The crumbs syndrome is a state of the mind where one develops an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the meagre acts of responsibility carried out by those in authority. This illness arises out of the fact that accountability by the ruling class has taken the status of novelty as state funds are hardly ever used to develop the state so that where an elected official is magnanimous enough to use a very minor percentage of the state’s resources appropriately, the masses will be so grateful for this obvious crumbs from the proverbial masters table that they would feel so overwhelmed with gratitude to the point of irrationality.

This is mostly the reason why Nigerians vote corrupt politicians for second terms in office despite their under-performance when analysed rationally. Gratitude for road construction and a few other razmataz projects flagged off by the incumbent is usually seen with a kind of metaphorical magnifying lens by the Nigerian who is used to non-performance by the people in power.

This illness also explains why every criticism of an elected officer in Nigeria is perceived by his followers as ingratitude on the part of the critic and the followers, being so overwhelmed by gratitude for the officials ‘’good work’’ would eagerly lambast and rundown any such critic for such effrontery and failure to appreciate what has been done for them. Criticism no matter how constructive is greatly abhorred and the truth of the facts of it does not save it from the mudslinging that normally accompanies that.

Matters of public interest and opinion are handled with kid gloves because you dare not thread on some toes. Irrespective of intention, opinions of serious issues are twisted to suit the officials by their bandwagon of praise singers. Even situations where the constitution of the country is in issue, the wordings of the constitutions are usually sacrificed at the altar of personal sentiments and alignments.

The long years of non-performance by office holders has made the people to believe that if an office holder performs his duties at all, he is automatically absolved of any complicity in any act of corruption or embezzlement no matter the magnitude. People mostly don’t care if you embezzle public funds in Nigeria as long as you drop crumbs for them to lap up, it does not matter that the projects you execute does not constitute up to a tenth of the allocation due the state.

As a Nigerian you dare not question the acts of your governor, senator let alone that of the president without incurring some kind of irrational wrath from some quarters. It does not matter how poor this people have performed, what matters is that they have performed at all!

The acts of these men and women we voted into office are defended by their stooges not with facts and figures that exonerates them of any complexity in acts of corruption but with songs of praise for projects executed while in office. I keep wondering if any of this politicians have ever used their private funds to develop the state, the whole praises is that they used the countries resources to develop the country, albeit a very minor percentage of what is allotted, then you wonder why all the praises? It is the crumb syndrome!

PS: for those of you that need a foreign university report and studies to accept the existence of this syndrome, I assure you that you will find none. For further information on the study of this syndrome, kindly contact the blogger
SOURCE: www.cynicreport.

not even a single comment, you guys are not encouraging at all