I am flummoxed that people are offended that I deleted and apologized for a post which turned out to be “untrue”. Fellow Citizens, no matter your political, ethnic, or religious affiliation, note that until we (Nigerians) become fact-based, Nigeria has no future.
If you believe that when the government does bad, we should offer our opinions, you must also agree that we have to commend when it does good. Also, if you rely on government public statements to challenge it, you must also rely on the same public statements when they offer rebuttals.
More than 99% of my posts praise Dangote because he is amazing. But that does not mean we cannot point out issues when we think necessary. The fuel import license rumour ran, and we all picked it. But now the government said it never happened, the most honourable thing to do is to accept that position, and move on, leaving the rest to investigative journalists.
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Yesterday in a leadership event I anchored, someone asked me what is Nigeria’s biggest challenge now? My response surprised the audience: “we do not have Team Nigeria anymore; what we have now is Team Hausa, Team Yoruba, Team Igbo, etc and that is a risk to Nigeria’s long-term competitiveness”.
I explained how I crafted a post and shared it via contacts in Federal Government College’ WhatsApp Groups [the unity schools are more ethnically diverse than peers] using different ethnic names, and how people responded. Simply, the ethnic name of the writer shaped the conversations; the substance was largely immaterial.
People, you cannot win a FUTURE that way. Indeed, no nation has succeeded when blindfolded that way. This post – and specifically this post – will get a different response if the writer is “Kunle” or “Adamu”. Simply, a fact-less kingdom is a lost one.
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You have to also understand where most of our people are coming from, these are people whose sense of dignity has been abused and subdued recklessly, so they are so timid to the point of self-imolation. They would accept wrongdoing rather than appearing to have offended their elders or superiors. This is where most of your compatriots are currently wallowing in, and the amazing thing is that there’s lack of awareness.
Two things you must never second-guess or yield an inch whenever they show up: never apologize for excellence, and more importantly, never be silent when opinions or teachings that violate reason are propagated.
In the public space, there is no single source of authentication information, especially on matters that are time bound. If government is your only source, what becomes of you when the government withholds information or lies to you? Practical reason demands that you make conscious effort in your search for truth, and assess each information on its merits.
You don’t need to warm up so much to people who are allergic to critical reasoning, those who just want you to follow a narrative just because it’s coming from a constituted authority or those they approve of. It is not your job to satisfy sociopaths.