THE SANITY OF THE MENTALLY CHALLENGED

Yes, I went to a wedding ceremony last week on Sunday. Now, before the trotro vehicle which would eventually stain my white dress the next day (weird) pulled out of the Darkuman Official Town circle spot, a lot of dust began to settle in it.

We, the passengers looked around and found out that a mentally challenged individual was sweeping along the street. Some of the passengers began to make some unsettling comments.

While others insulted the sweeping mentally challenged lady to be insane, others spoke of how nobody had sent her to sweep the roadside that early morning.

After they have made all these comments and many others like them, it got me thinking.

So, the mentally challenged person has realized that the place is dirty and for that matter needs cleaning but the mentally sane people don’t see that.

The mentally challenged sees that we need a clean environment to live healthily but the mentally sane individuals don’t see the same thing.

Above all, the mentally challenged person sees the need for good sanitation for a harmonious living but the so-called mentally sane person sees otherwise.

Some may argue that the mentally challenged person does not know what she is really doing but does that really matter or should that be the underlying factor of the conversation?

Now, how many mentally challenged individuals do you see littering the environment? Don’t they rather collect the rubbish from the environment?

Instead, those of us who call ourselves as being mentally correct to go round littering the environment and later complain about it.

So, now, guess who is mentally challenged, the one who knowingly does the wrong thing and later complains about it or the one who does the right thing unknowingly to effect positive change in society?

Granted that waste collection bins are hardly sighted in many parts of this country, that shouldn’t be an excuse for us to litter our environment, should it? Improper sanitation breeds a lot of diseases that can draw this country back many years. Already, we hardly see any effective progress, we must not compound our burden.

Governance is a two-way street. As citizens, we can’t continue to do the wrong things and always blame the government for our poor lot. The government can do something but not everything.

Attitudinal change will save this country billions of money.

Let's stop blaming as spectators and start acting as citizens.

                        YUSSIF AHMED
                        ahmed.yussiph@gmail.com