In ancient Greece, “speaking truth to power” was known as parrhesia. It means having the courage to speak the truth to people in authority at one’s personal risk despite the consequences. Seeing it as a moral obligation to speak truth to power is not a tea party. It may result in social isolation, political scandal, public ridicule, stigmatization, moral dilemma, and death. It is recorded that parrhesia is similar to satyagraha, which literally means using truth to fight injustice as opposed to the use of violence. This was used by Mahatma Gandhi in his independence struggle to bring an end to the British colonial regime in India. Speaking truth in itself is dangerous, not to talk of speaking it to the powers that be. Even in traditional African society, you cannot go to the palace to tell the king that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. One must do well to perish such thought.
Speaking truth to power has been described as one of the most difficult of ethical challenges facing mankind because of its inherent personal danger. To stand up for what is right in a world that is perverse and brutish, to confront an authority in such a world, and call out the injustices in their regime and demand change is tantamount to jumping into fire with one’s eyes wide open. As simple as it may sound, for anyone to have the ‘animal boldness’ to say to the boss, “Oga, what you are doing is not right”, such a person stands the risk of losing their job or being victimized in one way or another. The archetypal case of Socrates in ancient Greece underlines the dire consequences of speaking truth to power. Socrates’ school of thought teaches that “if you speak truth to power publicly, you will be killed”. In other words, anyone that speaks truth to power is almost always perceived by the authorities as a very dangerous person and a rapscallion that must be silenced. Everything the person does or says would be closely monitored and censored especially under authoritarian regimes.
In recorded history, not a few courageous individuals have had their lives endangered by speaking truth to power. The Biblical case of John the Baptist presents a classical example. John the Baptist was imprisoned by King Herod Antipas because he dared to tell the king the truth about marrying his brother’s ex-wife, Herodias. The king and Herodias were in an adulterous relationship and according to Jewish law, the marriage was unlawful. Herodias hated John for openly condemning their illicit marriage, and she wanted him dead. When Herod threw a birthday party and invited the leaders of the community, she got her chance. Herodias’ daughter performed a dance that so enchanted the king that he made an outlandish statement, offering to give her whatever she wanted. The daughter asked Herodias what to ask for. Predictably, and against all common sense, the pretty girl asked for “the head of John the Baptist”. Like a scene straight from a horror movie, John’s head was cut off and presented to Herodias’ daughter on a platter of gold. Of course, John knew what he was getting himself into, but he was willing to become a martyr for the truth. How many people can do that today in this country? The criminal charge of treasonable felony, as grave as it is, has now become so trivialized that it can be peddled about and slammed at anyone even for complaining against hunger in the land!
A certain Vaclav Havel, former President of Czech Republic, a poet, and a dissident activist, said that “politics should not be ignored because it attracts bad people”. This follows that politics requires people of exceptional purity, higher sensitivity, taste, tact and responsibility, and high moral standards, who can welcome criticism and divergent opinions without acrimony towards persons expressing such opinions. He therefore concluded that “those who say that politics is disreputable help make it so, and those who claim that politics is a dirty business are lying to us”. As could be expected, he was a perennial victim of state repression under Communist rule. For speaking out, and for his human rights activism, he was sentenced to close to five years in prison with hard labour. Of course, everybody knows that politics is about power, but how you acquire and use it is what separates the heroes from the villains. Our people in Anioma nation have a parable: “It is true that you cannot sit down in your house and get a chieftaincy title.” But using power to suppress the truth, or malign the opposition, is certainly not the mark of a statesman.
Before the Nazis came to power in 1933, the German constitution guaranteed freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Through decrees and laws, the Nazis abolished these civil rights and destroyed German democracy. Starting in 1934, it was illegal to criticize the Nazi government. Even telling a joke about Hitler was considered treachery. People in Nazi Germany could not say or write anything against the government even if it’s the truth. Germans watched with bated breath as Hitler’s propaganda machine buffeted the world with a slew of lies and half-truths. How could anyone have had the audacity to tell Hitler that he was wrong for killing six million Jews inside gas chambers?
Coming back home to Nigeria, the City People Magazine once reported how Nnamdi Azikiwe’s curse led to late Chuba Okadigbo’s downfall. “It was a clash between the old generation and the new breed politicians. An elderly politician alleged that his political party was robbed at the poll. The elderly statesman was Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the first and last ceremonial president of Nigeria. He levelled rigging allegations against the victorious candidate in the 1983 presidential election, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, who contested on the platform of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). One of Shagari’s advisers, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, was quick to pooh-pooh the allegation of one of the aggrieved losers, Dr. Azikiwe, who was the standard-bearer of the Nigerian People’s Party (NPP). To demonstrate his power of oratory, he equated the allegation of Zik to the ‘rantings of an ant’. Okadigbo’s comment was seen as unwary and careless and it landed him in trouble with a deeper implication that paved the way for his eventual fall from grace to grass.” It was alleged that Zik placed a curse on him, which led to his downfall. Whether this is true or not, it shows that one must bridle one’s tongue when talking to people of high political standing.
There was also the case of Dele Giwa, a renowned journalist, publisher and news editor, who was killed by a parcel bomb delivered at his home at Ikeja, Lagos on Sunday, 19 October 1986. The assassination occurred two days after he had been interviewed by State Security Service (SSS) officials. When he opened the package, it exploded on his lap. He was rushed to the hospital where he eventually died from his wounds. Giwa had been invited by the SSS to their headquarters for the first time on 19 September 1986, after writing an article in which he described the newly introduced Second-Tier Foreign Exchange Market (SFEM) as “God’s experiment” and suggested that if SFEM failed, the people would stone their leaders in the streets. It appeared that he was insinuating that Nigerians would rise up against the regime of Gen. Babangida (known as IBB), the then Military Head of State who authorized the SFEM. After the SFEM publication, Giwa was interviewed and his statement was taken by two SSS operatives. He was later taken to meet with Lt. Col. Togun, the deputy director of the agency, in his office.
Giwa was also accused of plotting with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), and students to carry out a socialist revolution.
Till today, ‘Who killed Dele Giwa?’ is still a question hanging around Nigeria’s neck like an albatross. Whether Giwa was bombed because he spoke truth to power is for posterity to judge.
Only recently, Dele Farotimi, a lawyer and rights activist, was arrested by the authorities for allegedly writing about corruption in the country’s judiciary. He was reported to have told his wife that he was prepared to die, and that having stopped law practice at the age of 50, he had found his new calling, which is to speak truth to power no matter the consequences. The case is now in court, and nothing more needs to be said until the Nigerian justice system which the young man was complaining about had completed its adjudication on the matter.
In all this, one thing is clear: whoever suppresses the truth or peddles falsehood against the good people of this country called Nigeria, and against the order of nature, whether in low or in high places, such a person has murdered sleep and he shall sleep no more.
*Anthony-Spinks is of the Delta State Public Procurement Commission. He writes from Asaba.
