Botswana will always be my favorite country in the entire world. Not just because it is home to people who play by the rule, but also because it is home to several minerals including diamonds, coal, copper, nickel gold etc. It is also home to other resources – flora and fauna, unlimited sunshine, thousands of cattle and rich heritage. This is a fact, and not questionable at all. What comes as a question though is, why is that with all these resources, Botswana has failed to empower its people?
Botswana became independent more than 55 years ago, yet its people are still financially dependent. The country’s economy is still dependent on South Africa for basic household commodities including toothpicks and match sticks. Dare ask a question why this is the case. The answer will come in the form of politicians excuses. But then again they forget that people cannot eat politicians’ excuses. One cannot help but wonder out loudly whether we are turning into a failed state. The answer to that is found on the things that we have been seeing happening in this country, things that largely define a failing state. Indeed we have begun to descend and there is need to arrest this decline soon rather than later. First step to take in arresting the decline is to shun denialism. Most of our people, more especially the political elites find it easy to label those who point these things out as unpatriotic. They would tell you it is unfair to compare Botswana to countries like our neighbour in the north east. Denialism or attacking those who seek to get us back on track won’t help. We need to immediately attend to the decline. The more useful tact to arrest this decline of course is through the empowerment of the citizens. But it starts with efficient and reliable services. As I put this together, public transport services, which is regulated by government is not available to those who desperately need it. Such people do not need it for themselves but rather to volunteer their service in growing this country’s Gross Domestic Product. It is not just public transport that is down, most government services – water, electricity, health care, safety and security are all ‘down’. Why? Politicians can give believable excuses. There is one excuse why fuel is as costly now compared to a year or two ago. There is another excuse why there is shortage of medication at public health institutions. There is a political explanation why the cost of living is so high and why all these years the citizens of this country have been denied land, business opportunities and jobs. Making excuses is deep in the human psyche but of course with politicians it is even deeper. For politicians, not taking responsibility appears easier than being honest. This is applicable not just to our local politicians but found even amongst the developed world. The US’s Bill Clinton’s once made a famous line: “I tried marijuana once – I did not inhale”. This is possibly the best example of a half-truth ever by a politician which perhaps our own are borrowing from. As the cost of living keeps rising, many excuses will flow from political elites. Russia and Ukraine war will be used as an excuse as if it started in 2007 when we had a chance to build extra fuel storage facilities. As the cost of living keeps rising there will be an excuse as to why there is no work in progress to put up the infrastructure that is needed for Electronic Vehicles (which politicians promised in 2019) – if at all the promise will be kept. As the cost of living keeps rising we will get excuses why we cannot talk to Angola and partner with Zimbabwe in constructing an oil refinery plant in Namibia to cut on the costs of procuring oil. As the cost of living keeps rising we will get excuses why we cannot channel funds towards hastening our envisaged coal – liquid projects.
While we wait for the many excuses, one wonders what would happen if everyone owned up to their flaws. Would the world fall apart if we ensure that our top priority is wealth creation for Batswana (as a way of minimising future shocks on their pockets caused by global oil prices)? Or even easier, if we knew that Russia/Ukraine war is not the only reason why fuel prices keep rising – that the National Petroleum Fund is consistently on zero and unable to cushion us from the rising global prices? Fictitious reasons are being given by politicians each passing day as to why we find ourselves jobless (or low wages for those who are fortunate to have something they call a job), landless and/or unable to access business funding by many startups. Instead of accepting that Batswana, more especially millennial workers are probably not earning enough to buy own land political elites will blame their parents for selling land or worst still claim that our land waiting lists are not true reflection of the demand on the ground. Whose responsibility is it to ensure that we get a true picture?
Sadly a majority of Batswana in urban areas know the truth. Instead of asking relevant questions like why is it that the President – an appointing authority – is silent when there is a big fight among key state institutions – DIS, DCEC and DPP which are supposed to be ensuring our safety, we turn such fights into Memes. Why are we colluding like we do not know the effect such a fight has on our economy or investor perception and/or let alone our fight against corruption? In this context, who is more inept –the all-time makers of excuses or those of us who choose to be silent?
What our people fail to understand is that they have the power to shape their destiny, better still riding on the politicians excuses. Our current crop of politicians can chose today to emancipate Batswana from the economic shackles.
For so many years Botswana has been rated as the least corrupt country in Africa. We have always been applauded by the western nations and Africans alike for keeping an almost clean sheet when it comes to corruption. Whether that was true or just perception is a story for another day. What is important now is that we should take the fight against corruption, excuses very serious. This time around stakes are much higher. We must underline the supremacy of building empowered citizens. For as long as we have lived politicians in our country are adept in finding excuses to talk about anything but the pressing issue at hand. They have their own idealised guide on how to live which is total opposite what is happening on the ground. These politician’s guide of lame excuses is not just aimed at distracting us from thinking about the rising cost of living, but even the causes of our miseries. The #Bottomline is that there is no dearth of excuses when it comes to our politicians. Their guide to living happily would mean we leave common sense aside while the real blockbuster becomes our failed health, education systems and most notably our empty wallets caused by high cost of living.
