When not to tell the truth

“Is it possible to be completely transparent in your relationships? In other words, how honest do you consistently need to be with your friend or spouse in order to enjoy a strong and healthy trust in the relationship? After all, aren’t there times when telling the whole truth is simply unwise? “If you say yes, […]

“Is it possible to be completely transparent in your relationships? In other words, how honest do you consistently need to be with your friend or spouse in order to enjoy a strong and healthy trust in the relationship? After all, aren’t there times when telling the whole truth is simply unwise? “If you say yes, then it is might just be okay to add a little twist to the truth,” says Mr. Mbachu Okereke.
But when people talk about having total transparency in a relationship, many would wonder if this is just going too far in the relationship or plain stupidity. You might encounter particular situations in which it seems like the absolute truth would hurt your friend or mate and cause further problems between the two of you. In some cases, it even begets extreme consequences such as divorce. In these situations, you might grapple with whether or not telling a lie would be a better course to take.
While we have always heard that honesty is the best policy, it is sometimes better to lie in some situations than to tell the truth, some people argue. But how healthy and wise is a little twist to the truth is to the substance and development of a relationship? “Lying to get someone in trouble or pull up a scam is wrong and bad but if you have to lie to save a life or avert a terrible situation, then it is better to tell the lie than telling the truth,” says Mr. Stanley Oguche.
“In a perfect world, it is never right to tell a lie, but do we have a perfect world as sometimes we have no other choice than tell a lie and safe the society or world a lot of trouble and most time to keep yourself safe as long as your lies would not hurt anybody?” concludes Mr. Oguche.
“Do you expect me to tell the truth when a life is at stake, even the good Lord will know that I did what I had to do to save a life from a critical situation, I do otherwise I will definitely be held accountable for being a coward, the only problem we have in our society is that when you take such a deadly risk for someone they can never do the same for you and might even tell a lie to implicate you. But I won’t let it deter me from telling a little lie to save a soul at least by doing so my conscience will be clear and free of any burden,” says Kunle Bamidele a resident of Asokoro.
“The essence of truth telling is being comfortable in one’s state of mind, so if you tell the truth and it ends up landing someone in trouble and causes even more pain and sorrows for the family of such a person, what peace of mind do you intend to have? If the offence is not that grievous and the person is someone who never meant any harm, I will definitely tell a lie to save his head as long as he will learn from his mistakes. It is better to lie and save a situation than tell a blatant lie and put someone in trouble,” says Mr. Hussein Abdul. Malam Musa Jubril’s opinion is not any different from others as he says “even religiously it is allowed to tell a little lie to avert any trouble especially between co-wives. To be honest there is no way a man would have more than one wife and would not turn to an automatic liar, he has to lie to everyone of them if he wants peace to reign in his home except if he desires otherwise for his home, you are a woman you know what I am talking about, it is not easy to have more than one of you people and not tell lies. So in this case it is a necessary ability”
Mr. John Madel says there is nothing that will make him tell a lie “I will always say the truth no matter the situation or whoever is involved, in the first place why did the person have do something that is not right. I will not stray away from the righteous part to satisfy the culprit, he should be ready to reap what he has sown. There is always a repacaution for every action we take and we should remember that whatever we do is being recorded for the day of judgement, so on judgement day how do I defend myself for telling a lie to safe the guilty person, to be sincere I do not think that I can compromise telling the truth for any reason.”  
Telling the truth is what is best for any situation but when it has to do with saving a life, friendship, marriage or success, would you give in to telling a little lie for that person. In my opinion it depends on the type of person you are willing to tell a lie for and if the person has not in any way killed another being. As someone once said “telling a little lie could change a drastic situation to a much peaceful one”. So the question falls back on us all when is it right to twist the truth a little? Or would you compromise to telling a lie to save a life?