By the time you read this, President Ian Kama would have launched the Economic Stimulus Programme in Machaneng in the Tswapong Region.
The now flagship ESP was hastily wrought and dutifuly announced at a Special Congress of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party last year.
Proponents of ESP insist that with it the good days are back, to paraphrase one of them.
The public, most especially the youth have literally been dragged to government offices and told to register companies that will become vehicles for them to enjoy the fruits of ESPs.
Detractors are however adamant that ESP is no more than a political gimmick, hastily conceived by a ruling party that is worried by a nose that is tightening around its noose and threatening to take deny it oxygen leading to a total loss of life
For now it does not matter who one chooses to believe.
The fact of the matter is that a lot of information is still needed to allow Batswana to take full advantage of the ESP.
Ambiguity, vagueness and lack of detail have all coalesced around this invention. And this has resulted in confusion that now threatens to blow into anarchy.
At one time Government said they would print a booklet that would detail out what ESP really is.
When the booklet came out, it proved more confusing and disorientating than an initial sketchy announcement that President Khama had made at the BDP Special Congress.
Realising their gaffe, Government then implored the nation to wait for the budget speech by the Minister of Finance for the required details.
The Minister, apparently had other ideas, and declined to use his speech as an ESP Kite-flier.
The Budget speech brought more confusion as it classified ESP as no more than a roll out implementation to catch up with the back log of projects that Government had at one moment in the past, owing to lack of money either suspended, cancelled or forfeited.
This resulted in yet more controversy and indeed confusion on not just what ESP was, but also what real motives lay behind this idea.
It is clear that Government is determined to go ahead with ESP ÔÇô in rain or sunshine. There is a possibility that may be Government knows what they are doing.
But we cannot ignore the glaringly unmistakable pitfalls.
What is irrefutable is that most of stuff is really being made up along the way.
There is also an overhang that what is for now not clear will with time make itself apparent to all.
That might very well be so.
We share Government concern surrounding unemployment.
The levels have become unsustainable.
What we however do not share is Government conviction that quack economics will somehow resolve unemployment difficulties.
It is our belief that half baked measures are a recipe for disaster.
We believe that we should revert to time tested frameworks that have always delivered results.
In that score one can name the National Development plan.
As a nation we have always believed in the sanctity of our NDPs.
Since independence, NDPs have always been our national economic lodestar.
It thus smacks of expediency if not outright mischief making that the current Government does not see anything untoward operating in a space where there is no NDP.
Our NDP has always been sacrosanct. It is one instrument t hat has always inspired predictability.
More than diamonds, it is in fact the onerous task of establishing NDPs over the years ÔÇô without fail ÔÇô that lies solidly behind international accolades and acclaim that Botswana has become famous for.
Diamonds have been a boon for Botswana. But Botswana is not the only country in the world endowed with diamond resources. Because other such countries did not have Governance structures such as our NDPs, their diamonds easily morphed into curses.
For us we chose the hard way out of establishing rules as shown by the NDPs.
The results have been a prudently run economic miracle that is also an example of exceptionalism in Africa has ever known.
We hope that when the launch at Machaneng is done, this much will once again be reaffirmed.
