Last Saturday, I attended the reunion party of the Department of English UNILAG class of 1998. It was a wonderful occasion that evoked nostalgia and the revival of receding memories. I met classmates I had not seen in twenty-six years. You will appreciate being alive when you realize some of your classmates have transited to eternal glory. It was emotional and humbling. Meeting classmates again after so many years gives one a youthful feeling. The jokes flowed as we all played like kids. For all the mates, our year of graduation is also not in doubt, evidence full ground, unlike some senior citizens who do not know when they graduated or identify any former classmates. It also gives one an extended sense of fulfilment to have come this far after what looked like an undergraduate blind alley. Predictably, I was confronted with the usual question “Is this the same Promise Adiele, now a university lecturer”? My former classmates who express these feelings are right. Given my manifest intransigency in school, there was no indication I would come close to where I am now. But the truth is, I am where I am even though it is a continuous journey. That brings me to the threshold of truth.
In my line of duty, I have attempted to define or explain truth as a phenomenon and a concept. But it keeps unfolding, like an onion, revealing new layers every day, making the meaning more amorphous and unstable. I am more comfortable sticking with truth as a phenomenon than a concept due to its mysterious but slippery nature. Core philosophers have multiple interpretations of truth. I am not a core philosopher although engaging sundry literary frontiers inevitably turns one into a philosopher. You cannot regularly confront Aristotle, Plato, Hegel, Marx, Shakespeare, Sophocles, Blake, Freud, Derrida, Wordsworth, Achebe, Soyinka, JP Clark, Osofisan etc. and not turn into a philosopher. Yet, I will never claim to be a philosopher in the true sense of the word. Some people claim truth is constant. Others insist truth is relative, that is, what is true to one person could be a blatant falsehood to another person. The relativity of truth is concisely established in Nigeria’s current political realities. Many people hold on to different levels of truth, each man to his convictions or belief of what he believes to be true. Is Nigeria dying or recovering? Is Bola Tinubu dragging the country to the abyss or lifting the country to the apex of success?
The question above can elicit multiple answers from different Nigerians but the truth lies somewhere with verifiable indices in the markets and on the streets of Nigeria. Truth is never hidden. It is the only phenomenon with the most aesthetic, alluring exterior when it stands in naked simplicity. But the devious, for multiple, hidden, undisclosed reasons prefer truth decked in overflowing agbada to mislead and obfuscate the gullible. An argument about truth is merely an academic exercise. The good thing about truth is that it travels far and remains true while its opposite, falsehood also travels far but spectacularly collapses on the sands of history. Truth is constant but falsehood prevaricates, it is unstable and sometimes illusory. Of course, given the degenerate moral levels across the world, falsehood has become a way of life for many people because it sustains their economic and existential apparatus.
For millions of people, falsehood, lying, and propaganda have all become an inevitable part of their survival strategy. Remove falsehood and the dissemination of brazen lies from their daily menu and they collapse like a pack of cards or dissipate like ice. Of course, some vocations or professions thrive on falsehood more than others. Politicians, media aides to politicians, estate agents, electricity controllers, spare part dealers and mechanics, contractors and religious preachers, I do not know who should win the falsehood medal in Nigeria. It is up to you to decide. Sometimes saying the truth is a burden, a big one. Owing to the burden of truth, many people choose falsehood and live with it. However, some people carry the burden of truth without minding the consequences. But truth also vindicates and rewards.
Nigeria’s music sensation David Adeleke, popularly called Davido, was recently weighed down by the burden of truth. While on the Big Hommies House podcast, he averred that Nigeria’s economy is in shambles and therefore, advised some Americans not to visit or invest in Nigeria. According to him “It is not cool back home. The economy is in shambles. It is not good back home. The economy is in shambles. I do my part. I am an ambassador. When I go home and I am filming, I am not going to show the bad parts. I am talking about the situation in the country. Now, the exchange rate is messed up, a lot of stuffs are not going well. The economy is just not good enough. The oil price is too high. Imagine the country that produces oil, paying more for it than a country importing oil”. Following Davido’s submissions, many disoriented people in Nigeria asked for his head on a platter. The question is, did the singer profess the truth or frolicked in falsehood? Any enlightened mind knows that Davido spoke the truth, perhaps, he did not say it enough. However, he demonstrated an honest consciousness about the current economic situation in his country.
Since the backlash following the singer’s honest statements, I have sought to isolate the falsehood and truth in them. Line by line, I could only isolate truth and nothing but the truth. Salt and pepper can easily testify that Nigeria’s economy is in shambles while the people are steamrolled daily by inflation and a high cost of living. Apologists of the current administration are fighting fruitlessly and aimlessly to create a façade of well-being praising the current unconscionable leadership to the high heavens. Is the naira exchange rate against the dollar not messed up? Is the oil price in Nigeria the same as it used to be two years ago? Are the politicians not immersed in profligate waters, spending scarce resources as if it is going out of fashion? Were Nigerians living in better conditions before Bola Tinubu came to power or worse conditions after he came to power? What exactly is the lie Davido told the world that some delusional miscreants would not let him be? Instead of Nigerians celebrating Davido for speaking truth to power at a time when bootlicking and mindless sycophancy is the order of the day among otherwise respected people, they seize every opportunity to excoriate the superstar, threatening not to patronize his public performance. Nothing could be more ridiculous.
I am wondering, what is the difference between Davido’s submissions in a foreign land and Bola Tinubu’s submissions in Akure with a recognizable semblance. During the 34th convocation ceremonies of the Federal University of Technology (FUTA) Akure, Tinubu, represented by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Professor Wahab Egbewole dragged Nigerians down by saying that Nigerians lived a false life before the removal of oil subsidy. Some people immediately applauded him for telling the truth, noting that he did not denigrate the entire country. So why Davido’s head must be butchered for speaking the truth, Tinubu’s head must be adorned with caps and feathers for insulting the country and its citizens? It is this kind of double standard that the current political dispensation has inflicted on Nigerians. But we all know who spoke the truth between Davido and Tinubu. If we are honest with ourselves, setting aside all the duplicity of politics, we all know that Nigerians are suffering under Tinubu. Mr President and his team have plunged this country into unimaginable hardship and he knows it. With prices of food items soaring and inflation hitting families like a thunderbolt, Davido’s comments wouldn’t have come at a better time. Those who spread the stale narrative that Tinubu’s policies will yield fruits think many of us are idiots. It was the same thing they said when Buhari was dragging the country to purgatory. Gradually, Buhari completed his eight-year tenure and left the country in shambolic conditions.
David Adeleke, a real Omoluabi has spoken the truth and must bear the burden of truth. Some people with a derelict mentality have argued that those of us on the other side must be positive and patriotic. For such people, being positive and patriotic is to accept all the vulgarities of the current administration or embrace falsehood by praising the government, lying that all is well when indeed all is not well. Such people suffer from internally induced emotional dislocation which affects their cognitive process, alas in an unfortunate way. Of course, we are positive and that is why we believe that a New Nigeria is possible away from the current procession of predators. We are also patriotic which is why we are asking for electoral reforms, more responsible behaviour from our political leaders, less extravagance, infrastructural renewal, attention to all the teaching hospitals in the country, and the rehabilitation of various institutions of state. Although the burden of truth hurts, we must continue to say it to the applaud of posterity. I stand with Davido, the music genius.
