If you want to think, speak and act logically then you should know all three.
1> The law of identity
2> The law of excluded middle
3> The law of non contradiction.
Now let's look at each one of these and see what they mean in practice.
1] The law of identity
The law of identity means that things are what they are, which at first
doesn't seem very illuminating, but wait; it implies also the
following, that things are what they are, whether you like them or not,
it implies that things are what they are whether you know them or not,
it implies that things are what they are whether you agree with them or
not.
However, if you don't like the facts as they are you are going
to have to put up with them, because facts are what they are, if it's
raining on your golf day, get used to it! Because the facts are what
they are and are often not what you want them to be, like if the traffic
lights turn red when you approach, stop complaining!
The law of
identity means that you must adapt yourself to the facts and start your
work from there, it implies that the facts will not bend to meet your
expectations. You must first adapt yourself to what life is and then get
to work changing and improving things in your life, be brave to meet
reality as it really is and not how you would wish it to be.
2] The law of excluded middle.
The law of excluded middle means that you should give a straight yes or
no answer always and there is no middle ground. The law means that
there is no kinda yes and kinda no, there is no ‘sort of’ being married
because you are either married or you are not, you are either a thief or
you are not, you are either on time or not, you are either living in
Nigeria or you are not. The law is the idea that you should not try to
keep all of your options open by staying in the middle or hedging, when
it suits you, like when you accepted an appointment during IBB's regime
as chairman of FRSC. I bet that was a military regime you partook in.
Please pick one wife and state your claim 100% to her, pick one idea and
go for it 100%! Decide and commit Sir! There you might find great power
and self satisfaction in the doctrine of decide and commit. No half way
measures, no middle ground, exclude the middle! Here! The law of
excluded middle Sir.
3] The law of non contradiction.
The
law of non contradiction says don't contradict yourself simple. If you
say you will be there then be there. If you say you will do it then do
it. Don't say or fight for one thing and then do the opposite. Don't say
one thing and then later deny that you said it. Don't say one thing and
then later contradict it. Be consistent in your thoughts and actions.
Observing someone who was a socialist in the morning but then became a
capitalist in the evening is a textbook on contradiction, these are two
polar opposites, such a person is clearly inconsistent and is therefore
considered a flip flop, confused, easily led or misled or at best a
lunatic who has no clear understanding of the basis of either doctrine.
Apply these three logics to others with consistency and then you can
ask for the same or expect the same from others, and then you can also
ask for others to deal with facts not fantasy, which is the law of
identity. Ask others to make up their mind to decide and commit. The law
of excluded middle.Then ask others to follow through on the things that
they say they would do. The law of non contradiction.
Sir, I
believe brilliance is not perfection. I have grown and watched you
criticize regime after regime and at that young and naive age I was
thinking why wouldn't this man just contest to be president so that
Nigeria can be saved, I would have defiantly voted for Mr Soyinka if it
would have brought an end to Nigeria's woes. To my utter surprise, I
heard about your FRSC leadership and how funds were misused and a great
deal of it unaccounted for. "Oh my God! In the end he turned out to be
just the same as everybody else" were my next thoughts. My hopes for
you, all ended up in great disappointment.
Here I find myself
defending my father 15 years after his death because some of you have no
one else to pounce on, or rather, you have chosen a dead person to keep
pouncing on over and over again when you have more than an array of
contestants. A coward's act I believe. "A common writer" is what I have
heard you being referred to lately, and I believe a mature mind would
now agree to such referrals. With all due respect, there is a great
challenge that faces the country, we have to put our heads together,
rather than clashing, our collective ships must sail in the same
direction, let us leave the ghosts of past contention and face the
future bravely as one, criticizing the past does not help the present or
define a path to the future.
You say, with the weight of your
sense of history and the authority you possess on national issues that "
a vicious usurper under whose authority the lives of an elected
president and his wife were snuffed out" referring to my late father,
you must be growing old, or you would rightly recall that that president
elect you refer to did not die while my father was alive. Did you slyly
change your facts to fit a history that would better serve your
narrative, or are you just plain forgetful? Either way, it shows you are
losing your grasp of reality.
Comparing my father’s leadership
to Boko Haram's current reign of terror, is a rather cheap shot, you
are in no position to examine, judge and sentence an entire regime based
on the information you think you have, you are privy to almost none of
the true facts, what is at your disposal is at best, hearsay, or were
you ever minister of defence? did you ever sit in during security
meetings, evaluate the facts and subtleties of national security? You
remind me of Obama criticizing the Republicans before he became a
sitting president himself, vouching to put an end to all American
occupation, this all came to an abrupt end once he had access to the
briefs and security issues, economic and political, facing his nation.
Surely he did what he could, and history will judge him. To lead is not
to be a rock star, and to be a Nobel laureate is not to be a an
antagonist of this countries legacy..We are Africa's leaders, whether we
like it or not, we cannot trivialize the centenary celebration, it
happens only once, let us come together, if only for this one occasion
and agree to disagree.
Open rebellion against the current
government at this time, on the manner of the centenary celebrations,
for whatever reason, is tactless, it is not about you, it is about our
nation, our beloved country. There is a time and place for everything.
My late father was a Nigerian, lived in Nigeria and died protecting our
interests to the best of his ability, critiquing placing him on the
honor roll, along with many deserving dignitaries is your right, you
have the right to your own opinions, but you do not have the right to
your own facts. Facts stand alone, regardless of who espouses them, let
posterity judge, but you are clearly politicizing a dead issue, how
could you not be? Having an issue with the naming of a hospital after
the late General and leader? really ? Now ?
It almost seems as
if you want to turn back the hands of time, what else would you like to
undo besides the naming of the hospital, would you like to unmake
Bayelsa state, Zamfara state or the others? What about the advances we
made in commerce, reducing the inflation rate, what about security and
welfare, how many projects, hospitals and schools were created?
Inflation went from 54% to 8.5%! my father oversaw an increase in our
foreign currency reserves from 494 million dollars in 1993 to 9.6
billion dollars by the middle of 1997, that is unprecedented.
15 years after the PTF the benefits are still being reaped today in
Nigeria, What of peace keeping and nation building, not just in West
Africa but the entire continent, restoring democracy in Liberia and
Sierra Leone, all these under my father’s leadership, are all these not
laudable? Or would you like to undo them all. All this on $8 per barrel
of oil! You have to be kidding me.
You are a learned man, you
would have to undo all your learning to knowingly wish to undo all these
achievements! I will be the first to proclaim that my fathers
leadership was not pitch perfect or spot free, that does not exist,
maybe in utopia but not here on this earth, so let us keep our discourse
set in the sphere of reality please, he deserves the award, and he did
not campaign for it, let it go Sir and allow Nigeria to at least bask in
our survival and endurance in our growing prosperity and development in
these trying times.
I have been accused of being an optimist,
hence, I am optimistic that you will come around and accept that we can
all come together and face the future together, forgive each other our
wrongs while celebrating our rights, I am still an admirer of your works
after all, however, I cannot and will not attempt to answer your every
charge, this is not the time or place, this is a time for solidarity, if
only you were wise enough to grasp this.
I applaud the
patience of President Goodluck Jonathan and his composure and restraint
in not having a knee jerk reaction at such a pivotal moment in our
nations history, but you would mar the occasion, Sir, in the future,
please pick your battles, and do better to safeguard your relevance,
Enough Sir!