By Chukwudi Ohiri
Truth
will always remain the truth no matter the circumstances. If it is not true, no
matter how you try to garnish it, it must still remain falsehood and vise
versa. This appears to be the main crux of the bedlam between the ruling All
Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
in the recent outburst involving the mouthpiece of PDP and the presidential
spokesperson.
For
clarity, President Muhammadu Buhari had announced to the whole world during his
recent Indian trip that Nigeria is broke and as such cannot afford the luxury
of paying 42 ministers. This statement and many similar ones by the President
in the past portraying Nigerians to be very corrupt people operating a corrupt
system drew the irk of the PDP. In a statement, Olisa Metuh, the party's
spokesperson admonished the President to refrain from painting the country in a
negative light before domestic and international community and investors as
this would be tantamount to 'demarketing' the same country he is traversing the
length and breadth of the globe to woo investors into. Did the APC take this
admonition kindly? The answer is 'No'.
Femi
Adesina, the Special Adviser to the President on Publicity jumped into the
foray to defend his principal. According to him, "President Buhari will
not in the name of “marketing” or “attracting” investors, follow in the
footsteps of the ousted PDP Administration and its discredited officials who
shamelessly lied to Nigerians and the world about the buoyancy and vibrancy of
an economy they had bled dry for personal gain, when it was very obvious to the
discerning, that the Nigerian economy was headed for serious trouble."
Here lies the quagmire. Between the PDP and APC who is right? Of a truth, there
is wisdom in the position taken by both parties. The problem is with
differentiating between truth and diplomacy.
Although
diplomacy has been viewed over time as not telling the truth, the truth is that
the concept is more concerned with how the truth is being told and not that it
encourages spread of falsehood. It is about telling the truth (which always
hurts) in a more soothing way. A very simplistic definition of diplomacy is
'the ability not to tell a lie and yet avoid telling the bitter truth'. The
governed deserve to know the truth from their leaders at all times and if this
is what PMB is preaching, it is commendable. Yet, there are so many ways to
cushion the truth without necessarily adulterating it.
On
February 8, some years back, I was privileged to attend one of the annual
lecture series organized by the Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL) founded
by Prof. Pat Utomi at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA).
During his speech, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, the erstwhile Secretary General of the
Commonwealth gave a scintillating interpretation of what diplomacy and fact
reportage should be for governments and their spokespersons. In his usual
sonorous voice, he said: "Rather than say 'the glass is half empty', you
can present it as 'the glass is half full’". For me, this is diplomacy
summarized. The two statements are literally the same, yet, both cannot have
the same impact. While the phrase 'half empty' transmits a negative signal,
'half full' transmits a positive one. Both reports do not contain any iota of
falsehood, yet they convey divergent signals.
This is where I think PMB and his spokespersons got it wrong. You don't
tell a patient with a terminal disease that he must die even though you owe him
the truth about his prognosis. Hope must be kept alive even in the face of
obscurity and hopelessness no matter the condition and circumstance. This is
what the medical profession teaches and can be applied to politics and
governance.
Nigeria
does not rank highest in the world corruption index nor is it among the poorest
of the poor nations. One hardly hears the leaders of any of the worst countries
lamenting and ruing the corruption or insolvency of their countries to any ear
that cares to listen. No other leader anywhere in the world (except that of
Nigeria), is going about denigrating their successors at every opportune time
after electioneering campaigns, not even in Greece officially declared
insolvent. The bitter truth from the PDP is that you don’t call your daughters
bad names before prospective suitors and still expect serious and genuine
suitors to come knocking on your door no matter how beautiful or rich your
daughters are. This message from the PDP must be taken by the APC with every humility
even if they don’t like the messenger. Rather than see it as unnecessary
distraction to the President, the entire message as contained in the statement
must be taken with open heart to enrich the most respected learning of the APC
who rattled the electorate with sound (though often exaggerated) arguments
during the campaigns.
Unfortunately
and prior to the elections, the then opposition APC on its way to victory told
the electorate how corruption stinks under the PDP rule and promised Nigerians
that with the aid of their symbolic broom, they would sweep out corruption if
they come to power. They told the electorate that the PDP has run the economy
aground for sixteen years with a promise to revamp it once they clinch the
federal position. Nine months after getting the nod of the electorate, the same
old story is still being told by the ruling APC to the detriment of real
governance and fulfillment of campaign promises. It so seems that the problem
of the country right now is not actually national fiscal bankruptcy but a
bankruptcy of ideas on the part of the ruling party. It is crystal clear now
that PMB may not have all it takes to drive the economy going by the near
comatose state of affairs in the past six months being in charge without ministers.
It appears he is bereft of ideas on how to move the country forward. From his
address during the retreat with the ministers-designate, it is obvious he will
be relying greatly on the newly appointed ministers for the next direction even
after talking down on them.
Talking
about the ministers, the apparent failure of PMB's solo governance has opened
up another vista of hope being reposed on the just inaugurated ministers. This
appears to be last hope of the APC to salvage its tottering image and prove to
Nigerians that it is truly ready for governance. The question is, would they
have the ideas to salvage this country as most of them demonstrated during the
ministerial screening exercise? PMB must be commended for his ability to
assemble the crop of personalities he picked as ministers. He may have failed
in giving Nigerians the much touted saints and Angels, but the quality
displayed by some of them appears to be quite sterling. But again, will they
not be treated as "noise makers" whose ideas will only amount to
nothing? In them, Nigerians are reposing the last repository of hope. We hope
they would not toe the line of their master by spending ample time digging out
the rot in their new estates (Ministries) at the expense of formulating
policies that will help bring Nigeria out of the doldrums. We want the truth in
'half full' rather than the candour of telling us 'half empty'. If the APC has
suddenly found out the virtue in the sanctity of truth as against outlandish
propaganda, that is most welcome, but they must not stampede Nigerians to death
before the real death beckons.
