This Is The Gospel Truth

ABDULRAZAQ HAMZAT

Just like walahi talahi, an Arabic phrase for “I swear with God”, which is often invoked to convince people about the truthfulness of a claim, the word “truth” today, as become another walahi talahi, which has been bastardized and hijacked by people with no morality, no sense of fairness or justice, no sense of patriotism or even understanding of issues they intend to speak on.

This days, everybody claim to be speaking truth.

The good people, the bad people and even the urgly ones will tell you, “we are speaking the truth”.

It doesn’t matter if they distort information, try to exploit the situation and out rightly concort illusionary tales to deceive gullible readers and listeners, they will still proclaim before all, “I am speaking the truth”.

The saints, the sinners and those in between have also become the vanguard of this so called truth.

To make every falsehood and nonesenical opinion believable, we call it “truth”.

Even the thieves, betrayers, dishonest, corrupt, unpatriotic and out rightly ignorant and confused individuals will beat their chest in public conversation and say to the world, this is the gospel truth.

So, what is this truth that they are proclaiming?

Their opinion. Informed or uninformed. That is what they call truth.

You get me right, their own opinion is the truth that they proclaim and those of others are not.

About 10 years ago, precisely on 19th May 2012, at a program hosted by the Nigerian Youth Forum (NYF) in Kaduna, i delivered a speech titled ‘’The Truth About Nigeria’’.

In that speech, I said:

“Truth is the solution to all problems, without it, no measure works”.

I went further to state that, truth must never be substituted if we truly want to progress as a nation. This is so because, when we avoid telling truth as it should, that is when the nation crumbles upon itself.

I pointed out further that, some people might tell half truth in some cases, but even with that, progress may be delayed, because when we avoid telling truth as it should be told, we are preventing progress as we should progress.

However, about 5 years ago, specifically on April 12, 2017, after observing and learning from life events as they unfold in the country, i expanded the scope of my truth philosophy in another publication titled, “Truth is not Enough”, where i said, truth alone is not enough. It must be accompanied with mercy and reconciliation.

In that publication, i said:

We must all develop the habit of having mercy with each other and being able and willing to reconcile our differences. We must not continue to live as friendly enemies, suspecting each other of certain ulterior motives every time. Rather, we must improve our relationship to that of partners, always struggling to make our relationship work better.

I went on to quote Lederach (1997) who said:

“Truth and Mercy have met together. Justice and Peace have kissed”.

The above analogy by Laderach was used as themes to guide one in better understanding the components that aid long lasting reconciliation.

He concluded by saying, “Without the person of truth, conflict will never be resolved. Yet, truth alone leaves us Unclad, vulnerable and unworthy.”

“On Mercy, images emerged of compassion, forgiveness, acceptance and a new start. Without the person of mercy, healthy relationships would not be possible.

And without compassion and forgiveness, healing and restoration would not be possible.

Yet, mercy alone is superficial because it covers up too quickly.

Then came the role of reconciliation.

Reconciliation is a procedure that moves us away from hatred and prejudice of the past towards building structures and procedures for establishing durable peace with adversaries once groups have entered a post- settlement phase (Ackerma This is the gospel truth, 1994).

Today, people who do not live a truthful life of their own, claim to be vanguard of societal truth. Those who have no understanding of substance, claim to be speaking it’s truth.

We are at such a time that the mere invoking of the word “truth” is seen as the ticket to legitimacy and every ignorant and dishonest postulations is described as truth by the purveyor.

Just like walahi talahi, an Arabic phrase for “I swear with God”, which is often invoked to convince people about the truthfulness of a claim, the word “truth” today, as become another walahi talahi, which has been bastardized and hijacked by people with no morality, no sense of fairness or justice, no sense of patriotism or even understanding of issues they intend to speak on.

Absence of any substance, quality reasoning and appreciable understanding of issues, people who wants to convince you to swallow their half baked opinion would claim to be speaking truth, to give it some justification or give themselves some legitimacy.

So, when they speak and their position is questioned for its weakness and lack of substance, they will declare, I am speaking the truth.

But unknown to them, truth is self evident. It doesn’t need to be proclaimed as such. It is not just a word that you throw around with the aim of convincing people, it has characteristics of clarity, fact, sincerity, fairness, justice and indisputability.

So, whether you say it is truth or not, provided these qualities are seen, truth will be established.

Abdulrazaq Hamzat writes from Abuja