In November 2008, President Dr. Ian Khama made his maiden State of the Nation address (SONA). As expected, this Monday, Dr. Khama is expected to give one of his last but two national addresses; the key question that needs to be asked is whether Dr. Khama’s maiden speech or any other that followed it has met the threshold of an ideal state of the nation address.
For some of us who might be familiar with SONA, but not familiar with its meaning and objectives, we might as well revisit the general and global definition of it. The simplest definition that one could find would be: Political model /activity in which the President reports on the status of the nation. Elsewhere some presidents or leaders use SONA not only to report on the condition of the nation but also use it to outline their national agenda and priorities.
Given the fact that Dr. Khama does not easily give media interviews, atleast to the local private media, SONA thus turns out to be a rare opportunity for the President to communicate with the nation. This includes dwellers of places such as Gaborone Central and Phakalane where he usually does not do his popular walk-about or evening ‘fire place time’.
Ideally, the President must use SONA to update the nation on the progress of projects promised in the previous year’s address. In his 2014 SONA Dr. Khama mentioned of ‘job creation for sustainable livelihoods and income generation’. It is therefore fair enough to expect him to give the nation feedback on how much he has done to absorb those seeking sustainable employment in this country. Put differently, Dr. Khama should state how many jobs have been created between the time he first made the promise (November 2008) and November 2015. Earlier this year, the government ran a series of adverts calling for the unemployed to apply for temporary posts that are available within the government. This is the ideal time to give the nation an update on how many young Batswana (which we believe were the target) were absorbed into that programme. Still on unemployment, government is running other economic empowerment schemes such as the National Internship Programme, Tirelo Sechaba and YES…All these programmes we have been made to believe that they are meant to reduce the number of our young but capable youth on the streets. As such, SONA 2015 is the ideal time for Dr. Khama to share the success and failures (if any) of these programmes. We are certain that tax payers, atleast some of them do want to know whether there is return on investment made from such programmes. Remember it is their money that sponsors these numerous trial programmes.
Dr Khama mentioned in his 2014 SONA that a whooping 11,200 youth were enrolled under the Tirelo Sechaba, fast forward to November 2015, where are those youth? How much have they gained, economically, from their participation in Tirelo Sechaba…? In 2015, how many new recruits for Tirelo Sechaba do we have, and how sustainable is the programme?
From where we stand, apart from high unemployment rate, the nation’s other key challenges that need immediate attention is the utilities sectors. As such, Dr. Khama should be in a position to tell the nation how much of the money that he is drawing from the foreign reserves will be diverted towards speeding up of key projects that aid in the provision of both water and energy. What is the current state of Morupule B? Did the sending of Foreign Affairs minister Pelonomi Venson Moitoi to China (to complain on shoddy job done at the power station) bear any fruits? Are Chinese going to bear the costs or as usual we are passing the burden to tax payers? How about the North-South Carrier (NSC), what is the progress there and given the fact that projections show that there won’t be too much rain, what are the immediate interventions in place to ensure continuous supply of water to people in the southern part of the country? Come to think of it, ESP will not see the light of day if the utilities sector remains on its knees. So Dr. Khama should ensure that he makes this part of his message very clear so that we can even boost investor confidence which according to Bank of Botswana is currently low.
Secondly he should update us on any recent initiative, this entails any other projects that were announced or introduced within the past year without having been mentioned in the previous year SONA. A quick example would be the controversial Economic Stimulus Programme. Having first announced it at the BDP special congress, with less details, we now expect Dr. Khama to give flesh to the bone of ESP. This would help us, and any other interested parties to gauge whether this big animal is big enough to save our ailing economy or it is just yet another Goliath.
Lastly, as he performs this constitutional duty, Dr. Khama must be able to articulate a vision of the future of this nation. This is where he should talk and instill positivity to young Batswana graduates who have been on the street for close to a decade now. With the projected return to deficit budget, Dr Khama should lead the nation with his thoughts on how the domestic economy will return to the desired level. The normal diversification chorus will probably feature in Dr Khama’s speech but this time around we could use the “how part” and measurement strategies.
While we wait for Monday, the #Bottomline remains that an ideal SONA should speak to the ordinary men in the street. A man whose salary is weekly entertainment allowance of some of our executives.
