Lord, Was It A Hearsay?

Dear Father,

They say the Old Lady was at the Traditional Council the other day talking with the chiefs at the upper end of the council ehn? I wonder what did they discussed because in this village the way people can spread gossip it na for fun?

I tell you oo my son- what they hear oo, what they don’t hear oo, they go about as tale bearers telling half-truths, pure lies, etc. and they spread these tales as if they were actually on the scene or they have the facts.  But what do they say the Old Lady had gone there for in the first place?

Ah, Father, the they say coming from the Old Lady’s meeting with the chiefs are so many: Some say she went there to talk about the thing they say she said about the chiefs the last time she was in Uncle Sam’s village, while others say she went there not only to smoke peace pipe with the chiefs but to talk about one of her prodigal sons.

And did she actually say, she said that thing about the chiefs while in Uncle Sam’s village?

Father, it hard to talk ya, because right now, you can get the whole truth. Some say the Old Lady denied that she never said anything bad like that about the chiefs. They say when she asked them to tell her where they actually got that news from; they say it came from the village town criers. O heard she even asked them if she can get the actual recording play for everybody to listen.

Is that so, my son?

Ay, Father, like I said, I was not at their meeting. In fact, the meeting was held behind closed doors, but they say said the Old Lady denied ever saying the things the people were complaining about.

Now, tell this thing my son, so after the Old Lady said it was not true, what did the chiefs say then?

Huh, Father, you know the thing about the they says is that they always bring you the half-truth and never the whole truth. What we are hearing is that after the Old Lady denied, she told them sorry for the shame and disgrace they say had brought upon them.

But was it her duty to say sorry to them for something she did not say?

Father, you know they say the  Old Lady went to smoke peace pipe now, so it is obvious like we always say in our village for the sake of peace-“Let bad gone be bad gone.”

So, tell me my son, now that the Old Lady has denied according to they say and that the chiefs has said they heard it from the town criers, are you saying the chiefs belief in they say?

Father, you, yourself ya. This entire village is threading on they say. In fact, people even hate their friends they have never seen in their lives before all because of they say.  And if you have a society that believes in you say I say, what do you expect?

Look, the chiefs, according to they say, claimed they heard it from the town criers, Now instead of waiting to engage the Old Lady and asked her this is what we are hearing they did not do it, they went straight ahead to draw a battle line. Tell me is it not believing in they say? If what we are hearing actually came from the Traditional Council yesterday, then it means that our village get a very, very long way to go.

Just image Father, our chiefs and other leaders in our village not exercising patience to find out the truth from the person who they claim said something, but instead went on to draw a battle line without finding out first?

Is not what the book people called “guilty before proving innocent”?

Yes Father, that’s exactly that. They instead of finding out first had gone ahead and said a lot about the Old Lady and have created unnecessary tension in the village just to find out later that they can’t provide proof? That’s nonsense!!

You know Father, that is why the good old book says, we must be good at hearing, slow at speaking and exercise maximum patience-and where in doubts, we ask questions for clarity. Now from what I am hearing Father and I maintained, if the they say coming from the Traditional Council about the chiefs meeting with the Old Lady is true then our leaders need to do better than that.

But let assume, it is true that the Old Lady actually said what they had claimed. The best to have done was to invite her to provide clarity before taking to the airways as they did. There is a saying that two wrongs can’t make a right. Oh no, I forget Father in our village, we have turned it around saying “we will spoil it, before we fix it.” What we usually forget is that the time we take to fix it could have been used to add more value to what we already had before destroying it.

Anyway,  Father, I hope the Old Lady and the chiefs learned lesson from this one, like the entire village is now understanding how our man from that corruption house was out for politics and was not doing the village job in the true spirit-thanks to Uncle Sam’s cousins and others who have helped us to understand, even though some people still believe that what he did back there was the gospel truth-but they will stay long inside, a spade is a spade.