Instead of being openly confrontational, government critics should be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But the hungriness to outshine their masters (law number 1) and the inability to conceal their intentions (law number 3) will forever leave most government critics in Africa pushing the Sisyphus ball up the political hill. It is a political vanity of vanities.
To illustrate this, let us strike some government critics in Africa so that their admirers might learn a lesson or two. Proverbs 19, verse 25 teaches us: "If you punish a mocker, the simple-minded will learn a lesson; if you correct the wise, they will be all the wiser".