WHY WE CRITICIZE GOVERNMENTS AND POLITICIANS
I can't really remember when exactly I started writing but I know that back in 2011, I had stockpiles of articles written on sheets of paper that were mostly for the consumption of my JSS3 classmates. Most of them highlighted political issues. As I tried to point out errors both in the church and government and what should be done to stop them.
I would later make strong efforts to get my works published on Starlight and Shepherd Newspaper. On one occasion when Shepherd eventually published one, I didn't have money to buy the Newspaper that Sunday.
With a Symbian phone, I was able to write on facebook but they didn't give me the opportunity to write longer articles. It was limited to 5000 characters. I would later find out that it's because of the device I was using after I got a laptop. So, boom started my writing journey which was mostly viewed as criticism. It's worthy of note that I was a strong Pro-Biafran agitator to the extent that it earned me the nickname, Ojukwu amongst my secondary school classmates. That was long before IPOB was formed, when no one knew anything about Nnamdi Kanu. My first facebook account would later be sacrificed for that cause.
The major motivation for those criticisms people accused me of was simple! I wanted a better society. I wanted things to work. As a young child, I could place what I was taught in school side by side with what was happening in the society, and I found out that they don't add up.
Everything was geared towards finding solutions to existing problems within the church and the society and because I knew I was right in the things I say, I didn't fear whoever was involved in the things I wanted to write.
Unlike most critics, I wasn't an Armchair critic. I made physical moves to set things right. It was why I had to form a group in my SS2 known as the Youth Movement for Democracy (YMD). This is because I have always been solution oriented. I do not see it worthwhile to talk and talk and talk for ages without anything happening. I didn't write to impress people. Most people weren't impressed with my writings, the masses and leaders alike because I told everyone the truth they didn't want to hear, so I started being comfortable with people disagreeing with me.
I have stated it severally that if I wanted people to commend me and write "nice one", "on point", "keep it up", I won't be writing articles. I would have been writing romantic poems. I am much better in that, than I will ever be in writing articles. So, all I wanted was simply to get a conversation going that could lead to a positive change in our society.
Fast-forward to 2019 and I was really done with anything that had to do with Activism. This was after finding out that my intentions were completely different from that of majority of other activists whose focus were on making money through criticizing the government. I was more alarmed by the fact that most of them would physically fight against the well being of the people because they too are somehow dealing mercilessly with the masses in their own ways. They were like the proverbial pot that calls kettle black. After series betrayals, I had to excuse myself.
What finally sealed my decision was when I hand a direct encounter with the masses whom I have devoted all these years fighting for. I found out that were the same or worse than those who oppress them, proving the Bible right that the leader(priest) is taken from amongst the people. He is no more or less, what the people are.
I was to drop activism wholly and completely, but finding solutions to the problems confronting our society is fate I am condemned to. I can't seem to separate myself from it. So, while I intend to seek a political solution in future, I will in the time present, keep working with any and everyone on any and every project targeted towards solving even our minutest problems.
Therefore, as Zoba "criticized" with the intent to build a better society, a lot of others criticize for the following reasons;
1. To prove a point: Most people have their individual opinions about how leadership should be run. If you do contrary to their own opinion, they will criticize you indefinitely, whether your own ideas are working or not. They always desire for people to say that they are right.
This type of people can go to the extent of praying that things don't work out for their own country, for the economy to crash and insecurity to grow, just to prove that they are RIGHT. You see it in the way they joyfully announce any bad thing that happens in the country or in the church.
2. To achieve a personal Interest: This type of people are found in political circles. They criticize so they can pull down an opposition and take over. They are never solution oriented. They make mounts out of molehills. It's their thing. These people are fairly better than the first.
3. To be recognized: This is where a bunch of activists, the ones that broke my back severally. This is where they fall in. For them, criticism is a business. They will bring you out to fight a cause. Before you know it, they have gone behind, collect money and dodge. Then mumu like me will be shouting on top of my voice. Thank God for his mercies that I was never hurt.
4. To Sound Woke: This is where the rest of the masses fell in. The bandwagon effect controls this set of people. They criticize because it is popular to criticize. They don't even know what the person they are criticizing did. They don't even know the details of what happened. Just that everyone is condemning someone, they too will join. If people are commending the person, they too will commend him. They have no mind of their own. They are like a pendulum that swing in the direction of the wind.
5. To build a better Society: This is where I used to stay before I left. There are very few people here. A good number of them get fed-up with the whole thing and either leave the scene or just keep quiet. They mean well and their genuineness is always felt and they are always full of solutions than blames. It's why they always escape unhurt from every kind of persecution that may come their way.
Whichever way you go about it is your fundamental Human Right, but in the end, none of us will escape the consequences of being citizens of a grossly underperforming nation.
