Communication Collision, Phariseesm And The Management Of Change

One man visited a native doctor (NDr)  and while trying to sit down, he embarrassingly farted, and loudly too. When the baffled NDr asked him which kin business be dis, he responded: well, it happened in your very before; that is why I am here.

On 26/11/13, a group of rebel governors, led other nPDP members to join the APC and the great Lai described the defection as a strategic merger that would give Nigeria and Nigerians a new lease of life.

5 years down the line,  the same group of rebels formed the rAPC and decamped mostly to PDP and the same Lai declared that Today is a special day.

God has answered our prayers by exposing our political traitors. God has removed stones from our rice. The first act of political harlotry was strategic while the second was divinely ordained to de-stone the APC rice.

About the same time, his Imperial Majesty, the  Chairman and Chief Executive  of APC and former Comrade,  Adams Oshimhole,  threatened to sack Ngige from  APC and from the government.

Ngige immediately gave it back to him: you ere because you do not know!( Mt, 22:29; Hosea, 4:2).

As an aside, if Adam had inquired about the fate of the hen that perches on an ngige, (the rope used to hang clothes) he would have been more careful!

Anyway, that is what this treatise is all about; the tendency to say opposing things depending on the time and circumstances or political brethren contradicting each other in the market square.

Communication collision occurs when what one said previously collides with what the same person says presently or when two people, supposedly in the same camp publicly contradict or lambast each other.

It involves one contradicting himself, contradicting his comrade or contradicting the past with the present.

Phariseesm is the height of holier than thou tendency, when somebody with a beam in his eyes is worrying about the speck in the eyes of another ( Mt., 7:5) or says one thing and does another (Mt, 23:3).

Phariseesm is the same thing with hypocrisy and as Chia had warned, a hypocrite is more dangerous than a dishonest man because a dishonest man just deceives and cheats while a hypocrite betrays and swindles.

In Nigeria, these are in the character of our politicians, but we have not seen this tendency at the level we have witnessed it in the past 3 years  of change.

I will start  as the spirit directs. On 7/6/16, the President was jetting out on his usual medical tourism.

He had heard so much groaning from Nigerians that his ears became troubled and he decided to seek medical attention abroad.

At the departure lounge,  PMB  told Nigerians that there was nothing wrong in a president being sick because he was human.

But  at the same airport and at the same time, Femi Adesina, told a bewildered world that Buhari was not sick!

In any case,  Candidate Buhari had decried medical tourism and swore that he would  patronize our general hospitals with us!

He had also outlawed  foreign medical treatment for government officials and despite the pledge of transparency refused to tell us what his medical treatment costs because it was/is a security issue.

On 26/4/17, Lai Mohammed, who used social media with disastrous consequences against Jonathan publicly complained that his job was  being frustrated by these same social media operatives, who serve the people with incredible menu and unbelievable tales.

He further discovered that fake news and misinformation were the biggest obstacles to 2019 elections (25/10/17) and before long, the FGN started clamping down on the social media because they were threats to national security while legislations against hate speech and false news surfaced.

If only he had thought  along these lines 4 years ago!

In terms of lambasting and contradicting each other, we still recall the war between Kachikwu and Amaechi  on the issue of Maritime University, the same subject matter on which Shehu Sani reminded Amaechi that a town hall meeting was not a meeting of illiterates.

Shehu Sani later told the triple Minister that Nigeria had moved from power epilepsy to power paralysis and that same Minister had said that  a serious government would fix the power conundrum in a matter of weeks.

Sani, an APC senator had also made the famous statement that while those enmeshed in corruption in the executive arm of APC government are refreshed with deodorant, others are treated with insecticides.

But it was on the issue of subsidy,   that government officials really spoke in tongues. As at now, we are told that there is no petroleum subsidy, even though there is under-recovery, or something like that, amounting to billions of Naira.

But before now the communication on fuel subsidy has been nothing short of disastrous.

When the APC government increased the price of fuel by 70%,  Kachikwu, who had declared that subsidy removal was unrealistic at his confirmation hearing, boldly  said that subsidy has been removed (11/5/16).

Meanwhile Amaechi said we are not saying that subsidy has been removed (15/1/18) and Lai added that removal of subsidy would create 200,000 jobs (14/5/16) and that fuel price was hiked because Nigeria was broke while Tinubu described removal of subsidy as a bold move (13/5/16) while Osinbajo professorially declared that subsidy has not been removed, that what we had was just a price hike (14/5/16).

PMB had earlier washed his hands off the matter when he declared before all this cacophony of voices that he did not understand what subsidy meant (24/5/15).

And these are people that nearly  capsized the Nigerian boat over the issue of subsidy a few years ago!

In 2011, Lai Mohammed had described the removal of fuel subsidy is a great misadventure,  and declared  that  his party would provide good governance without removing fuel subsidy  but when it happened in 2016, Rufai pleaded for patience and calm.

In 2004, Comrade Oshiomhole declared that failure to pay striking workers was evil but in 2016, Governor Oshiomhole told his workers that they would not be paid if they went on strike. That was what a commentator called change of mouth!

Candidate PMB felt that the exchange rate of N216/$  was suicidal and unacceptable, and promised better security, and regular, cheaper electricity. We know where we are today. Gifts for some judges became bribes, gifts to others are customary.

Amaechi fought against  the Excess Crude Account but APC continues to complain that GEJ did not save enough and has even recommenced ECA savings.

PMB who criticized  the secrecy of Yar’Adua’s health and called on NASS to trigger off the  impeachment clause now argues that it is human to be sick and that the cost of his treatment is a security issue.

We are all aware of the war between  Ambode and  Fashola over the Intl airport road; between  Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama and Senior Special Assistant on Diaspora, Abike Dabiri over the fate of Nigerians abroad, and between DSS and EFCC  and between the EFCC and the Attorney General.

PMB and APC denied the authorship of all the promises that brought them into power, including the 100-day covenant with Nigerians and though  Adesina tells us that PMB made only three promises which he has fulfilled, the APC officially agreed on 31/7/17, that they had not met all our expectations but promised to keep on trying.

Momoh said we should stone them if they failed to perform after two years; APC protested the sacking of Andrew Yakubu as the MD of NNPC  by GEJ but later arrested him for multi-million dollar fraud, an amount that  Lai declared could have built 744 hospitals while scientific analyses indicated it could not do more than 170.

Governor Ambode ordered VIOs out of Lagos roads just as El Rufai suspended FRSC operations in Kaduna;  and there was confusion over who would sign the budget between PMB on sick leave and Osinbajo as Acting President.

The case of the grass-cutting SGF was vintage APC. The Senate peopled mostly by APC Senators blew the whistle on the SGF; the President set up a committee (led by the Attorney General) that exonerated him and  wrote to NASS accordingly.

When the senate insisted on the authenticity of its whistle, the president set up the Osinbajo panel (including same Attorney General) to investigate the man they had cleared.

And the following posers arose:

• Why investigate a man you had cleared?
• Why set up Osinbajo committee when we have EFCC/ICPC; why should the presidency investigate the presidency?

And even when the second committee turned in a verdict of guilty, the matter is still hanging because the man is not even in the APC looters list.

The APC promised restructuring, said they did not understand what Nigerians mean by restructuring, denied the promise and has re-promised to ensure restructuring.

Meanwhile, where is the Rufai report on restructuring? And while the VP endorsed Magu, AGF Malami said he was on his own while Itse Sagay declared that Malamis position was unconstitutional.

Mrs Adeosun, long before she started searching for her NYSC certificate, declared that Nigeria should stop borrowing while the Ministry of Finance, over which she still presides said we must continue borrowing.

And now, even Oyegun agreed that PMBs appointments are lopsided,  though that may well be a part of his valedictory speech! On top of all this, Lai swore that he had never lied to Nigerians. You see what I mean?

Well, whether we are managing organizational change or APC change, integrity is essential and integrity exists when there is a sync between what one says and what one does.

The hypocrisy  of APC ( the party and the members) is written in a pen of iron (Isaiah, 17:1) the glibness of their tongue is poisonous and the gullibility of our people to have swallowed their bait before and to probably swallow it again is one of the wonders of the modern world.

The BOOK tells us that our sins will find us out (Numbers, 32:23); an assurance that the  wrongs we do or say will one day haunt us.

The sins of APC and its officials, in terms of their sayings and deeds, are evidences against them in the public court of today.

When one deliberately creates a false impression, the Amplified version of the Bible says such a person is dealing in falsehood, error, deception and cheating ( Rev,22:15).

A liar’s biggest problem is that he cannot believe anybody because how you live your life is how you judge your neighbor (The Word for Today,11/8/18).

But there is a way out: those who have problem telling the truth should say after me: Lord deliver my  soul from  lying lips and a deceitful tongue (Psalm 120:2) and those who are victims of lying should pray: Lord deliver me from liars and deceivers( another version of the same Psalm 120:2)

When members of the same party say different things on the same issue, disagree with one another in the open and deny what they had earlier said, then it is an indication that a season of political and governance apocalypse is forthcoming.

I agree that we actually entered a one-chance bus in 2015 but I thank God that Nigeria is still standing.

Meanwhile, as we continue to watch the evolving political drama preparatory to 2019, one thing is certain: politicians are shameless and the only interest they understand and protect is self.

Nigeria go survive.

Ik Muo, PhD, Department of Business Administration, OOU, Ago-Iwoye; muoigbo@yahoo.com