The Concourse
By Soney Antai, serial awards-winning columnist
The highest form of deception
Deception is a deliberate lie, by words or actions, that we tell or do, to masquerade something from others so that we could have an undeserved advantage. It is a mask we present to manipulate others for our self-centred purposes. A successful deception indicates that the other person doesn’t realise what we are doing, and because that is the case, they believe us and follow our bidding,
sometimes to their hurt. This is the means by which some persons unconsciously become manchurian candidates. However, in the effluxion of time, the deception mask might fall off by whatever means, and the man behind it is exposed and his devious intentions become known.
When a deceiver is caught, they may choose to defend their awkward position baldfacedly and end up in infamy, or choose to apologise and maybe restitute to restore camaraderie. But whatever they choose would not exculpate them completely from the tar of being self-sabotaging personalities without integrity and dignity. Agreed that they may be forgiven if they repent, but forgiveness rarely translates into forgetting. At the point the deceived discovers that the other guy deceived them, the relationship between the parties suffers a dip as trust flies out the window.
You may console yourself if deceived by another. You would be right to say that you didn’t know that you were being conned, and so the shame isn’t yours. But what about self deception? Is it even possible to deceive oneself? I think so, and if that’s possible, I adjudge it to be the worst form of deception and I tell you why. We may take it or dump it, but self-deception is self- denigrating; it’s self-denuding; it’s self-shaming, and it’s self-sabotaging. You know why? You can’t successfully deceive another without being untrue to your inner personality, whether you feel so or not. What you do when deceiving people is to admit to crass cowardice and self-denouncement.
Self-deception goes beyond personal or interpersonal level to even a state or national level. Take a look at Akwa Ibom, or any state for that matter. What sustains the Akwa Ibom economy? It’s a case of like state, like country. The clear answer is oil, the black gold. Where do we derive that oil from? Just a few local government areas around our coastal region. But who are the ones controlling the money from the oil? Basically, the governors and their acolytes. Now take the inventory of infrastructure, political appointments, contract awards in favour of the oil producing areas and judge for yourself what is going on. Are we honestly saying that Akwa Ibom State is one when a select few are lording it over the majority? When we preach oneness but practise selfness and selfishness, we believe our lie because when falsehood is repeated over and over again, over a long period, even the manufacturerof that falsehood would tend to believe it. That is one way self-deception is brooded and brewed.
We deceive ourselves to be saying that Nigeria is one united, indivisible, indisoluble entity, just because we are at the sharing table, but once we are out of the power orbit, we remember the sermon of justice. This is a country where gold in Zamfara State, repeated reports say, is being controlled by individuals, but the oil in the Niger Delta is controlled centrally by largely the same group mining the gold and keeping the money in their alar cavity away from the public treasure. How can we say that we are united when we allow that? Are we not deceiving ourselves when we say that we are one Nigeria and yet 12 states adopt Sharia law, a clear violation of the nation’s constitution? Why would a high court judge sentence a terrorism convict to 20 years in prison, while another judge in a similar case sentences another convict to life imprisonment? How can a man who, in the course of defending himself against another who launched an unprovoked attack on him, be found guilty of homicide by even the highest court in the land clearly becauseof his cultural and religious persuasion? And a lawyer would tell me the law is blind to sentiment? They should tell me something else, please.
We deceive ourselves as supposed Christians when we twist Scripture to serve our stomachs. For instance, how often do we preach on the Lord Jesus Christ’s command that we love one another as He loved us? Or, when last did we preach from Leviticus 27.30-32, where tithe is defined, and Deuteronomy 12.17, 18;14.22-26, showing that tithes were to be eaten; or from Deuteronomy 26.12,13? What topic dominates our sermons as preachers?
Nonetheless, the eternal truth is that nobody can deceive their Creator, and whatsoever we sow that is what we shall reap. Regardless of our antics, smartness, shenanigans, and melodramatics, we cannot deceive our Maker. If we like let’s keep deceiving ourselves.
