I was thinking this morning.....About Confident Error of Judgement

The Zuma Statue

I was thinking this morning... As I followed the major news item this week of Governor Rochas Anayo Okorocha of Imo state, unveiling a 25m statue of South African president Jacob Zuma, when workers have not been paid salaries for months, I shook my head in disappointment. I was wondering how a man that is suffering from integrity-deficiency in his home country could be so deified by a man that should be an apostle of good governance. As I read the words of a South African that said 'Instead of a statue, Nigeria can keep the real thing,' I concluded that we have again made a confident error of judgement.

Yes, a confident error of judgement it must be, as I remembered a gist of a man those days standing at the newspaper shop to buy his favourite newspaper. The newspaper agent had noticed his loyalty over time and on this day asked him, 'why do you like reading our newspaper?' The man thought for a while and replied calmly in pidgin English, 'Ehn, the thing plenty,' he hesitated and then added 'and e soft.' Hmm!!! While the newspaper agent thought they had the best news stories, little did he know that the man's motivation for buying the newspaper was not to read but to use as toilet paper. Oh, it was a confident error of judgement on the part of the agent.

Have you been confidently wrong before? Think about it. I know of many friends that supported many elected officials in the past and present governments including many of their appointees. When stories broke about some of the atrocities committed, with one scandal following another, they defended them at first, but later dropped their heads in shame from overwhelming evidence. Some of the people that many judged to be above board had 'fallen our hands.' Most of us were confidently wrong in our judgement. We have realized that the purpose of their getting into government was not to serve but for filthy lucre.

 

Just when I thought this was a curse on politicians, I read the news of the Kwara state Commissioner of Police, Lawan Ado, redeploying policemen at Adewole Police Division in Ilorin over allegations that some of the officers have been selling suspects detained at the station to ritual killers for N80,000 per person. Oh God, what has become of man? While many will see the police station as a safe place to hide away from the rampaging ritual killer, this story will make many think again. It is a confident error of judgement.

 

Sometimes when we think we know someone very well and can confidently predict their actions and motive, that's when we get burnt. I have realized that if we can't say we know ourselves that well, then it will be a confident error of judgement to assume we know others, particularly politicians. No wonder Jeremiah 17:5 says, 'Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departed from the Lord.'

 

Happy Sunday.

 

.....Just the thoughts of a certain Wey Mey.