Humans Are Inclined To Always Do The Wrong Thing -People Will Still Take Advantage When Another Tanker Falls Today!

Over the week, there was a report that a tanker carrying over fifty-four thousand litres of diesel fell off at Kaase -Ahodwo road in the Ashanti region of Ghana. In a viral video you could see several ordinary people running bravely towards where the diesel tanker has overturned like they were some kind of immortals or avengers. People carried bucket, barrels, and all sorts of containers they could get like they have just discovered a precious commodity, just to siphon diesel from the tank.

One would ask, why would people do such a thing especially when there are several evidence in Ghana where people got killed in the same incident ?

The simple answer to this is that people are naturally inclined to always do the bad thing and take advantage of a very bad situation.

Our intention to misbehave, become greedy and want more for ourselves is fueled by our orientation of poverty that nothing is too dangerous if money is involved. We are people who in our daily life, on a decision between death and life will choose death or walk the dangerous path at the mercy of usual rhetoric that God would protect them, with no regard for science, common sense and safety.

We could use all our strength to condemn, chastise or advice people who run to fetch fuel when a tanker falls but it is still a common knowledge that should another tanker falls now people will still run to fetch the fuel.

This poverty orientation to get greedy, naive , and daring give credence to what former president Obama said sometime ago in Ghana that “Ghana needs strong institutions “. If our institutions had called out and punished people who engaged in such acts previously publicly, people would have learnt a lesson. We have video evidence of people carrying diesel in buckets like some kind of trophy or blood tonic they plan to sell later to enrich themselves.

We cannot always assume people to make the best of decisions in the worst situation because human as we are will always choose danger over safety and money over life.

We can do any stupid thing if the reason is to break free from poverty. This is true especially when any abled and religiously inclined individual with common sense applied knowledge could identify, feel and sense fake in several social media prophets, prophetess and Mallams yet these same fake religious leaders have more followers than what Jesus could ever think of. This justify why many people cannot be trusted in making prudent decisions and why it is important for laws, as it was made, to guide the behavior of people.

ISAAC BAWUAH