Lord, Was He An Arrogant Fool?

Dear Father:

Have you heard the news about our man from that watchdog house?

No, my son, what happened to him?

Oh, the man thought he had arrived and therefore failed to listen to some of those little advises that could help him.

In fact, the man didn’t regard anyone as something once you were not from Uncle Sam’s village and above the age of 60. And more so once you did not meet these criteria the likelihood of being part of  his recruiting force at that end was much more difficult -least I say listening to you. Even town criers who tried to put him right were regarded as “blackmailers and educated fools who did not understand what they were writing about.”

You know, his arrogance posture, reminds me of my uncle, who always used to say to me whenever I acted stubbornly. My uncle would say: “boy, monkey thought he was a man until a fine shot brought him down.”

I wonder how many of your village leaders learn from these kinds of examples, my son?

That’s the point Father. You know, sometimes I can’t stop but to wonder how our village leaders see themselves whenever they are placed in positions of trust. The way some of them go about doing things appears to me that they have a very short membrane as to how they got there in the first place-be it an elected position or appointed one.

They tend to forget one of the most famous parables which says “when you are climbing a tree you don’t cut down the branches you hold to get up, because you will need them on your way down.”Most of our  village leaders easily forget this when they get posted.

In fact, when they are elected they tell the electorates to go to hell. Some even boast of how they paid electorates huge sum of money to win their votes.

Father, the high degree of arrogance with which some of them conduct themselves can be mind burgling at times..

Sometimes, they make it appear that they are so untouchable and that the position with which they have been entrusted be it an appointment to head some of the village departments or elected as chief to serve at the Traditional Counsel is their birth rights. They see themselves as unaccountable to no one. They think they should rather be served them serving.

And so, they go on running these institutions anyhow, failing to listen to these little advices from people around them.

In fact, in some cases making those who actually help them to stardom-the town criers and electorates for an example, their enemies .

Father, what is more troubling about some of these people is the air of arrogance. A man or woman call himself or herself  a chief and therefore feels that he or she can break the law at will. They get to places and think that all else should stop and attention should be paid to them first.

A health worker told me a story about one of the chiefs who took a patient at one of our big human being garages. The lady said the chief met her attending to a patient but insisted that she leaves the patient and attend to his despite asking him to give her 2-minutes.

The health worker said this chief got furious, why she should tell him to wait for at least two minutes to enable her complete her attention to the other patient. She says he immediately telephone the her overall boss, informing him (the overall boss) that he had carried his patient and she refused to give the patient a VIP attention.

This same guy always use the opposite lane every morning with total disregard to traffic rules, all because he is a chief.

No wonder, when they leave these positions they walk the streets very empty as if they have never one day serve in high positions of trust in this country before.

My son what is going on in that village of yours again?

Father, what else, accept for these people who feel that when they get the opportunity to serve they become more human than their compatriots no wonder when their disgrace come, they have nowhere to find comfort.