The Truth Didn’t Set Us Free

Hello everyone in the wonderful hive family. I hope you’re all doing well and enjoying the weather wherever you are.

The hive learners’ community has presented us with another topic and I’m glad to be participating in it.

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This topic is quite nice and interesting, although it resonated with sad memories, I feel relieved to talk about this experience.

Honesty is a very important virtue that is appreciated by a lot of people. Growing up, my parents always encouraged my siblings and I, to be honest in our doings. My mom was in charge of lecturing us on the do’s and don’ts of life and one of the things she never failed to talk about is the benefits of being truthful.

In school, teachers, especially Cristian Religious Knowledge and Civic education teachers always emphasize on the importance of honesty. Honesty is a value that is appreciated by the community.

The importance of this beautiful virtue is mostly emphasized in church. During my childhood days. I was part of the Holy Childhood Association (an association for children in the church. Animators of that association teach children the words of God), and most of what they taught us were how to be truthful in all our doings. “THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE” I’ve heard this saying so many times, but sometimes I doubt it and wish to go against it.

I grew up to be a person that valued honesty. Now that I think about it, my childhood days were funny and interesting. I believed lying is very very very bad, and I always stood by the truth no matter what. I took it so personally that I even implicated some of my classmates who were trying to cover up something.

Things started changing when I grew older and I got to elementary school. I still valued honesty, but it wasn’t like before. There were instances when I had to lie to avoid being flogged. Trust me, you’d do the same if you were in my shoes. I grew up in a catholic school where it was allowed to beat students with the canes. Not just small canes, but ones made from shrubs. We call it “pankere” over here. The canes were very strong, plus we had male teachers who were professionals at beating. So lying to get out of trouble became a part of me. And I won’t lie, I preferred it when I lied than getting beaten. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn’t.

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But in serious situations, where I wouldn’t get beaten, I prefer to tell the truth. “The truth will set you free”, do you think it will set you free every time? Yes, I know telling the truth is nice and all, but do you think there are times when you’ll have to lie?

My Experience

As I wrote earlier, I grew up in a catholic school. If there's something you should know about catholic schools, it is the fact that they do not condone indiscipline, and there are too many rules. We were guided by too many rules, they claimed it was to make us prepared for the future, but little did they know that it was a little bit suffocating.

My principal was a disciplinarian. He got to the school when I got to JSS3. He hardened the school rules and added a few of his own. He hated lateness and would always emphasize punctuality, cleanliness, honesty, and some other values.

When I got to SS2, my class was nicknamed the terrorist set even though we were first in academics and sports, we were known for disturbing teachers and making noise. Things became really hard when some teachers reported us to the principal, they told him about our behaviors. This made him very strict towards us.

One Friday, the boys were playing football in front of the school hostel. I wasn't playing with them, but I was there. One of the players wanted to shoot the ball into the net, but the ball was stubborn, it headed for the hostel window (sliding glass instead) and broke it. We all ran into our class, but we knew were in trouble because we were the only ones in school at that time and some host elites saw us.

Since it was Friday, we hope the case would've died before Monday or a fairy would've repaired it.

After assembly on Monday, the principal asked my class to wait behind. This time we knew we were all in trouble. He greeted us with a smile on his face, but we knew the smile was fake. My classmates were very protective. We covered each other when the need arises. The next thing, the principal asked if we knew about the broken window. He asked the class captain(who was also there) and when he lied, he gave him 2 strokes of the cane. He got to the second person, and when he threatened to give him 10 strokes, he confessed. He mentioned the names of all the guys that played football at that time, but he left one name out. Why? Because the guy he left out was already in a red zone, any mistake from him will lead to suspension.

But the principal already did his investigations. He knew all those that played.

I was the next person in line, and when he got to me, he said “you're a perfect, who is the last person? Tell me the truth or I'll give you 50 strokes, and if you move I’ll start over again” and he wasn't bluffing at all. Oh boy, my heart started pounding. I looked at my classmates and they all nodded for me to confess. I told him the truth and what happened next was very surprising.

He didn't only beat us all, he also suspended that guy for the rest of the term. We also worked on the school farm for weeks. They also sent letters to our parents. Those of us that were prefects lost our roles for about 2 weeks. We write a letter to the school management before they gave us back our roles. Now I still don't know if it would've been better if I had lied.