OPINION:Nigeria is not so backward that forensics could not be used to find the truth of this matter, writes BISI ADIGUN
I KNEW it. Call it premonition or what have you, but something told me that Pamela Izevbekhai’s bubble was about to burst. As my people would say: “When the bata drum begins to sound sweeter than usual, it is a sign that it is about to burst.”
Perhaps that was why, only a few weeks ago, I could not resist the urge to write an article on Izevbekhai. In the piece, “Do We Really Need to Circumcise Our Daughters”, published on www.obodo-oyinbo.co.uk, I implored Izevbekhai to do all Nigerians in Ireland and all over the world a favour and stop acting the victim on whom Irish people are bestowing sympathy and basking in the glory and publicity that come with their “charitable” act.
I pointed out that although Irish people like to help the needy (especially if you are someone without an agency) they love showing that they are helping. If care is not taken the phenomenal media coverage which her case has thus far attracted would only exacerbate her plight rather than help it.
I advised her to stop fretting and prepare herself for the worst, which in her case is to be returned, with her two daughters, to Nigeria. I tried to be philosophical in the piece by stating that if it has been fated that she will be returned to Nigeria no one can stop it and if it is in her destiny to live in Ireland, even Dermot Ahern would not be able to change it.
Little did I know that one week after writing those words, Izevbekhai’s name would once again be all over the airwaves and in the print media as someone who has managed to garner a lot of popular support by allegedly telling lies.
As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” So I will not attempt to argue whether Izevbekhai was right or wrong by presenting documents, that turned out to be forged, to support “her lies”, including that she lost a daughter in 1994 due to complications associated with female circumcision.
Rather, I would like to discuss what I think the truth is about lies. It would be safe to think that lying is an act which all of us have had to engage in one time or the other. But it is also an art at which some people, to whom we refer as pathological liars, are very adept. People tell lies for all sorts of reasons; either to get what they badly want or to get them out of a jam. We can divide lies into two main categories: harmless lies and serious or harmful ones. Let us briefly analyse the former before we discuss the latter.
The so-called white lies are the harmless lies that we as individuals have no option but to tell once in while. For instance, if my wife asks me if her bum looks good in a particular pair of trousers, what do you expect me to say, irrespective of what I think? Or, if I am taking a walk with my wife and I see a girl that makes me think, “God that girl is gorgeous”, and my wife asks, “Bisi you seem lost, what is on your mind?”, do you really expect me to tell her the truth? In other words, some lies are essential lies. They are lies that have to be told otherwise one will find oneself in serious trouble.
In Nigeria we were told that if you go to take a driving test, the examiner will ask: “What would you do if you are driving a car with five people in it and your mother suddenly crosses the road without checking?” I don’t know about you, but I know precisely what I would do if my mother crossed the road suddenly and I am driving a busload of people. However, I do not think it is the answer the examiner wants to hear.
So white lies are petty lies that are necessary in certain situations in order not to look stupid or not to hurt the feelings of those whom we love dearly.
Serious lies, on the other hand, are lies that are premeditated. When people tell this kind of lie, they know that they have to keep on lying simply to prove that they are not lying in the first instance. A serious lie results in a series of serious lies. A serious liar is inevitably a serial liar. A perfect example of a serial liar has to be former American president Bill Clinton when he was asked if he ever had any sexual relationship with the White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In fact, it is common knowledge that Clinton loves his women, so without any doubt he must be very good at lying to still be married to Mrs Clinton. And to bring it closer to home, I recall the story of the Clare woman Sharon Collins, who, nicknamed “Lying Eyes”, was accused and convicted of hiring an assassin over the internet in an elaborate plot to kill her partner and his two sons. In the mind of a serious liar, lies become the truth, especially when the consequence of his/her act carries serious consequences. It was impeachment in the case of Clinton and a jail term in the case of Collins.
The question which begs an answer is: is it really true that Izevbekhai lied that she lost a daughter due to female genital mutilation, and then went on to tell more lies to prove that she is telling the truth? The truth is that the whole story has become so messy now that one does not know what or who to believe any more.
But one thing is certain, if it is true that Izevbekhai’s daughter died in Nigeria in 1994 she should, with or without documents, be able to prove it. Nigeria, it needs to be stressed, is not as backward as the western media are trying to paint it. Izevbekhai, one would argue, should be able to point to where the baby was buried.
I suggest that the Nigerian government should do a CSI Nigeria on this case. It should exhume the remains of the baby for a forensic analysis in order to, once and for all, ascertain whether Elizabeth lived and died after being circumcised as Izevbekhai maintains – despite acknowledging now that the documents she has been using in her claim are forgeries. Gan ni ya fi ji(seeing convinces more than hearing) as the Hausa of northern Nigeria would say.
However, if it turns out that Izevbekhai has indeed been lying, then her case is akin to life imitating art. In the new version of The Playboy of the Western Worldwhich my company, Arambe Productions, commissioned in 2006, Christopher Malomo comes to Ireland to seek refuge claiming that he has "killed" his dad.
It is a lie, but the more he tells the tale of how he killed his father the more he is convinced of its truthfulness because his heroic tale and the way he tells it has caught the imagination of his Irish listeners, who see him as a celebrity. Out of the blue old Malomo, who is supposed to have been dead and buried, appears and the rest, as they say, is history for Christopher Malomo. He shamefacedly returns to Nigeria with his dad.
So is Pamela Izevbekhai the Playgirl of the Western World? Only the future will tell.
One issue that her case has brought to the fore is the whole controversy over female circumcision (FC) that westerners commonly referred to as female genital mutilation (FGM).
I have admitted in the article I mentioned earlier that I am not, despite being a Nigerian, knowledgeable in this matter of female circumcision but I would like to argue that it is rather Eurocentric and judgmental of the western media and commentators to deem the tradition barbaric.
I accept that female circumcision is an archaic tradition and no woman is benefited by it. So let us discuss it rationally and find the most effective way to enlighten those who still practise it. My view is that you cannot change a people’s traditional beliefs just like that, even if they are labelled barbaric. There are lots of atrocious things that westerners do that we Africans do not call “barbaric”. Therefore I think it is high time westerners stopped behaving as if they were the superior race as regards the issue of female circumcision.
Also, I am rather surprised that instead of giving Dr Joseph Unokanjo of Isioma Hospital in Lagos credit for allegedly refusing to furnish Izevbekhai with fake documents to support her claim, the Irish media are beginning to give the impression that he is untrustworthy.
What is wrong in asking for €5,000 to answer the questions posed to him by the Sunday Times? As a Nigerian friend said to me, the truth is sometimes obtained at a price. If it is true that Unokanjo did refuse to provide Izevbekhai with false documents to support her asylum claim, I think the Late Late Show should organise to bring him over from Nigeria and pay him an appearance fee because in my view, this man’s conduct is proof that there are many Nigerians whoare incorruptible, contrary to popularopinion.
It is my hope that by the time the matter of Izevbekhai is no more headline news it will be clear to the Irish people that all that glitters is not gold and that an ornament is not lead simply because it does not glitter, otherwise they will continue to be a bunch of Pegeen Mikes.
© Bisi Adigun, April 2009;
Adigun is the founder and artistic director of Arambe Productions; www.arambeproductions.com