Merit as a Disqualifier
A system that accepts patronage as the primary factor governing upward mobility must eventually collapse. To compound the situation, the beneficiaries of a Client-Patron relationship have to resort to corruption and nepotism to sustain themselves within the system. This is done to the detriment of talent and merit, striking at the very root of efficiency and achievement. Negating the principle of fair-play and justice in evaluating performance and capability sets in motion a process that eventually destroys the system from within. It puts pressure on the working of any body, administrative, corporate, etc, giving ground to a vicious circle of endemic inefficiency and mal-administration. When individuals without merit become the arbiters of future recruitment, they tend to select people in their own image, force-multiplying the process of self-destruction. Very much like continuing inter-marriage between blood relations leads to mental and physical retardation, patronage leads to debilitation of the system.
Patronage militates against accountability, the lack of it sustains the capacity of the corrupt and inefficient to perpetuate their domination. Talent and merit are never given the weightage they deserve except if it suits the plans of the UnGodly to gain some temporary advantage. The contribution of professionals is rarely recognized and they are usually cast away when not required any further. Since those who should effect accountability would themselves be its first subjects, it would hardly be reasonable to accept that they would blow a police whistle on themselves. The principle of accountability thus fails at the altar of greed and ambition. Once it becomes inherently clear to the honest and efficient that they will get a short shrift if they step out of line, they tend to merge themselves into the system, having a telling effect on the quality of service available. Capable and honest individuals with self-respect become the living dead, existing in deep apprehension out of the basic need of survival for themselves and their families. They watch in frustration as the organisation in which they work is systematically looted, while their talent and merit becomes a handicap for them, those qualities being treated as suspect. Most succumb to the age-old adage, “if you can’t fight them, join them”.
