Governance by alternative facts

Time was when facts were sacred and we often differ to ‘expertise’. The rise of populism, anarchists and far right groups across the world has resulted in absolute lack of interest in evidence, an erosion of trust in traditional institutions and politicians and the consequent rise of ‘alternative facts’ and a society where trusted populists could offer well-regarded opinions on virtually everything. What began as isolated movements in far-flung corners of the world is now a real threat in most countries thanks to the ubiquity of social media. Welcome the era of the post-truth society!
Defined by the Oxford Dictionaries as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and person belief”, the post truth movement reached its apogee with the dramatic election of Donald Trump as United States president. Donald Trump was quick to learn about the nature and character of ‘post-truth’ society and the key role social media could play in mobilisation and tailored his politics and rhetoric to appeal to the hoard of discontented Americans, growing by the day, who felt ignored and neglected by the Washington elite on both side of the political spectrum. Trump’s populist, hyperbolic and demagogic rhetoric was all they needed to propel him to the White House even when polls and the US media believed he could never win.
Just after Trump’s inauguration, the White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, was caught lying and when questioned, Kellyanne Conway, counsellor to President Donald Trump, replied with the now famous phrase that the White House press secretary only gave “alternative facts”. That set the standards for the administration’s communication with its supporters.
Although, at first glance, president Buhari may appear very different from Trump, as Olu Fasan, once argued, they are significantly similar in their personality, politics and rhetoric. Just like Trump’s administration, the Buhari administration has adopted a communication strategy of presenting only its “alternative facts” secure in its knowledge that Buhari’s image as a pro-poor, honest and anti-establishment individual is cast in the minds of his core supporters. The administration has continued to operate as if it is still an opposition party. After repudiating virtually all its campaign promises, which well-informed Nigerians knew then to be “half-baked ideas that shouldn’t be part of a credible programme for government”, the government has continued to make needless and vague promises and when results aren’t quick in coming, they blame the previous administration. With elections coming, they have now resorted to peddling “alternative facts”, half-truths, and outright falsehood.
Take, for instance, its reaction to the Brookings Institution report, drawing data from the World Poverty Clock, which showed that Nigeria has overtaken India as the country with the most people living in extreme poverty in the world, and that the material conditions of Nigerians have continued to worsen with approximately six Nigerians sliding into the extreme poverty gap every minute. The government’s initial response was to send out otherwise sensible ministers to counter the report by trying unsuccessfully to fault the methods, processes and timing of the data and by peddling lies. When that strategy seems not to work and most Nigerians were now quoting the data as fact, they had now manufactured their own “alternative facts”. The narrative now is that it has successfully lifted 10.073 million Nigerians from poverty to prosperity.
The minister of budget and national planning, Udoma Udo Udoma was the one sent to give this alternative fact. According to him, government is feeding 8.98 million school children under the Home Grown School Feeding Programme; supported over 297, 000 poor and vulnerable Nigerians with cash transfer of N5000; successfully disbursed more than 308, 000 loans of N50, 000 and above under the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) and 200, 000 Young Unemployed Graduates Empowered through the N-Power scheme, while over 308, 000 have been selected for consideration for the second bath.
Please hear the rest in Udoma’s own words: “To combat hunger and achieve food security, we have raised capital provisions for agriculture from N8.8 billion in 2015 to N149.2 billion in the 2018 budget. Over N82 billion has been disbursed as credit to more than 350, 000 farmers under the Anchor Borrowers’ programme. 14 moribund fertilizer blending plants have been revitalised through the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) with a total capacity of 2.3 million metric tons of NPK fertilizer.”
But just as Udoma was reeling his “alternative facts”, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation released its 2018 Gatekeeper report which estimates that by 2050, more than 40 percent of the extremely poor people in the world will be living in Nigeria and DR Congo and that Nigerians living in extreme poverty will continue to grow to 152 million by that time. Of course, the report situates the reason for such surge on the insufficient investment in human capital that will correspond to the increasing population.

The government may have come to power through propaganda and has continued to govern through propaganda and now through “alternative facts”. It may rely on propaganda and the supply of “alternative facts” to keep its support base or even when another election, but it cannot rely on propaganda and alternative fact to stave off “The Coming Anarchy” as a result of extreme poverty, joblessness and hopelessness of millions of young Nigerians. The entire Nigerian security apparatus will be no match to the army of these disempowered, stunted, and bitter youth. The development of the country may not mean much to these politicians, but their (and their family’s) survival should propel them to action.

Christopher Akor