Nigeria’s Sociology of Lying -By Kehinde Oluwatosin B.

Kehinde Oluwatosin B.

Nigeria is a grim reaper, she reaps you of your life and hopes ,if she is not reaping you out of existence through inept leadership, she mis-educate and mal-educate you and hence create a fatalism which ensures that you are so uninformed that you even defend the worst amidst us to ascend leadership positions.

If Nigeria is not killing you in human terms, she kills you in social terms by ensuring that the sociology of continuous lying is enabled in you. We all knew how Dagrin and CD John died , we all knew they don’t have to die, the stationary vehicle could have been tolled away in case of the former and the later could have been preserved if our roads had been in good shape.

That is how Nigeria kills you in human terms because the money for those projects went into individual pockets. Those of us who are alive are only lucky to be alive ,however while we celebrate our aliveness, we are also a victim of Nigeria’s grim reaping tendencies,the difference is that it has not only claimed our lives,however it has socialized us into a lying sect, a people who must lye to survive. Given the praxis of the nation’s chequered existence was also built on lye, not to lye in Nigeria is anti-Nigeria. Nigeria’s dimension of lying is peculiar because there are situations and events that makes lying in Nigeria justifiable. Let me digress for the purpose of perspective, one of the most popular plots in Nollywood movies (The Nigerian version of Hollywood) when a man start cheating on his wife is to lye about traffic,because of my hatred for cliches, I often crave for a change of plot and expect subsequent movies to change the reason for a man’s infidelity and not hinge it solely on traffic at all times,however I have moved and traveled within Lagos for 2½ hrs for distances that shouldn’t have lasted more than 45mins.

This alone justifies the plot and create the repetition of this plot in the movies you watch.For those who understands the relative nature of time,you should have noticed the difficulty in calibrating the difference between two long hours e.g three hours and five hours might not seem too different and far apart in the mind, it is this possibility that allows a man to at least see one or two of his mistresses spend like two hours with her and still get home in relatively good time and still talk about traffic to his wife , that is how Nigeria ensures you are a winner in the lying game and also a proud one at that . Another way Nigeria teaches you to lie is in her Narcissist view of merit especially in her system of education.In the past the cut off mark for the joint admission matriculation exams was 200 out of a total of 400marks ,your father don’t have to be a billionaire, you don’t have to be connected to the honourable minister, score 200 and you are admitted, the mindset was that- given the complexity(The complexity is a charade) of the exams scoring half is enough to gauge your preparedness for an academic pursuit. Suddenly Nigerian institutions started creating their own standards, creating their own cut off points higher than that of the examination body , some which may not be attainable by the majority except for the super brilliant who are not common amongst us, discriminating against those who could not meet these standards and creating a situation where parents gauge their children only by their jamb results.Students ,parents and other accomplices became rebellious and created a syndicate that had continually undermined the integrity of the exam via several examination malpractices.

Students practically told the Nigerian authority in implied terms “Sebi it is lye that you want abi, we will give you in torrents.” hence students started lying to gain admission into the university and in the end creating a situation where our education system has at best become perfunctory. lying is an age long social disease of the human race, and everyone is guilty and complicit , however Nigeria has created a complicated system that makes you a despicable liar and also a proud one. She has not given you anything yet expects everything from you, she doesn’t put you into consideration before making her laws, such laws often impracticable, you often don’t have a choice than to lye to give a fake impression of adherence. Even in systems and interactions where lying is not needed you just have to lye to keep up, to be accepted ,to be loved ,to be Nigerian.

Kehinde Oluwatosin B is a public speaker and prolific writer from Abeokuta Ogun State.
Email:Kehindeobabatunde@gmail.com