How Lies Have Underdeveloped Nigeria!

 By Sunny Ikhioya 

It is said that no matter how far you have journeyed on the wrong route, it is never too late to turn back, otherwise you will not get to your desired destination. The story of our foundation is one based on faulty lines, that of lies and if we do not get it right, it will continue to haunt us until thy kingdom comes. What is a lie? It is simply untruth. If you like, you can say it’s the absence of truth. When it is not true, it means that it is not real and therefore, in the realm of fallacies. If it is not real, then it is nothing. 

If our foundation is based on lies, it means that we have been building on nothing, a quicksand that will in a short time disappear. When your foundation is based on lies, sooner or later, you will be exposed and the whole world will see your true self. Some have argued that lies are necessary in certain circumstances, especially as it concerns international diplomacy and war; anyway you look at it: a lie is a lie, there is no small or big lie. If you win today because you have lied, you are only postponing the evil day because your counterpart or adversary will know that you cannot be trusted and see you as such. That is why, today, the whole world cannot work in unison, because some groups have proven themselves not to be reliable. 

President Buhari’s Dissonance Problem!

By Reno Omokri

 How can two walk together except they agree? Now if two people cannot walk together except they agree how much more three, four or a hundred? For any government, company, family or association to succeed, there must first be unity of purpose. This unity of purpose does not mean that everybody must agree, but it means that behind close doors the groups meets to harmonize.

*President Buhari and APC National
 Leader, Bola Tinubu

Now that word, harmonize, is a much misunderstood word. Harmony does not mean that everybody has the same purpose, but it means that everybody’s purposes are brought together and through a process of give and take, a common thread is woven that encapsulates everybody’s agenda and when this is presented it produces an effect that is pleasing to the group and those it wants to serve. Both Christians and Muslims agree that God created the entire world with His words.

It is something we can all agree on and in agreeing to this, we agree that words are creative. They created the atmosphere of the world and they will create the atmosphere of our individual worlds. This being the case, we have to be careful, very careful, about the words we speak because if we agree that information is power, then the management of information is power and its mismanagement is weakness.

So often, many of us do not realize that the words that emanate from a leader and his surrogates must have credibility because those words affect everything within the domain of that leader. Every word that emanates from a leader is a promise. Don’t believe me? Try to get the British Currency. On every British Pound note you will find this promise ‘I Promise to Pay the Bearer the sum of’ £5, £10, £20 or £50. The promise on the British Pound is made by the Queen of England who happens to be the Head of State of the United Kingdom. There is nothing inherently valuable about the paper the British Pound is printed upon. It has no intrinsic value.

Now That Body Language Has Failed!

       By Abraham Ogbodo 

LINGUISTS contend languages could die if they fail to expand to accommodate new notations. This was what happened to Latin, which at some point in the history of western education was the language of scholarship. The English language, which has grown to conquer the world was, more or less, vernacular and interjection of Latin in scholarly presentations in England and elsewhere was seen as a mark of erudition.

As a young man, I did not know what had happened to Latin. I thought it was still alive and kicking and I had wished for it to replace French in my first year in the University when the latter was a compulsory elective course for Theatre Arts students. It was my first classroom contact with the French language where everything is either masculine – le or feminine – la, and the learner does not have a clear guide as to who or what is a man or a woman. When I told my French lecturer one day that I would prefer Latin to French, she laughed and replied in French: “ Latin est mort!”

Permit the long digression. I was only trying to establish that language, including body language can die if not properly nourished. Everybody was happy when the Buhari Body Language was introduced into the curriculum of the political economy on May 29, 2015. It was linguistically efficient and people understood it without interpretation. Importers of fuel understood it and began immediately to conduct the business of fuel importation and distribution to sales outlets in the new language. It was understood, for instance, that fuel could flow ceaselessly at N87 per litre with or without payment of subsidy. The long queues at filling stations vanished overnight and there was jubilation in the land and in the camp of the APC, which promptly appropriated the turn-around as part the change it promised Nigerians.

In fact, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who until recently was publicity secretary of the APC said nothing was more evident of the change than this strange situation when the president could get things done without expending effort and scarce resources. He named the new approach that ensured performance without corresponding investment, Body Language. He said it was working far better than anything previously known.