By
Grace Ego Omoni
A recent article on the progress being made by females in university education and the downward trend of the same by the males is posing a concern for the researcher. The writer complained that at a university convocation he attended, there were more females than males and advocated that the time has come for people to address the issue of boy child neglect. It got this writer thinking too! The populace is noted for keeping silent over negative occurrences and denying the obvious in relation to vices going on in the society. Denial of reality is a phenomenon that has been causing problems and underdevelopment in this country. The culture of denial is seen in different institutions of our society such as education, religion, politics, security,morality and the economy as well as in relation to administrators and the government taking responsibilities. Denialism is essentially an irrational action that withholds the validation of a historical experience or events when a person refuses to accept verifiable reality. It is the rejection of basic undisputed, well supported fact in favour of radical and controversial ideas. People are denied of security, education, human right issues, health facilities, appointments and economic stability.
The culture of denial can be seen from different points of view apart from the above. For instance, by saying that what happened did not happen, is a form of denial; saying that what happened is something else from the obvious and saying that what happened was justified for the protection of national security or for some other purposes are forms of denial. Depriving the citizens of their rights in terms of education, social, amenities, health facilities, job opportunities, political and economic stability is equally a form of denial. In this article, the following will be briefly discussed: meaning of the culture of denial; types of denial; consequences of denial to national development and counselling Implications.
Meaning of Culture of Denial
This means blocking out or turning a blind eye to, shutting off, wearing blinkers, not wanting to know or seeing what one wants to see about issues to the detriment of another or others. Denial relates to asserting that any particular statement or allegation is not true which might be accurate or inaccurate. It is also the refusal of a request or failure to give out what would be of benefit to a person or groups of persons. It is a kind of defence mechanism in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept but rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite the overwhelming evidence.
According to Foster, there are three types of Denial:.
a) Literal Denial: ignoring the facts;
b) Interpretative Denial: where the facts are accepted but rejects the meaning by interpreting them in a way that makes them safer to one’s personal psychology.
c) Implicative Denial: Facts are accepted and interpreted but suppresses the psychological, political and moral implications that would conventionally follow quasi intentions. In other words, not following up the uncomfortable implications of what we know. For instance, there are human right issues such as insecurity, murders, rapes, unemployment, poor educational system, hunger and poor economy, prostitution, yet, government and those in authority exhibit denial of responsibility concerning these and while others show unwelcome knowledge about these atrocities and the victims, the perpetrators feign knowledge of what to do.
Denial of Quality Education
Nigeria has failed woefully by denying her citizens qualitative education. Schools lack infrastructures, qualified teachers, adequate curriculum content and enabling environment for learning and the teaching processes. Many of the schools are denied adequate distribution of teachers. A headmistress I met last week confided in me that her school has only a few teachers out of who three are mentally deranged. One is in the psychiatric hospital for some months now while the remaining two keep on threatening the peace of the school with their unwholesome attitude. Yet the Ministry of Education keeps on pretending that all is well in the educational sector.
Children are learning under very poor conditions; no seats, learners lack learning materials, schools are littered with dilapidated buildings and the children are exposed to hoodlums in the society. The midday meals are inadequate and poorly prepared. Prisoners cannot even eat such.The money disbursed for this purpose has already been embezzled and mismanaged by the mighty. Yet, the authority close their eyes to these vices and feel less concerned about the situation.
Today, the population of out-of-school children is obviously alarming! Many especially those who have lost their parents as a result of terrorists’ attacks and of course the almajiris are found roaming about the streets begging or doing menial jobs to feed themselves but the government close their eyes to these and go on preaching that their administration is the best that has happened to Nigeria. There are children who were in schools before but have now dropped out to engage in “yahoo fraud” and other tactics to get rich quick and the government seems not to agree or accept that such issues are existing in the country, denial! Again, the school fees for higher education have so skyrocketed that only the children of the rich are left to be there, limiting the opportunities for the less privileged. Why this obnoxious rise in school fees? Is it that the government is not aware of the present economic predicament being faced by a majority of the parents in Nigeria? People cannot go to their farms, market places and businesses as a result of the menace of killer Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram, bandits and kidnappers. Sources of income are now limited, yet the federal and state governments decided to impose 100% increase on fees for university education. What do we call this insensitivity but a culture of denial to education! Education which is supposed to be the main vehicle of national development is being denied the citizens of this country out of wickedness, insensitivity and greed.
Denial of Equity in Political Appointments
It is no longer news that political appointments in Nigeria are lopsided, ethnically and religiously based and not by equity. It is a truism that 90% of all the national appointments in the different federal sectors are occupied by Northerners and Muslims despite the fact that statistically, people with enviable and robust educational qualifications, professional competencies and great moral stand are found in the Southern, Western and the Eastern parts of this country. Is the denial based on the fact that they are Christians ? I am compelled to ask. Government of the day has technically denied these people the opportunities to serve and contribute their own quota to the development of their nation. There has been agitation against this denial syndrome in the area of appointments but nothing has changed. Powers that be often deny this obvious fact and argue that it does not exist and that there is equity in national appointments as if the citizens are fools. This is indeed an atrocious and wicked denial. Why feign knowledge of this evil?
Denial of Taking Responsibility
Taking responsibility is one of the qualities of good leadership in any society that cherishes her citizens. However, it is quite disheartening to observe that our people in leadership positions have totally refused to take responsibility for their actions and the consequences thereof of such as the numerous social vices going on in Nigeria today. Killings, kidnapping, destruction of properties, heinous crimes, sexual aberrations, robberies,bribery and corruption, non-chalant attitude in work places, mismanagement of fund, poor administration and breakdown of law and order are going on arbitrarily to no avail and nothing is being done about it. The government pretends that all is well and refuses to take responsibility. Dubious elements are seen praising the unprogressive and unproductive government that it is working very hard and deny the fact that this is a failed society. This culture of denial going on in every nook and cranny of the Nigerian society is so saddening and unpalatable.
Consequences to National Development
Denial is a vice. It is unprogressive unproductive, antagonistic and breeds moral decadence. This culture of denial promotes illiteracy, underdevelopment, insecurity and ethnic rivalries. Hence in Nigeria today lies, poor economy, health hazards and religious wars, denial of human rights and injustices are the order of the day. Appointments have become lopsided hence dissatisfaction has eaten deep in our society resulting in hatred and criticism against the government of the day. Bribery and corruption has accelerated making the nation to experience shame and greater disgrace among the committee of nations. Parents too exhibit the culture of denial in the upbringing o f their children. Many parents close their eyes to the waywardness of their children. Even when neighbours, teachers and other well meaning people complain to them about their children’s character, many parents either do not agree or deny outright that their children are such.
Implications for Counselling
1) The whole educational institutions should be overhauled. Government should pay more attention to the provision of infrastructure in the schools. The curriculum content should emphasize core values especially in the area of truthfulness and taking responsibility for our actions. Supervision in schools should be done more often.
2) Arbitrarily increasing fees in higher institutions should be stopped. This will give opportunities for less privileged children to have access to higher education.
3) There should be sensitization for parents and children to understand why education is important. Norms and core values cherished by the society should be inculcated through seminars and workshops.
Government should have a plan of action for the recruitment drive whereby selected people will go into the towns and villages to compulsorily enroll children in schools. In other words, there should be a policy for compulsory education for citizens.
4) Our security system should be beefed up. The government should stop lying and closing their eyes to the problems of insecurity in this country. They need to find solution to this problem and stop denying the fact that lives and properties are being wasted and destroyed everyday.
5) Seminars and workshops should be organized to make those in government to see the need to distribute political appointments evenly among the six geopolitical zones. Sincerity is needed!
6) Counselling students and parents on how to improve on the right life styles is a must. People should stop denying the fact that there is moral decadence in the society. Parents should learn to bring up their children to work hard and need not pretend that they are morally upright.
7) Government needs to come to terms with themselves and own up that things are not politically, economically, morally okay in this country. The orientation of denying the obvious must stop. Everybody needs to CHANGE.
Living a life of denial is not a virtue. It is counter-productive, unprogressive, deceitful, wicked and breeds insecurity, immorality and underdevelopment. It is high time the citizens of Nigeria and the government at all levels came to reality and face the bull by the horn by creating an enabling environment for a new Nigeria where peace and justice reign; a place where human rights are not toyed with and a place where sincerity and truthfulness will be worn as garments!
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