The Nation Newspaper

Tag: LIE

  • Ajimobi to Ladoja: Statesmen should not lie

    Ajimobi to Ladoja: Statesmen should not lie

    Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi has said lies and character assassination should not be found among statesmen, especially those who have had the privilege of administering a state.

    His comments followed an interview by former Governor Rashidi Ladoja in The Tribune yesterday.

    Ladoja had alleged that Ajimobi and leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) made overtures to him to be given the governorship ticket while Ajimobi goes to the Senate.

    In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Festus Adedayo, the governor said: “The truth is that Ladoja has become used to spinning lies that it has become a way of life.

    “Isn’t it illogical that a sitting governor would be asked to vacate his seat for someone he beat to the third place in the 2011 elections and that same sitting governor will gladly go to the home of his ‘nemesis’ and gleefully hand over his mandate to him?

    “Again, it is clear that, in telling this lie, Ladoja merely wants to recreate the absurd position he found himself in 2007 when, as a sitting governor, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) took away his ticket and handed it over to his deputy.

    “It is apparent that he lacked political sagacity and the so-called people’s support, which were responsible for this political hemlock handed over to him to drink.

    “Isn’t it a negation of common sense that the governor, who was a former senator and a principal officer of the Senate and who completed his tenure, as against Ladoja who didn’t, would prefer a Senate slot that he once occupied to the prospect of continuing as the Chief Executive Officer of a state?

    “Ladoja must have thought that Oyo people and Nigerians have no sense of appreciation of logic and common sense.”

    Ajimobi picked holes in Ladoja’s claim that he was not arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), stating that he was merely on a “roller coaster of comedy”.

    “Nigerians will, with this statement, appreciate the real comedy that Ladoja is. If he meant to demonstrate his naivety of semantics, he did it so well. For his information, he cannot rewrite the fact that he was arrested and detained for mismanaging the proceeds of the sales of shares belonging to Oyo State.

    “In his defence in a newspaper advertorial, he said he did not personally refund money to the EFCC. Does he have to personally refund money? If any money was refunded by his co-accused, he cannot exonerate himself from it,” the statement said.

    Stating that Ajimobi was yet to receive “Ladoja’s letter”, asking the governor to apologise for accusing him of the refund, the statement said the former governor was merely buying time as he does not have any case to pursue in court.

    On the allegation that the Ajimobi administration reneged on the agreement he had with the government to give him and his party 20 per cent of all appointments in the state, the governor said Ladoja was being driven by “political covetousness”.

    “Could Ladoja, known to be arrogant and unbending, during his time as governor, ever concede this absurd demand to anyone? Was it not a similar demand from the strongman of Ibadan politics, Chief Lamidi Adedibu, for a chunk of Ladoja’s security vote that led to the spiral of violence which consumed so many lives in Oyo State and which eventually truncated his regime?

  • Why do people lie?

    Why do people lie?

    The purpose of fear is to suppress awareness of the truth.

People always lie for the same reason: fear. But the precise fear that
makes a person lie in one circumstance might be different from the fear
that makes them lie in another.

When a child is young, it will naturally tell the truth. Most usually, it
starts to learn to lie (consciously or unconsciously) when it discovers
that it is not believed when it tells the truth or it is blamed and
punished for telling the truth (particularly if the truth is unpalatable
to a parent or other adult). In these circumstances, lying might occur in
an attempt to be believed or in an attempt to avoid blame and punishment
and the lie might take the form of the child fearfully telling the parent
what the child knows the parent wants to hear. Why does this happen?

Because a child is genetically programmed to behave functionally
(evolution had to get this right or individuals and species would not
survive infancy), it would always tell the truth. But if it is not
believed then the child must 'learn' to devise strategies, including
lying, to be believed. This might start as a fearfully conscious response
but it will probably become increasingly unconscious and automated as it
learns what is 'expected'.

If the child is blamed and/or punished for telling an unpalatable truth
then, again, it must 'learn' to devise strategies, including lying, to
avoid blame and punishment. Given that many social institutions routinely
require behaviours that evolution did not intend and which are not
functional (for example, sitting in a school classroom all day), the child
will be progressively dysfunctionalized in a variety of ways, including
ones that scare it out of telling the truth about how it feels and what it
needs (as it would otherwise do naturally).

By the time the typical child has reached adolescence, it will live in a
world of considerable delusion about itself, other people and the world in
general. In these circumstances, the emerging adult will now lie
unconsciously, primarily in order to maintain its delusions about itself
and the complementary delusions it has about others and the world. This is
why most politicians lie. But they are not alone.

For example, a mother will want to maintain a sense of herself as 'a good
mother' (however dysfunctionalized and/or violent she is) and if one or
more of her children decide to challenge her dysfunctional/violent
behaviours or even to discontinue their relationship with her, then,
rather than acknowledge her dysfunctional/violent behaviours and accept
responsibility for dealing with these (which would require her to have the
courage to feel the suppressed fear, pain, anger, sadness and other
feelings that drive her dysfunctionalities and violence), she is most
likely to reinforce her own delusions about herself by lying about herself
and her child, including about the reasons her child no longer wants to
have a relationship with her.

But much of her lying will be unconscious because, to lie consciously
would mean that she could acknowledge (at least to herself) her
dysfunctional/violent behaviours and, perhaps, accept responsibility for
dealing with these. However, of course, this almost invariably does not
happen precisely because of her fear (based on her own childhood
experience) of being blamed and punished for making, and acknowledging,
'mistakes'. It is far less frightening to fearfully lie (and act
accordingly) than to acknowledge her delusion about herself and to accept
responsibility for her dysfunctional and violent behaviours.

So why do most people believe lies?

Each child is born with a predisposition to believe the adults in its
life. This is evolutionarily functional because childhood survival depends
on adult care. But the child is also born with the potential to develop a
'truth register': the mental function, related to anger, that enables it
to detect lies. Unfortunately, the truth register, like all potential
capacities, is a subtle and easily damaged mental function and if a child
is lied to chronically by a parent or other significant adult during its
childhood, the truth register will either not develop or it will be
weakened to such an extent that it will no longer readily detect lies.

A person who has been lied to chronically will develop a gullibility that
is obvious to those with a developed truth register but even the
gullibility of others will be obscure to those with an undeveloped or
weakened truth register of their own.

What can we do about lying? Just four things will fix this chronic
problem: always tell the truth fearlessly yourself, always believe
children, always take affirmative action in response to the child's truth,
and never punish anyone (including whistleblowers like Bradley Manning and
Edward Snowden) for telling the truth. See 'Why Violence?'
http://tinyurl.com/whyviolence

     You can run from the truth
     You can hide from the truth
     You can deny the truth
     But you cannot destroy the truth

Biodata: Robert has a lifetime commitment to understanding and ending
human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in an effort to
understand why human beings are violent and has been a nonviolent activist
since 1981. He is the author of 'Why Violence?'
http://tinyurl.com/whyviolence His email address is flametree@riseup.net
and his website is at http://robertjburrowes.wordpress.com

  • N150 million lie against Sylva

    SIR: Our attention has been drawn to a strange report by an online medium that alleged that a certain Lt. Col. David Ahangba, a former special assistant to the late National Security Adviser, General Andrew Owoye Azazi, received N150 million on behalf of his boss from the Bayelsa State government under Chief Timipre Sylva.

    The money was alleged to be an inducement to the then NSA to help the former governor’s second term ambition.

    The report as it concerns Sylva is wholly untrue. Sylva did not give any money to Azazi and could not have done so for the intention suggested in the story because Azazi was not in a position to stop the organised political onslaught against the governor at the time.

    The decision to exclude Sylva from the Bayelsa State governorship race was taken at highest level of government and politics in the country. And Azazi was just an errand person in the process and was never in a position to halt the well-calculated course of action.

    We are concerned that even when Sylva has been unjustly prevented from re-election and made to face a series of persecution by the same elements that orchestrated the injustice, his name is still being undeservedly dragged in the mud. Sadly, this latest assault is coming when Azazi is late and unavailable to respond to the charges against him.

    Sylva wishes to be left out of this alleged transaction between the former NSA and his aide, as he has nothing to do with it.

     

    • Doifie Buokoribo

    Media Adviser to Chief Timipre Sylva

    Yenagoa

     

  • LIE and our ‘Oga at the Rock’

    LIE and our ‘Oga at the Rock’

    There is a particular road in the South West that tells the story of a leader that lacks vision, that has no style nor the grit and wits of leadership. This leader is not sagacious or dynamic nor does he have the capacity for service delivery. That road is the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. For the purpose of convenience, and possibly, some poetic mischief, let us call it LIE.

    In order to put the story of LIE in perspective, let us do a re-cap of its recent journey into decline. In May 2009, the Yar’Adua administration concessioned the road to Wale Babalakin’s Bi-Courtney and for almost four years the company exhibited its incompetence in road construction and its efficiency in propaganda management by installing bill-boards with nauseating and deceitful messages at different locations along the road. The bill-boards on the road were more than the workmen at the site. Press statements were more than asphalt. Visits to stakeholders to solicit their cooperation were more than the number of project inspections. The company was engaged in series of conflicts with the Ogun State government, a major stakeholder in the project. The company was visible, the CEO was ubiquitous. Wale Babalakin made so much noise in newspapers and appeared on so many T.V talk-shows flaunting his credentials on road construction and his company’s capacity to fund the project. It was not long before the entire nation came to discover that Bi-Courtney’s claim that it possessed the professional and financial capability to fix LIE was nothing but corporate lie.

    In November last year, the federal government told the nation the whole truth about LIE. The government not only revoked the agreement between it and the company, it went ahead to award the contract to Julius Berger and RCC even though the details were not made known. Since then nothing has been heard or done about LIE until about two weeks ago when the Federal Ministry of Works ran a full page advertorial in some national newspapers to explain the situation to the nation. It reminded the people that the federal government has not reneged on its promise to fix the road but that the delay in fixing it has been caused by government’s adherence to due process. Going by this advertorial, the nation should not expect any major work on the road this year. Because the next advertorial by the government will try to justify why the contract cannot be awarded during rainy season or why major work cannot commence on the road this year.

    LIE, as it is today, is a good narrative of national decay, leadership deficit and vacuity, contractual betrayal and failed promises, infrastructural paucity and visible depravity, political deception and economic declivities. Every inch of LIE soars in falsehood. It is meant to be an expressway but this is the most obvious lie about LIE. There is nothing ‘express’ about the road. The truth is that it has become a glorified service road for the scattered settlements and communities that line along its routes. And if we indulge ourselves in conventional delusion by calling it “expressway”, can’t Jonathan see that this ‘express’ is in serious distress? What is ‘express’ about a road on which motorists spend three to four hours on a regular basis for a trip that should not take more than 10 to 15 minutes? Or what is the distance between Mowe and Alausa that workers who live in Mowe and work in Lagos Secretariat, Alausa, will be spending two to three hours before getting to their office?

    What is “express” in a road that people cross every minute? Since there is no pedestrian bridge, it is a common sight to see people living in the communities crossing the road as soon as they are discharged on the road by the commuter buses. It is only normal for motorists to reduce their speed or stop for the people to cross. The situation becomes alarming during major programmes of the churches along the road. What is “express” about a road which the various settlements and communities along it use for their market day or where street traders hawk fried snails, plantain chips and other assortment of snacks?

    In which civilised country do you find an expressway with 20 to 25 bus stops in its first 50 kilometres? Between the Lagos toll gate and the Redemption Camp, which is a distance of 46 kilometres, you have virtually every settlement along the road having its own bus stop with “Berger”, Warewa, Arepo, Magboro, Ibafo, Asese and Mowe being the major ones. What can one also say about the trailers and tankers that park negligently and arrogantly on the road while the government feigns ignorance and helplessness.

    In which country do you find an expressway with such volume of traffic that is as high as 15 to 20 vehicles per kilometre? The rate of accidents on that road both major and minor is conservatively put at 5 to 7 per day. And in most cases when there is a major accident involving trailers or fuel tankers, the traffic is always at a standstill for hours with motorists on the alert to sprint in case of any explosion. I am sure the Federal Road Safety Commission would have lost count of the number of innocent souls that have been lost on that road.

    LIE is a strategic road of carnage ambience. LIE is a congested road of trucking carnival. LIE connects the South West to other geo-political zones. LIE unites the diverse nationalities in commerce, politics and facilitates social networking between the citizens in the North and the citizens in the South.

    The Fulani herdsman in the North moves his cows to the Yoruba man in the South West through LIE. The Igboman in the East moves his goods to the sales points in Lagos through LIE. Tankers from Lagos conveying fuel to other parts of the country do so through LIE. LIE has become an embarrassing emblem of unity binding us together as citizens of this country and bonding us to one another. LIE has become a metaphor of false oneness that makes it difficult for us to tell our leaders the truth about the sickening condition of LIE.

    For Jonathan, LIE is a symbol of failure. Those who flatter Jonathan with extraordinary wits need to see the condition of LIE in order to come to terms with the reality of Jonathan’s caducity. No serious nation, nay, no serious leadership that is desirous of development will watch helplessly for many years the deterioration of a road as strategic as LIE. On a daily basis, citizens waste many man-hours on that road because the government has refused to fix it appropriately. When a road as strategic as LIE drains between four to six hours of citizens’ productive time, there is a direct consequence of this on national productivity and the nation’s GDP. A responsible and responsive leadership should know that its economy is in serious jeopardy if its infrastructure is in a state of decay with no immediate remedy in sight. Between the government and the citizens, LIE is an incontrovertible evidence of a breach of social contract.

    This is the price a leader pays when he decides to play politics with Citizens, welfare. What stops Jonathan from convening a stakeholders’ parley comprising the presidency, the governors of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti and Edo, for the purpose of proffering viable solutions to the menace of the road? But Jonathan has decided to play the superman by trying to fix it all alone forgetting that LIE is a national burden that has held us hostage irrespective of our geo-political identities. And until we unlock the truth about LIE, everyone of us will remain captive to stagnation and hostage to progress.

    Agreed that LIE is a federal road, but are these states not part of the federation? So, what does Jonathan stand to lose if the federal government and these states come together to fix the road to international standard? Now, the greed and zeal to take the credit alone has caused him credibility deduction with citizens particularly those who use the road regularly tagging his administration a monumental failure for its inability to perfect an ordinary LIE.

    Of recent, I have developed an inexplicable fascination for roads, I mean good roads. This possibly explains why I have suddenly become an adventurous tourist visiting some of the states that have embarked on massive road constructions. I have gone round most of the roads in Lagos, Osun, Ekiti and Oyo. I am yet to go to Edo, Ogun and Ondo. But from what I have seen that the governors of Lagos, Osun, Oyo and Ekiti have done on roads, I am convinced that if President Jonathan shoves politics aside and meets with these governors, the whole problem of LIE will become history. For him to know that one is not exaggerating the performance of these governors in road construction, let him pay a visit to the Lagos-Badagry Expressway and see the magic Babatunde Fashola is working on that road. He will marvel at the transformation of a federal road by the Lagos State Government.

    A quarter of the energy and attention that Jonathan invests in the politics of Bayelsa and Rivers States could have been channelled to the rehabilitation or total re-construction of LIE. When a leader engages in diversionary activities by shifting focus from what is concrete to frivolities, it is either he has no idea of what to do or he has completely lost his bearing as a leader. All the distractions that Jonathan creates for himself show that he does not appreciate the enormity of leading a nation that is as complex as Nigeria. The challenges facing the nation are too daunting and do not in anyway leave space for the President to while away his time in scaffolding politics. Without attempting to exculpate Jonathan from his own unfitness, it is a shame that 14 years into democracy, Nigeria has no template for responsible governance and dynamic leadership that could liberate the nation from the bondage of LIE.

     

     

    •Thomas, A former Special Aide to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, teaches History and International Studies at the Lagos State University.