There is a word known as “gerrymander”. It is a verb and the root word from which “gerrymandering” (the gerundive form of the verb and its present continuous tense) is derived; “gerrymanders” and “gerrymandered” are its present tense and past tense respectively. And a “gerrymanderer” (another derivation from the root word) is someone who “gerrymanders” or engages in “gerrymandering”.
This family of exquisitely lyrical words – i.e. “gerrymander”, “gerrymanderer” and “gerrymandering” – originated from the activities Elbridge Gerry, the US Governor of the State of Massachusetts and Vice President, whose party reconfigured the districts in the state in 1812. After he signed a law as Governor of Massachusetts which established an oddly shaped Congressional district, political cartoonists redrew the district into a creature shaped like a salamander. Then the word “gerrymander” was coined by merging his first name “Gerry” with “mander” from salamander. It is apparently for his reconfiguration of the districts – to gain undue political advantage – that the Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language defines the word “gerrymander” as “to manipulate unfairly”.
Considering that the activities of Elbridge Gerry led to the addition of those new words into the English dictionary, I am fascinated by the opportunity we Nigerians now have to urge the inclusion of a similar group of words in the English dictionary, inspired by the recent activities of one of our public figures, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. In this case the word – i.e. the root word – is “sanusise”. And it is a verb (like “gerrymander”), whose present tense and past tense are “sanusises” and “sanusised” respectively, with “sanusising” as its present continuous tense and gerundive form. Also, from the root word is derived the noun “sanusisation” (found in the title of this piece and defined as “the act of sanusising”), and “sanusiser” (defined as “a person who sanusises or engages in sanusisation”). If the Americans can have their “gerrymander” and its derivations listed as words in the English dictionary, why can’t we our “sanusise”?
Mr. Sanusi’s activities to which I have referred is his so-called “whistleblowing” by which, as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, he alleged that $49.8 billion oil money was “missing” from the country’s coffers, and then changed the figure to $12 billion and later said it was $20 billion.
So we have a situation where an attempt is being made to force the logical mind to accept the glaring illogicality that the same amount could indeed be missing as three different figures by someone who, considering his high and sensitive office, should be sure of his figures before making them public, especially as his utterances could impact heavily on national security and the economy, but who alas seems neither sure of his figures nor aware that a sense of responsibility and the need to protect his integrity should have discouraged him from publicising them with such serial self-contradiction.
In sum, Mr. Sanusi’s action, if shorn of the dubious attribute of “whistleblowing”, amounts to such open self-contradiction that should ordinarily embarrass him and compel the public to take his claim with a huge dose of scepticism. Surprisingly, however, some people seem determined to perpetuate the claim as if an allegation no longer needs to be proven before being regarded as true. And I think this seeming credulity is the product of the unhealthy politicisation of the issue by vested interests.
The glaringly contradictory figures that have emanated from Mr. Sanusi and the counter claims from other quarters should call for an independent investigation into his claims, in order to hopefully ascertain their veracity. The proposed investigation of his claims by the relevant authorities – to be conducted by independent forensic experts – could serve as such investigation. And it is only after the conclusion of such an exercise that we can reasonably say that money is truly missing as alleged by Mr. Sanusi, or that no money is missing as the counterclaims seem to suggest; and also how much exactly may be missing, since his repeated change of the figures does not recommend him for unqualified trust by any unbiased person.
Money may well be missing as he has alleged; and his impression that money is missing may be the result of sloppy bookkeeping in a country not known for efficiency in documentation or anything else for that matter. But the facts need to be established by some competent and independent body before any rational mind should believe the allegation or its refutation. Unfortunately, thanks to the politicisation of the allegation and our general inability to think critically as a people, some people are already trying through repetition to foist on us the impression that it is true even before the commencement of the proposed investigation.
As for the meaning of the new, Nigerian-born word – “sanusise” – whose inclusion in the English dictionary I strongly suggest, I am sure the reader can gleaned it from the implication of the three different figures that Mr. Sanusi has mentioned at various times to support his allegation. So the meaning of “sanusise” is “to engage in unabashed self-contradiction” or “to unabashedly make self-contradictory claims about the same matter”. I also believe the reader can discern that I have coined the word by adding a “suffix” – i.e. “se” – to the first name of Mr. Sanusi, as in “sanusi(se)”.
“Sanusise” is actually a transitive verb, meaning that it can take a direct object. And so, depending on the context, a man who, like Mr. Sanusi, put out three contradictory figures – with wide gaps between them, incidentally – for the same supposedly “missing” money from our nation’s coffers can be said to have “sanusised” missing money or to have engaged in the “sanusisation” of missing money, with the implication that his claim should be subject to doubt until proven to be true.
So broad is the relevance of this word – “sanusise” – that practically every claim can be “sanusised” by making a contradictory claim, provided the person who makes the original claim also makes the contradicting one. For the words to apply, the contradiction must emanate from the same person, as in the case of our distinguished compatriot whose activities have yielded this rare and lyrically sublime family of words: “sanusise”, “sanusiser”, and “sanusisation”.
Ikeogu Oke
