By Pini Jason
THE headline of an ordinarily innocuous story filed by Daily Sun’s correspondent, Christopher Oji, was “Lawyer Apologises for Lying Against CP”(Daily Sun, Friday September 2, 2011).

I say ordinarily innocuous not because of the inauspicious corner where the story was tucked away, but because anybody, especially in our clime where an insidious culture of falsehood is taking over, could give the story little or no attention. Okay. A lawyer lied against a Commissioner of Police, so what is the big deal? After all he has apologised, hasn’t he? It is indeed a big deal!

A Lagos lawyer, Mr. Austin Nwabufor, according to the story, tendered unreserved apology for telling lies and conspiring with his client to discredit the Commissioner of Police, CP, in charge of the Nigeria Police Provost Department, Mrs. Sherifat Disu. Mr Nwabufor told newsmen that he was constrained to tell the public the truth since his conscience was no longer at peace due to the fictitious petitions he wrote against the senior police officer. He claimed he took the actions ignorantly. His client did not tell him the truth until he had finished conspiring with him to blackmail the Commissioner of Police.

The penitent lawyer revealed that the truth was that the CP’s son was contesting the leadership of the Aguiyi Ironsi International Market, Mushin, Lagos, with his client. Now to get his rival to step down, the devilish client dreamt up the fantastic idea that if he blackmailed his rival’s mother who is a CP, she could get her son to step down for him.

Unwary lawyer

Thus he got the unwary lawyer to write series of petitions to the Inspector General of Police against an innocent woman, accusing her of human rights abuse, when her only sin was that her son was contesting the leadership of a market! In retracting his story, Barrister Nwabufo claimed he did not know his client very well. Yet he did not do what any lawyer is expected to do—investigate the client’s claims. He said he has since discovered “after a careful investigation that my client is a dubious character who has been unjustly maligning and assassinating (sic) Mrs. Disu”.

I picked on this story because it has all the ingredients of the criminal behaviour that is fast taking over our country. First, it was the lawyer’s “conscience” and perhaps the fear of damnation in hell that prompted him to come clean, and not the integrity and career of a senior Police officer he and his client almost ruined. In Nigerian we lie without blinking an eye about it.

Ask the foreign embassies in Nigeria! A question like what is your relationship with the person inviting you yields an answer like, “my brother”. Probe a little more and “my brother” becomes “my cousin”! A further probe and “my cousin” end up being “my townsman” and further down the line, “we are from the same tribe”! You may say that in Nigeria a tribesman is a brother! Well, to the world out there, there is a difference and a lie is a lie!

Falsehood is the raw material that feeds Nigeria’s thriving rumour industry. If you want to know how lucrative the rumour industry is, just look at the proliferation of trashy publications that thrive on propagating rumours and falsehood against innocent people!

Many are addicted to these scandal sheets. The high and the mighty relish the mud splashed on their rivals. Men of God stand on the pulpit and feed their parishioners with falsehood and false prophets decree spurious miracle healings that delay proper medical attention until it is late! The danger here is that if a con man tells the gullible he is called by God, who are you to question the “authority” of God? If you want proof he tells you that he was once an armed robber before God called him! Meanwhile the man is no more than a crook repositioning his trade!

The seemingly educated enjoy and feed frenzy on falsehood. Check all those juicy stories that titillate the palate in beer palours and ‘point-and-kill’ joints. Ask the narrator, were you there? Did you witness it? The reply is “sidon there!” Meaning that you may be outside the right social circuit! Social critics and activists march the streets based on falsehood. Politicians are the worst offenders. They deploy lies, blackmail, character assassination, rumours and false petitions to get what they want, especially during political contests. Anybody who can boast of nothing except corrosive bitterness can recklessly accuse his opponent of corruption and get generous space in the media. Task him for proof he gets angry and lashes out!

The greatest headache the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission have today is the activities of cowardly politicians who write false and anonymous petitions to get at their opponents. Ordinarily, you will expect that the EFCC and the ICPC would thrash an anonymous petition. But the faceless authors usually lie in wait for them. If they don’t see the Commissions invite (arrest) their victim, they go to the press or use text messages to blackmail both their victim and the Commissions!

Nigerians must know that telling lies has dire consequences for three people. The man or woman who indulges in falsehood is engaged in imperceptive self-diminution. He or she demeans himself or herself to progressively believe the lies. Over time, he or she is hooked on falsehood and can never see anything positive about anybody. On the other hand, the victim of falsehood is unjustly maligned, libeled, intimidated and brought to public opprobrium. Thirdly, the society whose psyche is fed with lies easily becomes a nihilist society incapable of positive thinking. Such a society is also prone to needless national crises and difficult to lead.

Nigeria has many times been pushed to the brink on inaccurate information and outright falsehood. Remember the “Ebony riot” of the eighties? Remember how the polity was heated up during the ailment of President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua! Any dim wit would have deduced that a man who made rule of law the cardinal principle of his administration, may not have left the country for Saudi Arabia conscious without “transmitting a letter”.

But we were kept from the truth and the nation went to war with “the Cabal”, which Segun Adeniyi later revealed was the creation of some smart Alec for purely selfish political reasons. Then once in a while we were told that Yar’Adua came down from his sick bed and played squash. Clerics and marabouts saw him and prayed with him. Yet he would not see his Vice! The polity got heated up largely in response to the political interest such falsehood was intended to serve.

Repositioning of business

A group came ostensibly to save Nigeria from all that but before we knew it, it turned out that our “saviours” had their eyes on partisan politics, another repositioning of business! Right now, civil society activists are on the march again because President Jonathan “removed” Justice Salami in violation of section 292(1) (a) (i) and (ii) of the Constitution. But I have not read anything that proves that the President has removed Justice Salami.

Justice Salami was suspended by the National Judicial Council, NJC (CJN spelt backwards!). All that President Jonathan did was to fill the vacancy arising from the suspension. They say NJC has no powers to suspend the jurist, but they have not told us the difference between this case and previous jurists suspended and removed from office by the NJC.

Oh, they say the NJC should have waited since the matter is in court. Well, why have the protesters not left the court to rule on the matter? The combatants on both sides of the divide agree on the influence of politics in the whole brouhaha. And like politicians they are employing half-truths as familiar arsenal.

Falsehood may serve the limited purpose of a vested interest, but at the end the larger society suffers. As they say, when truth gets out of balance, we can get dangerously close to error. The amount of truth available to the public on a daily basis is not enough to withstand the ferocity of falsehood, and that should frighten and worry us.

As for Barrister Austin Nwabufo, he may be hailed for his penitence, especially the courage to come clean publicly. But it would have been better if he investigated his client’s claims before rushing off with a petition. I say this because many “activist” lawyers still commit similar indiscretions.