Stop Being A Hypocrite Citizen: Leave Nigerian/African Politicians Alone And Change Yourself
Note: I’ve used Nigeria in most of my text, but this applies to other African countries.
I started thescripton.com a few years ago as teenager frustrated at the ills of society around me. I felt sharing my “unbiased” carefully-thought opinions or perspective about various social issues would be a way to contribute to making things better by creating an environment for educative discussion or constructive change.
But I was wrong because I still had issues that I should’ve fixed before opening my mouth to talk about some topics. I thought I had good intentions, but a tower without a solid grounding is just unstable.
This goes with one of my favourite sayings from the bible which I haven’t read in a while:
“You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
I’ve since embarked on a journey that’s caused me to make some harsh adjustments and to see reality from a more rational viewpoint. I’m still on my journey, and I encourage you to start yours.
Change starts with you
The fact is somethings may never change in our lifetime, and those who continually wail for change would leave this earth utterly bitter and disappointed because they didn’t look into themselves to see they have to first to change their attitude or perspective before even hoping for any change. In fact, doing this alone can have a tremendously positive impact on the society and lead to the change we all seek.
You can’t complain about Nigerian/African politicians being corrupt when you do not think twice about paying bribes to get yourself through the door (even if you’re in a “less corrupt” society).
Don’t complain about the educational system in Nigeria or some other African country being terrible when you’ve not sat down to give your child proper home training instead of feeding them with so much irrational bias as opposed to encouraging them to be independent thinkers.
Don’t try to compare Nigeria to other Western countries when you’re not willing to do what most of the citizens of these western countries do.
For example, most parents in these western countries don’t physically abuse their children because it’s against the law. Whereas, whipping your children because they couldn’t get an A in a subject which you forced them to do is reasonable to you.
I’ve seen beautiful families over here with respectful, responsible and highly intelligent children who have never been physically abused (forget those Hollywood movies that may have clouded your judgements).
Don’t complain about how resistant to change African politicians are when you’d rather die than see gays as ordinary people or stand a correction from your kid. However, you’re okay with using mobile phones produced by some of these people you think are below you or are confused when your child grows up to stand for anything you detest.
Conclusion
Let’s stop deceiving ourselves by pretending we’re saints. No society is perfect, but one thing is for sure, to make progress in society, then some uncomfortable changes have to be made within ourselves first.
