For those who criticize

In Nigeria today, it has become an easy venture to lash onto constituted authorities and heap criticisms of all manners on them. When you are not lambasting the big Chief from Owu, His Excellency President Olusegun Obasanjo, on some of his failed policies, you swoop on governors, captains of industries, university administrators, the elected and the appointed and call them the bane of the Nigerian society. When you are asked to take it easy, you hastily chips in, that Edward Burke, the great English philosopher, warns us, that the only thing necessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing, but you have suddenly forgotten, that those who come to equity must also come with their hands clean. You want us to accept that the beautiful ones are born, even though Ayi Kwei Armah is yet to tell us that. I am not against criticisms, so far as they are constructive and logical .It should be done with good conscience and shouldn’t be mistaken for malice in anyway. You may now want to ask: “Who are these critics and why am I bothered? and I answer, that these critics are our present day office holders in all capacities and in all walks of life (who once criticized their predecessors, and have now failed to live up to expectation), they are the teeming number of political aspirants that form political parties every day in Nigeria, they include those that complain just for the fun of it on the pages of our newspapers. They are indeed, me and you and every other ungenuine individual who does this to get elected or appointed, but later turns his back on the masses. In Nigeria of the present, they are everywhere, though more easily noticed on the political circles.

It bothers me because the masses are easily and constantly being deceived by this easy business. I am bothered that people now achieve cheap fame with fake criticisms, character assassination, political demagoguery and chicanery. I am concerned because the present day Nigeria socio-political critics, activists, or anything you wish to call them, are not really, in the actual sense, better than those they criticize. Yet, they criticize. They promise much but do less, when the opportunity avails itself. Surely, these people are the real bane of our nation. The danger in this all is that the people, nay Nigerians, believe you the moment you pin point some maladies of a particular administration, cast aspersions on them and offer some deceiving solutions. They see you as their man; get you elected, surprisingly, you disappoint them. They want to complain, you plead with them to wait a little .They obeyed; instead of you to perform, you start again to blame your predecessors. This has become the current trend in our country. We no longer have people to trust .The average day Nigerian critic is an opportunist-in-the waiting, waiting to be invited to come and “chop”. Once he is invited, he closes his mouth.

Thus, we have seen highly-profiled journalists become part of the government they once discredited and failed to do nothing, instead they chose to love what they once pretended to hate. We have heard of activists turned lawmakers that promote anti-people policies in the parliament. We have seen governors get impeached on frivolous reasons by lawmakers that are too eager to become executives. I have also seen some lecturers that succeeded in hoodwinking us to believe that they are the best our educational system could afford. When they eventually became H.O.D’s, everything came to a halt and the female students compensated for their randy natures. What of those that came back from Europe and America , the so called Nigerians in the Diaspora, because, they have lived in well-organized societies, we thought that they will improve our lots; rather they impoverish us the more. They promise to make our universities be like the prestigious University of Stockholm , in preference, they chose to patronize cultists and promote thuggrey on our campuses. I earlier, stated that criticisms are necessary, so as far as they are constructive and contributive, now, I wish to add, that they should also be followed up with actions when we get the chance to do so.

To digress a bit, I would want to talk about our Men of God, those that have found and accepted the “Grace of the Almighty”. And I now ask: “even if we forgive pretentious political critics and others alike, are we also to forgive or overlook the unsubstantiated criticisms and the in-house hassles that go on in the inner sanctuaries of our churches today? From smaller churches to the bigger ones, obscure to popular, we witness quarrels of all types between the chief pastors and their subordinates/assistants. The assistant believes that he can do better than the pastor; he starts accusation peddling, engages in blackmail and afterwards, some members see him as their “messiah”. A new church is immediately formed and the craze continues like that. The consequent is evident on the ever growing number of churches we presently see on the streets of Nigeria . In Lagos alone, we have thousands of churches, probably an average of one per street.

This is indeed, how bad this situation has degenerated into. The bigger danger is that the situation is too difficult to check, because people will always talk and criticize and on the other hand, people will always believe and get deceived in believing. Personally, I think that this should be a thing of the mind, that we should tell ourselves the truth, both as individuals and as a nation. We must stop being unreal in our actions and deeds in order to achieve our aims; we must always remember that the “All-Seeing Eyes” of the Nigerian populace are ever watching. For those that criticize, please, when next you do, let it be for genuine and altruistic reasons, and more importantly, follow it up with positive performance and actions when the opportunity beckons on you.

Chukwudi  Okeke  writes  from  Gothenburg, SWEDEN

Robot  # 1 | 19.03.2007 23:35

...Read the full article.