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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Culture & Society

Maturity Means Holding Multiple Truths, Not Seeking Contradictions, Argues Omojuwa

From ThisDay · () English

Translated from English, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

Analysis Named sources Context piece
  • The article argues that maturity involves accepting that multiple truths can coexist simultaneously, a concept lacking in public discourse.
  • It criticizes a journalist for misinterpreting the author's stance on Cardinal Onaiyekan as a contradiction, highlighting a broader issue of partisan journalism.
  • The author contends that a truth unable to withstand contact with another perspective is not a genuine truth, applying this to political discourse and past events involving President Trump.

Maturity, the author argues, is the ability to hold multiple truths at once, a skill seemingly absent in Nigeria's public conversation. Joshua J. Omojuwa contends that the issue isn't disagreement itself, but the inability to accept that differing viewpoints can coexist with respect and criticism.

Maturity is the capacity to hold more than one truth at once.

— JOSHUA J. OMOJUWAIntroducing the core argument of the article.

Omojuwa uses the example of Cardinal Onaiyekan's interview on Arise TV. When the Cardinal questioned the independence of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Omojuwa believes he shifted from statesman to partisan. Presidential aide Temitope Ajayi responded, and Omojuwa asserts that such a response is valid because a public figure, even a Cardinal, forfeits neutrality when taking a partisan stance.

You can respect a man and still tell him he is wrong. You can praise a stance on Monday and puncture a different one on Friday. You can love your country and criticise its government in the same breath. None of this is contradiction. It is the ordinary texture of an honest mind.

— JOSHUA J. OMOJUWAExplaining the concept of holding multiple truths.

The author recounts an incident where a journalist presented tweets praising the Cardinal and later criticizing him as contradictory evidence of a lie. Omojuwa dismisses this, stating that such a reading reveals a "poverty of self-regard" and an inability to discern context. He criticizes a segment of the media for retreating into "bubbles of their own truth," where criticism is seen as betrayal and intellectual flexibility is lost.

when a statesman is seen to be partisan, he forfeits the immunity of neutrality and exposes his flanks to counterattack.

— JOSHUA J. OMOJUWAResponding to the criticism of Presidential aide Temitope Ajayi's statement about Cardinal Onaiyekan.

This intellectual laziness, Omojuwa warns, extends to more serious matters. He alludes to a past instance where he defended Nigeria's dignity in North America following a controversial remark by then-President Trump, suggesting that the inability to hold multiple truths has damaging consequences beyond public discourse.

A robe does not exempt an argument from scrutiny. It never has.

— JOSHUA J. OMOJUWAJustifying the criticism of Cardinal Onaiyekan's partisan remarks.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by ThisDay in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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