Scorecards and the Nigerian people

Why do we continually allow our “leaders” give themselves pass marks even in the face of woeful failure? Are we too busy hustling for daily bread to pay attention? We the people always end up paying one way or another.

In Nigeria, a few years ago, some people decided we had to scrap some bank notes in use in favour of polymer notes.
These would be water-resistant, more durable, etc, etc. After a few days of the pilot notes being in circulation, it was obvious to many people that the new notes were worse than what we had before. Accidentally step on one and by the time you pick it up, it has several holes. Wash it in your clothes and it comes out almost bleached. Ease of tearing was another thing.

Heads should have rolled over the expensive experiment but since the people had not learned to muster their voices, the “organizers” of this fiasco not only got away with it but also declared the pilot test a great success and proceeded to convert even more denominations to polymer. A few years down the line, the low-grade polymer notes have been declared a failed project and more money is to be committed to fix the problem.

Short of becoming bitter critics that cannot appreciate even the occasional good thing, there must be a reasonable way to ensure the truth is told (most of the time if not always).