The worst tragedy in a man’s life has to be Stockholm Syndrome, embracing a system that victimises you and allying with it to counter fellow victims who have chosen to rebel against oppression and amplify political transgressions.
I just read an atrocious piece by someone who, tempted as I was to offer this advice, is already too old to return to Primary School for proper understanding of Civics. In it, he describes critics of Buhari’s government as bedfellows of corruption and ignorant of social dynamics. He even went as far as denying the discipline of economics, that admitting that our social reality has changed is “ignorant”, that the poor man in Ajegunle is still what he used to be. Because he was too silly to look up the word “inflation” in his dictionary. This is a typical middle-class insularity, and tradition of a people who don’t even know what a “mudu” is, let alone know the price of a mudu of Garri today, compared to prices of the previous years.
Sadly, these are the species of citizens who are friends with, or even in, government. They apply such sycophantic and cruel thinking, that criticising the government is a mischief, into their affairs and planting it in the subconscious of those expected to redeem our conditions.
Criticism of government is as old as politics itself, and it’s not done to dishonour the rulers but to challenge them to deliver as they promised. It’s only in Nigeria that reminding a government of things it promised to do, is criminalised. Countering those who remind the rulers of their electoral promises is a diseased mindset. What’s expected from the government is explaining its indecisions that confuse the people, not antagonising them.
The politicians are not doing us a favour. They are there to serve as our servants, which is why their service is renewable at intervals. They are not patching roads and rehabilitating structures with their personal resources. It’s what they are elected and overly pampered to do.
Praising a government, to me, means recognising moments it fulfils electoral promises. But making what an elected politician does with our taxes look like a humanitarian service is sycophancy. I assess the government critically because, as unaligned citizens, the elected politicians are meant to be our employees.
What’s happening in Nigeria today is, when a critic points to a snake the politicians were given power to hire able hands to kill, he’s asked to tell the government how to kill it. And this, unfortunately, is the mentality of the “Ran ka ya dade” brigade stationed to defend our politicians. The critic highlights shortcomings to get the government’s think-tank ticking. You can’t be in possession of a fire extinguisher and ask the man who alerts you to fire, to quench it for you!
If a leader expects more from critics after being shown a flaw in his idea, he’s either incompetent or his lieutenants are due for the sack. The similarity between a critic and a politician is, both have ideas. The difference is what matters. Only one has access to the Treasury.
The new song of this legion of sycophants is, praising and supporting the government uncritically is the ultimate patriotism. See, to love your country more than its government is patriotic. To love your government more than your country is partisan. Spot the difference.
I prefer to wail for a better Nigeria than being a career sycophant to the detriment of Nigerians