MMESOMA EJIKEME AS A MIRROR BEFORE US

Now that young Miss Mmesoma Ejikeme has reportedly confessed to her crime of forging her JAMB examination result slip, there is nothing left but to condemn and punish the offense according to law. I feel for this young girl who is even younger than my last child. Upon her young, fragile shoulders fate has laid the moral burden of an entire nation swirling in sin.

I understand Mmesoma was born in 2004. Within her few years on earth, she has witnessed President Olusegun Obasanjo attempting to change the Constitution and run for a third term in office. She saw Umar Yar’Adua ascend to the presidency via an election which he himself admitted was “seriously flawed.” She saw Muhammadu Buhari become president with a school certificate that was said to be with the Army Secretary. When the latter denied custody or knowledge of the certificate, a fresh one was issued retrospectively and disputed every step of the way.

Mmesoma also saw Hope Uzodimma become Imo State Governor via a Supreme Court judgment that even the neighborhood dog knows was dubiously procured. She saw Ahmed Lawan return to the Senate with a party ticket which he did not contest for because he was away gunning for a higher office. Mmesoma saw Godswill Akpabio become Senate President even whilst still dodging court summons and the anti graft agency, EFCC. She saw Peter Mbah become Enugu State Governor with an NYSC discharge certificate which the NYSC has since declared it did not issue. Above all, I think, the young lady has been a living witness to how Bola Tinubu became president with everything from his name and age to his schools, qualifications and election results in hot dispute.

So, it is probably true to say that Mmesoma and other Nigerians her age were born into a nation and an era where falsification and alternative reality are norms that are highly rewarded. In choosing to embark on this misadventure therefore, the young lady might have thought: “Why the heck not? Afterall…”

Yet, on this matter, only the truth and justice are important. No matter how painful and inconvenient, all other opinions, rationalizations and sentiments must be set aside for the sake of truth and posterity. That is the way healthy societies are built. No other.

It is not a mere coincidence, I think, that Mmesoma happened to us in the same year that forgery ascended the highest offices in the land. The Universe is showing us in living color the power of examples – good or ill. And what lies ahead if we uphold or tolerate the grand forgeries that were foisted upon us between February 25 and March 18.

If we condemn and punish forgery by a teenager, can we condone and permit forgery by her adult parents and grandparents – especially in positions of public authority? The choice is ours.

The great William Shakespeare puts it so well in these immortal lines from his play Hamlet: “To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?…” The choice indeed is ours.