Those who are supposed to say the truth and promote it are not doing so. Why? Why? This is pathetic. Many are afraid to say the truth for fear of losing their jobs, dignity or lives. The man called Jesus came to teach us the truth. Mankind received the truth with skeptical smiles. That is why the truth eludes them all the time and they feel satisfied. Those who do not speak the truth are not comfortable with life. There are lots of cover ups. Even those who speak it in the midst of those who do not speak it suffer but are consoled by living, acting, and speaking the truth. Jesus was not a fool when he said “The truth shall set you free” Jesus knew how people told lies and fabricated their own truth to cause confusion in the society.
We blame the politicians for not following the truth but what are our criteria for judging them when we are also caught up in the menace? We talk about truth and all that lingers around it but all that we say and do does not reflect it. We are not called to be story tellers of truth but called to live the truth in its fullness. No wonder the world has gone bizarre because of the absence of truth. A brother cannot even tell his brother the truth for fear that he might be angry or refuse to help him. In the National assembly, no one can at least voice out the truth to scatter the minds of those who are not friendly with the truth.
Everybody pays lip service to the man in charge in order to remain a good man in the log book. Everyone wants to remain closer to oga and not tell him the truth. Everybody is afraid to tackle oga on how things should be done because everyone is afraid that oga would be angry with them. How can you change the world and help oga change the people if we all live under the template of falsehood? It’s shocking to see those working with oga maintaining conspiracy of silence when they actually know what they should say to help him maintain visibility and stability in the country. They are afraid of what oga would say for hearing the truths from their mouths.
Any oga who is not confronted with the truth is not a good oga because he surrounds himself with ‘yes men’ and cannot deliver in the society. Absence of truth is bad. They are facing fables, disconnected and disjointed truths. Nigeria is the way it is today because Nigerians were afraid to tell the government the truth to change things; the truth of bringing happiness, creating jobs, making people responsible to feel proud of being Nigerians. Instead of confronting the truth, they looked at the other side, making oga redundant in the world while making money for their selfish interests.
How can those following oga be “follow -follow” and not forebearers of truth? They falsify the world and the environment with what is not nearing the truth. How can the people who sent them there to represent them be happy when what they are doing does not yield the truth but falsehood and confusion? Truth should not be given a caveat to justify our actions. We work with our oga to tell him the truth of our lives, the truth about our citizens that will lead them to their economic destiny.
We are not there to falsify the truth of their lives but what will give them courage to live because the source of truth is their hope. Truth is the epitome of life that energizes people to make them know that they don’t live in this life for nothing but live with the truth of life and the advantages it brings. There is joy emanating from the truth when spoken. When an oga is an advocate of truth, the subjects rejoice and raise their hands to the heavens because there will be no injustice, no discrimination, no political junks and the country would experience peace.
This is applicable in every institution and not only in the political world. Oga who speaks the truth is the Jesus we see in the world. It gives mankind hope as Jesus gave us hope. He is a charismatic man like the Archbishop of El-Savado who in the midst of soldiers with their heavy guns, spoke the truth and died at the altar of truth and not on the altar of falsehood. Bishop Oscar Romero said “When I give food to the hungry, they call me a Saint but when I ask why they are hungry they call me a politician or communist”. We are afraid of what the world would call us and not what Jesus would call us. We are losing a great reality in the world today.
Even today’s politicians have altered the truth by accusing the media of fake news because the media confronts them. In a democratic society, media plays a critical role in the life of a country. They speak out the truth and oppose the things that dehumanize the citizens. Today there are many opinions that litter our minds. With the new America today nobody understands the direction of the world. The leader carries us anywhere and dumps us at the shore of falsehood making us live in the limbo of uncertainty. When we see strangers, we begin to peep through the holes of our doors to see whether they are the people we will welcome or not.
The world that seems to be united is shaking now. We begin to disintegrate because we have lost the truth of our hearts and loosing Jesus’ values. Leaders have failed to liberate us from falsehood. There is still hope. Those ancient Christians who remember that God is our father are still dying for speaking the truth. Many of them are in our Churches today. It would be an absurdity if the laymen speak the truth more than us because of what we might gain from not speaking it. Nigeria is the way it is now because of lack of truth and conspiracy of silence.
That is the hemorrhage we are facing. Unless we understand that truth is eternal and not ephemeral, adding something to truth to deface it will lead to several confusions; economic alienations, discriminations, tribalism and so on as witnessed in America today by one man. Changing what shouldn’t be changed to benefit certain sectors of our constituencies does not show justice to others but favouritism. It is pathetic if one lives in his own country and feels like a stranger. That is not the truth of the gospel we are called to live. If the world listens to the words of Jesus, the world wouldn’t have been in this mess. The eight beatitudes are there as shining examples for leaders to follow and help their people. Any governance that leads their people to blackout, economic downturn will trigger a boomerang on the promoters of those junk ideologies.
• Very Rev. Monsignor Livinus Ukah