Criticism is a way of commenting and letting your opinions known on a subject matter. There are different ways by which people comment and the way they make their opinions known generally. To some people, they just talk and comment without a critical look at what comes out their mouth and they show lackadaisical attitudes towards their utterances.
There are a lot of ways by which people criticize, some people are always careful of what they say, some people generalise, some people are sentimental while some people criticize without a proper look into the situation. Be that as it may, how do we deal with criticism?
Imagine there was a live radio program that focused on the present situation of the country and people were allowed to call in and make their contributions. Someone called in; he said and I quote " our country is a bad country, we've not for once enjoyed the dividend of democracy, we have been suffering since the 60s till date, when will these sufferings end? Can you imagine? A country like ours that's known as the giant of of this continent of ours, majority of what we use are the imported ones. Despite the fact that this country is blessed with hectares of fertile lands, we still import in farm produce, why is our own system not working for us? Our education sector is nothing to write home about. Chai!!! It's only God that can save us in this country" and he ended the call.
Another man called and this was what he had to say " Good morning presenters, you see the situation we find ourself is caused by two things, we the populace and our government. And I think our government are trying, it's just that we aren't appreciating what the government is doing. Take a look at our roads now, no government has ever in the history constructed as much as this administration has. More so, last year our country was ranked among the top 20 fast growing economic region, none of the past administration has ever reached that milestone. But despite all these and more that the present administration has done and will still do for the country, some people are even trying to politicised everything that happens inorder to gain people's attention and to use that against the present administration in the next general election. In short, let us all support this administration in their vision of taking this country to the next level, they are the only ones that can do this. Thank you".
And lastly, a man called in and made the following statements " I need not blame anybody for the problems facing this nation. Our heroes of yesteryears did try their best in fulfilling their duties as patriotic citizens and the Almighty supported them in their quests to having a better country but as time went on, the administration was handled over to the ones who only think about themselves and their family. And now, I think it's high time we stood up for our right, it will be better if we can stand together as a nation and speak with one voice. Forget about tribalism, ethnic and religious differences let's work together and make this country great again, thank you". May the Almighty bless this country of ours, thank you".
Critically looking at the three commentators, their comments and criticisms, one can point out the similarity and the differences in what they said. The three men were showing their view of the situation their country is. Even though the three of them made valid points and they tried to show their feelings and opinions but their mode of presentations said it all. The first man was too sentimental and too emotional that he didn't care about what he was saying and who he was referring to. He talked negatively about their country and their leaders, to him that was the best of thing to do to let the world know how deteriorated their country is.
Also, the second man didn't talk about the faults of the government, he only talked about only the positive sides of the government.
By and large, the last man had totally different opinions about the subject matter, he didn't show whether he was supporting the government nor did he show that he is against the administration. He made his contributions to be constructive enough without being a biased speaker.
Bringing the three together, it can be deduced that there are different types of criticisms but it's only three that will be considered in this writing and they are; positive criticism, negative criticism and constructive criticism.
A positive criticism is the that is made in support of a subject matter no matter how good or bad it is. The speaker is unconcerned about the bad side of the issue, he only focuses on the positive side. He may do that intentionally or had another reasons best known to him.
Furthermore, a negative criticism is the one that is made against the subject matter, no matter how perfect the subject matter is. Take for example the first speaker mentioned above, he wasn't concerned about how the government has impacted the citizens, all he did was to fault and condemned totally the administration of that government.
Moreover, a constructive criticism is the one that is made by being a neutral speaker no matter how badly he is affected and/or positively he is favoured he tries to make a balance in his criticisms. An example of this is seen from the last speaker who was neither a supporter no an opponent, he addressed the subject matter by being a patriotic, an optimist and he made his points constructively.
In a nutshell, one shouldnt be too emotional or too sentimental when it comes to criticizing someone, something, people, the government, etcetera. One can be implicated with what comes out of one's mouth. When talking in the public, any contribution that a person will be making should be carefully thought of and the choice(s) of words to be used must be sourced for critically, In short, a public speaker should learn how to be constructive in making a contribution to any topic given to him.
