Goodluck Jonathan's Critics: Using the Barometer of Removing the Speck in your own eyes as a Scale
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. Matthew 7:4-6
When it comes to issues dealing with several aspect of
Nigerian society, this passage of the Bible is apt in certain respect.
Firstly,
the Nigerian society is awashed with people who carry a tag of holier than thou
attitude, and this is more prevalent in no other place than in the day to day
life of ordinary Nigerians.
For starters, the upcoming elections have divided opinions
against the pro and anti Jonathan groups, while I am neither a supporter of any
of them, as I am a firm believer in the tenets that every individual is a government
of is own, because there are so few things that the government in this part of
world actually does for it citizens.
Yet, the stick that has been used to beat the present
administration are numerous. The corruption allegations are there, the
mismanaged economy is being felt by everybody, that reliable electricity that is
only available through the avenue of generator sets cannot be overemphasised,
the set of flummox in the oil sector, the insecurity is there as well as other things that have become the tool that
is used to attack the government of the day.
Without trying to mix word, most of the criticisms are
without an iota of doubt fully justified; however it has not entirely been Groundhog
Day as there are few lights even though it is at best modicum to say the least.
Where I am coming from however, is the angle of the morality
of an average Nigerian. There are many Nigerians that are so morally bankrupt
that they lack the standing to criticise the government of the day. A Nigerian
that employs people and refuses to pay salary even when the business is making profit,
should not be criticising the government, because in his own little circle of
government , he or she have failed to be responsible to it employees.
A community leader that converts the wealth of a community
to his personal use should not be seen crucifying the government that they are corrupt.
A person that sells one land to more than one person should look
at himself when he is attacking the government.
A person that converts a drain to
his refuse dump when there
is rainfall should not attack the government that the drains are blocked.
The list of the dark arts found in the hands of most
Nigerians are endless. They are so numerous that they can fill up an ocean.
Most Nigerians should look at themselves as Jesus Christ
said in that passage of scripture before attacking the government, that a
government is bad should not be a pretext for a private citizen to embezzle
community funds, and the fact that there is corruption in government should not
be a reason why a person would convert a public drainage to a refuse dump.
There are several persons that use different standard in
determining the morality of government and in those in public institutions and
that of a private citizen.
This is so, because some believe that a government
should be a paragon of good virtue by leading by example. Yet while there are responsibilities
that are required of a government after they have been elected into office, the
same applies to every private citizen.
While these responsibilities differs,
there is this attitude that everything should be blamed on the government even when
it has nothing to do with the government.
Those that have issues with their girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands and wives would not hesitate to blame the
government. While public and private morality is a different circle, yet there is a meeting point for both, and they are linked in many ways especially when it
comes to certain aspect of our societal responses. Nigerians should look at
themselves before attacking the government at every juncture.
It can be claimed that where public institutions are in
order, citizens would normally be upright in their behavioural pattern, yet how
strong a public institution is would not stop a community leader from
embezzling community funds neither would it prevent a person from throwing refuse
into public drain. It is a double edge sword that has limitless boundaries,
but there is so little a government can do in determining how a person relates
with others in everyday life.
The tendency to be sinister is an innate trait that
is found in most Nigerians. Which is why every criticism should be weighed
against the ratio of the skeleton in a person’s cupboard whether it is a public
or private cupboard.
There is so much hypocrisy in the Nigerian society, and so
much double standard. It is imperative that this holier than thou attitude
that is a common trend amongst Nigerians in every facet of life whether in politics,
social life, economy and all other aspects of society should be nip in the bud as
everybody has a speck in their eyes that they should remove before looking at
those in others.
As Jesus Christ aptly puts it, he who is without sin should
cast the first stone.
