Our Hypocrisy Will Be Our Undoing

For a socially and politically conscious writer in Africa, the most infuriating thing to deal with is the sheer hypocrisy people tend to display when things did not go their way.

People will pretend all they can to ignore all the realities that daily confront them only to rise up in arms when something directly affects them or threaten their interests. We will then see them hollering “what a tribulation” all day!

When some of us made it our business to chronicle the pervading ills that have stymied our social-economic and political progress on the continent, not only were we spurned and derided, we get mostly insults as payment for our troubles.

Only very few people appear to appreciate our efforts.

We all know that things are bad, very bad in all our countries across the continent. We also know that the religions and the political system we borrowed from our historic oppressors have all but destroyed our societies, yet we continue to glory them and sing their praises. Most of us prefer to close our ears, eyes, and mouths - see no evil, hear nothing, and will firmly zip up our mouths.

“Rome was not built in a day” is one pathetic excuse some of us continue to spout to support why we remain the world’s poster boy for underdevelopment and under-achievement.

The worst part is that those among us who ought to know better will join in the condemnation of those of us who dare to raise our voices. Perhaps with an eye on a juicy contract or a political appointment, they will continue to sing the praises of the rotten system that has not only destroyed their own lives but has condemned their children and grandchildren into a future of despair.

Today, Ghana has convulsed over the issue of a totally bizarre judgment the county’s Supreme Court delivered a few days.

To those who pretend to be shocked and perplexed by the court’s decision, I ask: Is this the first time a court in Ghana will deliver a judgment that defies both common sense and elementary logic?

To those who shout “corruption”, I asked which child born in Africa yesterday did not that our judicial system is one huge, corrupt and expensive joke?

A few years ago, some judges in Ghana were caught in a web of scandalous corruption. Some of them were caught on video offering judgment for sale. Goat and yam were among the items used to induce those we continue to worship as “my lord” and “honourables.”

Read about it here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Ghana_Judiciary_scandal

and

Here: Ghanaians turn out massively to watch alleged judges bribery video - Reuters

A former Chief Justice of Ghana was involved in buying stolen government land.

Below are two articles I wrote on the subject:

1. http://alaye.biz/the-un-tenability-of-justice-georgina-woods-position/
2. http://alaye.biz/can-the-chief-justice-spell-ethical/

All this happened in the land, and yet we expect to get an unbiased judgment in our law courts.

Our officials do not only loot our treasuries, they flaunt their ill-gotten wealth in our faces and about the only thing we do is to grovel and continue to call them “Your Excellencies.”

It was Plato who told us that: “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”

Verily, verily, I say: As long as we refuse to raise our own personal bars and begin to consider things beyond the narrow prism of our selfish interests, so long shall we continue to suffer the indignities our misrulers continue to heap on us.

Femi Akomolafe

July 17, 2020