«سَنَةْ شُوطِةِ الْجِمَالْ جَابُوا الْأَعْوَرْ قَيِّدَهْ»

The saying describes a person who reaches a leading role only because better candidates are absent. The one-eyed man becomes the lead driver walking at the head of the camel train, not for his merit: disaster has thinned the field until he is all that remains, so his rise shows how scarce good people are, not how talented he is.

It works as a sardonic remark about appointments or prominence that come from shortage rather than qualification. Its image treats a physical impairment as a sign of inadequacy, so applying it to a real person can also read as mockery of disability, not only a judgment of ability.

Use it, usually with irony, when someone of modest ability has been given a leading role only because capable candidates are gone. It mocks the circumstances as much as the person, and is best kept for commenting on situations rather than said directly to the person chosen.