popularly called Falz. Some persons could not accept the obvious truth in the song that there was a dent on the image of Nigeria and by extension every citizen of Nigeria.

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) in their reaction threatened to slam a law suit on the musician, Falz for his song titled, “This is Nigeria; Where Everyone is a Criminal”.   At first, many people tongue lashed Falz for not being a patriotic Nigerian despite being the son of a frontline legal luminary, Femi Falana (SAN). They argued that as a Nigerian, no matter the situation, we should be patriotic even if things are not working as expected. Ideally, being patriotic, is a duty for every citizen to uphold social justice, stand firm against the ills in the land at all times.
In that regard, Falz stated the facts following the ugly revelations in Nigeria on a daily basis. Some of these ills range from certificate forgery, wanton killings by herdsmen, kidnapping, police brutality, electoral fraud and most recent being the introduction of vote buying into our electoral system. The alleged NYSC certificate forgery by the Minister of Finance; Mrs. Kemi Adeosun possibly shows how things have deteriorated. But, this is Nigeria where majority of our presumed leaders parade forged documents and corruption tainted wealth.

 You would also recall the pioneer Speaker of Federal House of Representative, Buhari Salisu, and his Toronto certificate forgery case. Good a thing, Salisu did not have to wait to be removed in office before resigning on the account of forgery and perjury in 1999. His action and timely response through his resignation speech elicited sympathy for him from the public. Interestingly, this is Nigeria where saying the truth is considered a distraction to people in government. As discerning minds wait for Nigeria to see how the present administration handles Mrs. Adeosun’s case, a Coalition of Civil Society Group in Nigeria has come to her defense, by classifying the revelation made by Premium Times as a distraction.

The coalition group did not bother about the moral burden of such revelation on the country. Neither did they call for quick investigation by NYSC to ascertain the fact with respect to enabling laws that make it mandatory for all graduates below 30 years of age to serve in the scheme. The integrity burden is on the NYSC to formally respond to the authenticity of the discharge certificate issued to Mrs. Adeosun without further delay. The Nigeria Police Force is another institution that urgently needs to undergo the test considering the overwhelming reports against it. The recent revelation about four policemen, attached to SARS who were exposed and subsequently charged to court for   armed robbery, kidnapping, unlawful detention and intimidation of a clergyman was a huge   shame of a failed security system.

Nigeria police that was entrusted with the responsibility to protect the people now leave scars and fear in the heart of people. The government agencies break their own laws establishing them without looking back as a result of corruption and moral degradation. The 2016 report on corruption in Nigeria by Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) equally affirmed that Nigeria has an integrity question to contend with when it listed critical sectors of the public institution with statutory functions to enforce laws and discipline corrupt offenders as the most bribe takers in Nigeria.

The damming report of the NBS from the National Survey conducted on Corruption in Nigeria revealed that Nigerian Police Officers, Prosecutors and Judges/Magistrates are the most corrupt public officers in Nigeria. The report says that 46.4 percent of the Nigerian public have had bribery contact with the police officers, 33 percent with prosecutors and 31 percent of the public had also have bribery contact with judges and magistrates. This is ridiculous because in a country where the police, prosecutors and judges demand bribes before doing their statutory duties, it means that only the highest bidder   gets judgment no matter the evidence and glaring truth.

This unprecedented high rate of corruption in our critical public sectors unwittingly fans the current insecurity situation in Nigeria as manifested in Fulani/farmers clashes, armed banditry, cattle rustling, kidnapping and ethno-religious conflicts. Sadly, the high rate of unemployment has rendered majority of our youths vulnerable and readily available tools   for criminal activities in the country. Despite the outcry over frequent herdsmen/farmers clashes with their attendant consequences in the country, the Presidency has continued to devote large percentage of their time to glorifying its success in management of security, as if the killings were not part of the security responsibility of our government.

More worrisome was the comment credited to the President Muhammadu Buhari during his visit to Jos. He was quoted in Jos as saying that “Nobody can say that we haven’t done well in terms of security, we have done our best but the way things are now, we can only pray”. It is unfortunate the Presidency can indirectly accept the abnormality as a way of life by further encouraging the already traumatized victims to accept it as their fate. No wonder, it is said that when truth is blurred by lies and misinformation, perception becomes a reality, and all would be lost. As the Nigerian government continues in their self-praises and comparing the number of death toll during 16 years of PDP to APC’s 3 and half years, the UK parliament described the issue of insecurity in Nigeria as a matter of urgency. That Nigeria   has been stagnated in her effort to build a liberal political, economic and social state over these years is highly regrettable in view of the recent Ekiti State election.

President Muhammadu Buhari has told Nigerians to continue praying. Of course we will pray. The only problem is that, praying without work, trust, love and faith in one another is as good as tempting God. Until Nigerians begin to trust and love one another, everyone will continue to live in suspicion.

*Eugene Onyeabo Aligbe, Public Affairs Analyst resides in Lagos.