Quite frankly, I have never understood the mentality behind hero-worshipping and praise-singing another human being, since, my parents taught me five valuable concepts of life and human relationships – that we are all equal, no one is perfect, Jehovah God is the only One who is infallible and worthy of worship, we should love one another, and hold each other accountable for our deeds.
Tendai Ruben Mbofana
Therefore, I was never socialized to regard another human being as being superior, or some form of deity – such that, are infallible, and are deserving of hero-worshipping.
Which explains why none of my writings have ever been tailored to promote any individual, or portray them as super or superior, neither have I ever expended my energy in defending any one, or attempt to package them as perfect and incapable of erring?
In fact, my objective has always been to hold each other accountable – as my parents trained me – especially, when those individuals are those we have elected into offices of authority, whose decisions and actions impact each and every citizen of our country.
Herein lies the issue that thoroughly confounds me.
Why, on mother Earth, do we have a government, and ruling elite, that appears to consider themselves infallible, and utterly incapable of making mistakes, can never get things wrong, and basically cannot mess up?
The fact that, whenever something in our beloved country goes south, those in authority – who are supposed to be running our nation’s affairs – deny all responsibility, but rather opting to lay all blame on “foreign conspirators”, working in cahoots with their “local agents”, proves this point.
Not only is this attitude repulsively arrogant and hypocritical – but, smacks of a leadership incapable of correction, is impervious to learning, and prone to continuing making even bigger and worse mistakes.
In other words – a leadership that sees itself as incapable of erring, is the most inefficient, and is in fact, a danger to its own citizens.
I am a human being, just as anyone else – yet, the thought of me ever believing that I can never get things wrong, and if anything in my life works out not as I desired, then someone or something else is to blame, sends shivers down my spine.
That would just be downright creepy!
As such, what manner of a government can never acknowledge that they do mess up?
When inflation shoots up, and prices of basic commodities fly out of the reach of ordinary citizens – then, this has to be the work of the country’s “detractors”, who seek “illegal regime change”.
When civil servants can no longer make ends meet – as their already meager salaries continue to be eroded on a daily basis, and they decide to exercise their constitutional right to collective job action – then, these hapless workers have to be “agents of foreign powers”.
When citizens are unimpressed, and, as a matter of fact, understandably extremely enraged, with the rampant plundering and looting of the nation’s resources by the ruling elite, leading to the untold impoverishment of the population – the only reason for their outspokenness is because they have been paid by Western countries.
Do those in power not realize that such an averse attitude is exactly what makes more and more people lose faith in their leadership?
Are they so blinded by their own self-created delusions of grandeur and perfection, which they choose not to perceive the obvious – that no one is perfect, and people do not trust, or take kindly to, anyone who portrays themselves as such?
I am reminded of a joke that I once read in a Reader’s Digest some years ago.
Under the “Campus Comedy” section, someone had contributed that, on his first day at university, his class was told this profound advice by one of their professors – “when you think you know everything, we give you a bachelors; when you realize you don’t know everything, we give you a masters; and you finally realize you don’t know anything, we give you a doctorate”!
In a nutshell, a leadership that believes that it knows everything, and can do no wrong – electing to blame everyone and everything else for whatever goes wrong – is still immature, and quite honestly, incapable of leading.
A mature and competent leadership readily acknowledges that, as any other human being, they make mistakes – a lot of mistakes – and, should be ready to be corrected, and to learn.
In fact, I would not want for my country to be presided over by a leader who regards himself as perfect – as a “perfect” leader, who thinks is incapable of erring, is the worst and most dangerous there is.
© Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice activist, writer, author, researcher, and social commentator. Please feel free to contact him on WhatsApp/Call: +263715667700 / +263782283975, or Calls Only: +263788897936 / +263733399640, or email: mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com
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