By Aminu Akintunde Chukwuemeka
Governments don’t build nations with bricks of lies. Such build mistrust, anger and ridicule. Sadly, under the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nigeria’s federal government has turned falsehood into official policy.
The latest disgrace? The phantom “special visa” Japan was supposedly offering Nigerians, a lie exposed almost as quickly as it was announced.
Just days ago, the State House confidently declared that Japan had created a new visa category for skilled Nigerians to live and work in Kisarazu. Officials even added sweeteners, artisans and blue-collar workers would be welcomed too. Nigerians celebrated. Media outlets splashed it everywhere. For a moment, hope flickered.
Then came Tokyo’s thunderbolt, “Not true!.” Japan’s foreign ministry flatly denied any such arrangement. The so-called visa was nothing more than a fairy tale crafted in Abuja. The only reality was a cultural exchange programme under JICA, nothing about jobs, immigration or visas. Once again, Nigeria was left looking like the boy who cried wolf on the global stage.
This is not an isolated blunder. It is part of a disturbing pattern. Remember the endless promises of millions of jobs that never came? The “stable electricity” that is still a mirage? The fantasy foreign investment figures that exist only in speeches? Or the statistical data claiming the economy is improving while citizens sink deeper into penury? From one falsehood to another, propaganda has become Nigeria’s unofficial national currency. Under APC, governance itself has become spin.
But lies are expensive. They cheapen leadership. They erode trust. They make the world laugh at us, not with us. How do you convince investors to believe your economic policies when even your basic announcements collapse under fact-checking? How do citizens keep faith when every promise is wrapped in deceit?
Japan built its prosperity on truth, discipline and hard work. Nigeria, meanwhile, keeps chasing shortcuts through propaganda, hoping the world won’t notice. But the world does notice. And it remembers.
Let us be clear, no country in history ever lied its way into greatness. Not America. Not China. Not Japan. And certainly not Nigeria. Progress is forged through honesty, vision and action, not press releases designed to sell fiction.
APC’s federal government must stop treating Nigerians like children who can be pacified with bedtime stories. Leadership is not theatre. Governance is not fantasy. The people deserve facts, not fabrications. Until truth becomes the language of power in Abuja, Nigeria will remain trapped in the wilderness of false hope.
Aminu Akintunde Chukwuemeka is a detribalised Nigerian who believes in the unity and progress of the country, Nigeria.
