By Elvis Eromosele
How checking claims against real-life examples helps society uncover truth, drive innovation, and demand better outcomes
In a world saturated with bold claims, official explanations, and “it-can’t-be-done” narratives, one quiet virtue stands out as a powerful tool for truth and progress: cross-referencing. It is the simple but disciplined act of checking one claim against another, across sectors, time, geography, or experience, to see whether it truly holds water. Time and again, cross-referencing has exposed excuses, challenged monopolies of thought, and opened doors to innovation that once seemed impossible.
Nigeria offers some of the clearest examples of how cross-referencing works, not as theory, but as lived experience.
At its core, cross-referencing is about comparison and verification. When someone says, “This cannot be done,” cross-referencing asks:
- Has it been done elsewhere?
- Has it been done before?
- Is someone else doing something similar under the same conditions?
It is a virtue because it demands critical thinking, curiosity, and courage. It refuses to accept explanations simply because they come from authority, size, or repetition.
Two full years after the Digital Mobile Operators (DMOs) started operations, Nigerian telecommunications subscribers were told the same story: per-second billing was impossible. The reasons varied, including network limitations, billing system constraints, and technical incompatibility, but the conclusion was always the same. Consumers had to accept per-minute billing or nothing.
Then Globacom entered the market.
Almost overnight, Glo introduced per-second billing, and just like that, the “impossible” became reality. What changed? Certainly not the laws of technology. What changed was competition and the exposure of a long-standing assumption.
Cross-referencing made the truth clear:
- If one operator could do it,
- then it was never impossible,
- it was simply inconvenient or unprofitable for others.
The lesson was powerful: claims collapse when tested against real examples.
Fuel pricing in Nigeria provides another fertile ground for cross-referencing. Citizens are often told that price increases are unavoidable due to global oil prices, exchange rates, or logistics costs. Yet, when Nigerians cross-reference:
- Fuel prices in other oil-producing countries,
- Refining capacity versus import dependency,
- Past pricing regimes versus current realities,
questions naturally arise.
Why do countries that import fuel sometimes sell cheaper than an oil-producing nation?
Why do price increases occur even when global oil prices fall?
Why do similar economic pressures yield different outcomes elsewhere?
Cross-referencing does not automatically provide all the answers, but it forces transparency and discourages lazy explanations.
Banking and Charges
Banks often explain fees as “industry standard.” Yet customers who cross-reference statements across banks frequently discover wide differences for the same services. What was presented as fixed suddenly looks negotiable, or even unnecessary.
Power Supply
Consumers are told stable electricity requires massive tariffs and patience. But when they cross-reference with countries that once had similar infrastructure challenges and now enjoy reliable power, the conversation shifts from “if” to “how.”
Public Policy and Governance
When citizens compare policies across states or administrations, education outcomes, healthcare delivery, road construction, they begin to see that results depend more on leadership choices than destiny.
In today’s Nigeria, and indeed the world, information is plentiful, but clarity is scarce. Repetition can make weak arguments sound strong. Authority can mask inefficiency. Cross-referencing cuts through this fog by insisting on evidence over excuses.
It:
- Empowers consumers to demand fairness
- Encourages competition and innovation
- Holds institutions accountable
- Rewards those willing to do better, not just explain more
Cross-referencing is not about cynicism; it is about discernment. It does not reject expertise, it tests it. It does not oppose progress, it accelerates it.
Every major leap forward begins when someone asks, “But didn’t someone else already do this?”
From per-second billing to fuel pricing debates, from banking fees to public services, cross-referencing remains one of society’s most effective tools for separating what cannot be done from what simply has not been tried.
In the end, progress belongs to those who dare to compare, and refuse to be satisfied with convenient explanations.
