OUR TANGO WITH GOVERNMENT

IGOCHE SAMUEL  APEH

U14MM2051

Thousands of columnists, thousands of people giving speeches, sermons or lectures and even people in the privacy of their homes are pouring out heartfelt criticism on the government. One cannot help but ask “if these critics are holy, then why is the nation so corrupt?” Believe me; a nation faulted by government “alone” cannot be this bad. It takes two to tango.

The fake drug dealer and the chemist who change expiry dates are no different from the government that would not provide good quality health care. Either way, people are getting substandard health care and losing their lives. Those who purchase certificate for their kids or hire other people to write their exams are the same as the government that we complain would not fund education. Either way, we get half-baked and substandard graduates. The people who enroll ghost workers are just as good as the government that we complain are running an expensive government and have too many ministries. Either way, huge sums of money are wasted.

They say it takes two to tango; our tango with government has plunged the nation to the state it is today. This is not to exonerate the government from all criticism but to discourage double standards; we are too busy criticizing government that we do not see our own faults; we do not see that at times, when the government tries to get it right, the people’s greed impedes progress. As our elders would say, “When you point at a man with one finger, the other four fingers points at you”. Before the floods that rocked our nations, we barely had any natural disasters. What we had are human disasters so let’s ask ourselves, “Am I a human disaster or a blessing to the nation?”