Weekly Column: A BEGGARED CULTURE
By Omordia, Efe Alexandra – Have you heard the story of an heiress that got kidnapped and spent the rest of her years living in a Hovel not finding enough courage to break-out and get her due? I’m sure you haven’t for the simple reason that it is not a real story; it’s just the best way I can put some clarity to a worrisome trend plaguing communities in the sub-region where one finds full grown adults with all their faculty intact feeling very comfortable with engaging in Sycophancy in the bid to collect handouts from people who usually are not qualified to be so worshipped. What is so worrisome about this unhealthy culture is that it cuts across all strata of the society. People who ordinarily should be in the position to fight against injustice and make things happen have reduced themselves to professional beggars in the bid to get political appointments or contracts. They have blinded themselves to the fact that whatever they get is a very tiny fraction of what is being siphoned from the general purse. Lower in the ladder are men and women who find pleasure in asking for things that they don’t need. Cooking up sob tales to people who are in places of authority and often getting insulted in the process. This craze for material wealth has led to the breakdown of values and it has also reduced the can-do spirit that young people should have; the spirit of I- can-do-things-legitimately-and-get-more-cash- than-you-have. We can do it, we can be better than whoever is trying to enslave us with handouts. We have what it takes cause the sky is just a starting point.
