Romance of unreasonableness

THE Nigerian Senate is holding high the national ambition of living in a true democracy; living in truth and despising lies. Presumably, members of the Senate are in love with the Nigerian Guardian newspaper’s motto, ‘Conscience  Nurtured By Truth’. Our Honourables! No wonder members rose a fortnight ago to romance with the idea of fighting post-truth concept in a democracy: Lie as truth.  It is a serious business, this democracy. Truth and lies. We have both and statements that may not be true but we consider it too inelegant to call false or lie by its name.The senators, honest men all, have no business with dilly dallying with euphemisms to look civil; not to call untruths,  lies. Euphemism is unsenatorial:  being economical with the truth, sweeten it, or  the truth improved. Why not call untruth its real name: blatant lie? Spin. And accepting lies as misspeak or poor judgment isn’t a good excuse for the misdemeanor, lying. Denying isn’t gentlemanlike.  For a gentleman, lie isn’t that ‘truth is temporarily unavailable’. Call it by its name: lie or falsehood. Temporarily unavailable is the full-time story of a network  provider. MTN!

I may have unduly delayed the story, wetting your appetite but like a cassanova, filibustering  a good  toasting technique though, no matter, blurs dishonesty. But I am being honest walking like crabs  into the holes. It’s  safety strategy  to beat the predators. The Senate and the fight against fake news, hate speech and disinformation. Yes it has been the war of the  Information  Minister, Lai Mohammed, who canvasses its abolition in our media space. Now by the Senate prescription, it is said, in sever circumstances, conviction of these crimes attracts sever punishment  including  hanging on the neck until the hate speech and fake news  criminal is dead. Hmmm. Romancing unreasonableness. There  is enough in statute  books to handle the post-truth era infringement  than resort to subterfuge. Remember decree No. 4? And you recall Muhammadu Buhari as a Military Head of State. Sad reminder of dark days for all and the press. This is democracy  and we must overlook the advantages of running amock with dictators exuberance.

Remember PMB is a confessed and reformed democrat. Let no man deny him his deserved purity, no his sainthood, after penance. By the way, fake news or hate speech has its root in the genesis of ‘superior actions: hoarding  of Information  and the denial of legitimate dues to ‘transgressors’ in a democracy. In democracy post-truth era, borders blur between truth and lies, honesty and dishonesty. Deceiving others becomes a challenge, a game, and ultimately a habit as music of politics resonates.

Deception is part of the motivation for the current dishonesty that has become part of citizens’ protest for a failed promise. Why do so many, even those who glorify the Sitting-Political party government, find the need to fly and spread fake news or spew hate speech? We can only understand the urge if we understand  the tremor  of frustration. You may feel this by examining the sea of unfulfilled  promises which citizens  swim to keep afloat  today. Disappointments  ranging from the prevailing insecurity to  modern disdain for “truth” to therapeutic stone-deaf to reasonable calls for sanity, encourage subdued protest. Then the deception. Omoloye Sowore wanted to bluff the  subdued protest for revolution. No, he does not know the game in our clime. . And he is charged a felon wanting to topple a legitimate government. He is in DSS custody after the court  granted him bail. Bros, here is not Hong Kong you know but you refused to acknowledge. There is much incentive and little penalty for improving the narrative of our disappointing circumstance. The increasing promotion of clanishness, disregard for inclusiveness, narcissism and blatant display of insincerity  in the pursuit of advertised national goals are giving  rise to anger and declining community solidarity via the Internet news bogey.

Now the position  is that we have a fragile social scene based on unfulfilled political promises. The abortion  of hope erodes the foundation of trust that underlies any healthy political belief and support . When hope is lost, we fly fantasy as fact and thus lose the grounding in reality. The Senate should go back to laboratory, save us from  crumbling as it assumes that hate speech and fake news, in isolation, are the dissembler. The bill is unnecessary  romance of unreasonableness.

• Nnomeh is a veteran journalist and teaches journalism  at Godfrey Okoye University, Ugwuomu-Nike, Enugu State.