LET'S JUST BLAME IT ON EVIL SPIRITS

Why people just hate to take responsibility for their misdeeds, gross ineptitude or the bad choices they make is beyond me. Perhaps, its a lot easier to play the blame-game; place the blame on someone or something. Doing this is basically the same thing as living in denial; to prevaricate and avoid getting to the point. The essence of any serious attempt at change is to accept responsibility. Once you identify you are the problem, the problem is half-solved. The second half is amending that characteristic flaw that negates positive movement.

Hajiya Zainab Kuchi, Minister of State for Power

 When I see people do this, I just laugh and tell them they are not ready to move forward. So you can imagine my surprise when I stumbled on a news report yesterday where the Minister of State for Power, Hajiya Zainab Kuchi said an evil spirit is behind Nigeria’s darkness preventing the country from taking her place of pride in the comity of Nations. She was reported to have said this when members of the African National Congress (ANC) (South Africa's ruling political party) led a team of investors to her office in Abuja. 

Her words, “We must resolve to jointly exorcise the evil spirit behind this darkness and allow this nation take its place of pride in the comity of Nations.”

Evil spirits...yeah, right! This is without doubt, the lowest form of excuse you will ever hear! It is only in Nigeria that a minister who was supposedly appointed based on her knowledge and expertise in the power sector will say this about the ineptitude of her office to tackle the challenge of inadequate power supply that has crippled the development of this nation since its birth. I won't even talk about the billions of dollars doled out year in, year out to fix this seemingly unsolvable aspect of our basic infrastructure. Were contracts awarded to evil spirits? If not, how are evil spirits to blame? Perhaps, its time we had a ministry for the exorcism of evil spirits. Those "men of God" that throng the halls of power and get paid for prayers obviously have not been effective enough.

Another statement credited to her ministry is, “Nigeria needs help, any nation that loves Nigeria must collaborate with it now to resolve her energy crisis…We are getting irritatingly slow.”

This appeal for help is embarrassing and shameless to say the least! Nigeria does not need outside help to solve her problems. No! She needs to realize that she is her own problem; that she is the solution to her own problems. For as long as she keeps having mentally challenged people in sensitive positions who are overwhelmed by the demands of service, she will keep begging for help from the outside world because she is either too lazy, or unwilling to do what needs to be done.

Seriously though, where do we find these people?! Just when you think the bar for stupidity can't be raised higher any further...

Malcolm O. Ifi.

Photo Credits: The Internet