By Ben Brooks
A screenshot has been circulating on WhatsApp and X for four days. It contains a painful story.
A former Governor and now Vice Presidential candidate of a political party is alleged to have said, he could not afford drugs for his sick mother because of the economic hardship under the current administration. She subsequently died.
Let us assume, for the purpose of argument, that he truly said so. Let us take the claim at face value, as it is circulating.
If he did, then the statement collapses under the weight of its own contradictions. It is not just insensitive. It is a classic logical fallacy, and it deserves to be called out.
We must interrogate it, not because we enjoy the misfortune of a family, but because it insults every mother who laboured to raise a child in this country.
*The fallacy of selective poverty*
A man cannot be rich and poor at the same time and in the same economy.
In the last twelve months alone, under this same administration and this same economy that is being blamed, the same man at the centre of this allegation is reported to have done the following:
– Hosted a lavish birthday celebration in a hall that was alleged to have cost N30 million, with total expenses estimated at over N200 million when you add decoration, music, catering, security and logistics.
– He reportedly paid N90 million for a presidential nomination form in the last election cycle.
– He is reported to have sponsored his daughter’s at the United Kingdom, an undertaking that runs into tens of thousands of pounds sterling in tuition and living expenses.
All of these transactions, if true, happened under this same economy. Under this same President. Under this same inflation and this same exchange rate.
If the economy allowed N200 million for cake, drinks, aso-ebi and live band, if it allowed N90 million for a political form that did not yield a ticket, if it allowed thousands of pounds for foreign tuition, then the same economy cannot suddenly become too hard to allow N50,000, N100,000 or N200,000 for a mother’s antihypertensive, antidiabetic or antibiotic drugs.
That is not economics. That is prioritization.
Economists call it the fallacy of selective poverty – a situation where a man is only poor when it is time to take care of his mother, but rich when it is time to celebrate himself.
Poverty that disappears during birthdays and reappears during illness is not poverty. It is choice.
*The fallacy of false cause*
The second fallacy is even deeper. It is the fallacy of false cause – blaming the President for what is clearly a failure of filial duty.
To blame the death of a parent on the President is to confuse politics with parental responsibility.
No administration in Nigeria has removed subsidy on filial love. No administration has floated the naira of a son’s duty to his mother. No reform has banned the transfer of money for a mother’s hospital bill.
Every Nigerian, from the pepper seller in Warri to the fisherman in Nembe, or onions seller in Kano is feeling the pinch of reforms. Fuel is expensive. Food is expensive. The naira is under pressure. We all agree.
But even in hardship, we still buy drugs for our mothers. The okada rider borrows. The market woman sells her wrapper. The unemployed graduate begs from friends. That is what children do. That is the unwritten law of this land.
If a man reputed by some unverified online reports to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars – a figure we have not independently verified and which should be treated as mere allegation – says he could not afford drugs for his mother, then the cause is not in Aso Rock. The cause is in his scale of preference.
The President did not make you choose cake over care.
*The fallacy that insults our mothers*
Our culture teaches us that a mother is not a budget line that can be deferred until after a party.
She is the one who carried you for nine months, who breastfed you when you could not hold a spoon, who stayed awake when you had fever as a child, who prayed and fasted for you to become someone.
In Igbo land, our elders say, “If a child washes his hands well, he will eat with kings.” In Yoruba land, they say, “Orisa bi iya o si” – there is no deity like mother. In Ijaw and Urhobo land, a mother’s curse is feared more than a magistrate’s sentence.
The woman in this story, by all accounts, washed her son’s hands well. She raised a man who has held some of the highest political offices in this country – Speaker, Governor, Minister, and now a Vice Presidential candidate. That is no small feat for any mother.
To return after such an investment, after such a journey, and say “there was no money” while there was money for celebration, is not just a logical fallacy. It is a moral fallacy. It insults our collective motherhood.
*A Necessary Caveat*
We must be honest here. We do not know if this politician actually made that statement. We have not seen a video of him saying it. We have not heard his voice on audio. We have only seen what a cleric on social media claimed he said.
If he did not say it, then the cleric who attributed it to him owes him a public apology, and those circulating the screenshot owe him a retraction.
But if he did say it, then it must be postulated clearly, without fear or favour: It is a fallacy for a man who found millions for a birthday bash under an administration to claim he found no thousands for his mother’s health under the same administration.
You cannot have money for cake and have no money for care.
And that is why people are angry. Not because they hate the politician, but because every Nigerian sees his own mother in that sick, elderly woman who allegedly could not get drugs.
May her soul rest in peace. And may her story remind every rich and poor child that no economy is so hard that it prevents us from taking care of those who first took care of us.