Last year around this time I wrote a piece that sought to reflect on expectations of the nation on the President’s State of the Nation Address that was delivered on the 7th of November 2011. In the same piece I discussed a few aspects that in my view should be critical to what any state of the nation address by any president, entails. This afternoon Monday 5th November 2012, the president will again address the nation and discuss the health of this country. I want to revisit some of those aspects and reflect on what we should expect, in my view, from today’s State of the Nation Address by the President.
I had argued then that one of the purposes of this address to the nation is that it provides the president with an opportunity to give a detailed description of the current state of the nation in the social, political, economic, institutional, cultural and related aspects of our nation. This requires that the president speaks to the extent to which our development initiatives on these aspects have changed Batswana’s lives; the challenges his government has met in trying to make the country a better place for all; the measures that are put in place to mitigate if not remove these challenges; and lastly, the country’s potential and capacity to handle the composite changes in these aspects of Batswana’s lives. Critical in all these reflections will be the president’s perception of how last year’s initiatives played a role in the state of the nation as of this year.
In short what value did the initiatives the president announced last year add to Batswana’s livelihoods and what are the challenges. Put differently, how better we are as a nation from last year this time around.
Secondly, I had also argued that this opportunity is for the president to lay down his legislative intent to both the nation and parliament. The operational realities of our democracy are such that the executive provides political leadership to the legislature and therefore the president has to, through this state of the nation address; explain his preferred nature of the relationship between the two organs of government as they define the country’s development path going forward. The president has an opportunuty to outline his legislative agenda to both parliament and the nation at large. This legislative agenda will require to be sanctioned by parliament and be understood by the nation as indeed worthy of pursuing to militate against citizens’ problems.
Third, and related to the above, the president has an opportunity to set his priorities and ask for parliament and the nation to understand his logic and justification for the priorities he puts forward. This is an area where the president’s understanding of his country’s problems is put to the test and to the extent that he will address what Batswana see as the major problems or issues affecting their lives, his address will be deemed as of any value or not. Currently there are a few areas that can be seen as critical for the public and I wish to pick just one of those. The current problems facing the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) are one area that I believe require special attention from the president. We have been made to believe that BMC gets about 80% of supply for cattle from the communal areas and if this is correct, the current developments at that public corporation seem to signal total marginalization of the communal farmers as direct suppliers to the BMC and this would be a big shift of policy by government. The president will need to assure Batswana that any changes that are likely to occur at the BMC will not adversely affect the potential for communal farmers not only to supply directly to the BMC but more importantly to get value for their animals.
Fourth, there have been insinuations of “economic empowerment” drive that seem to be only benefiting a few people within certain defined circles and this is one area that require the president to clarify to the nation as to what if any are the ingredients of any government efforts to economically empower Batswana. In line with this clarification is the need to assure Batswana that any moves to empower Batswana will be done in the most transparent, open and corrupt free manner, with equal treatment of those Batswana who may wish to be part of that process. We continue to hear of underhand tactics when it comes to the award of tenders and that certain groups of both nationals and foreigners literally own the tendering benefits to the detriment of many Batswana. I wish this is explained or clarified by the president.
Lastly, the president should be able to address the nation on the general decline of ethical conduct in the public service and the extent to which the oversight agencies are capacitated to deal with this scourge. I look forward to today’s State of the Nation address to slightly depart from the normal cut and paste of the past and put forward new dimensions on how as a nation we should be shaping up our destiny and creating a nation that is alive and cognizant to the need for inclusiveness, concern and commitment to improved living standards beyond the dimensions of backyard gardening and other related poverty alleviation measures. I simply choose to call them alleviation measures as opposed to the official tag of eradication measures for I see no possibility of them eradicating poverty, even in the long-term. In terms of social welfare therefore I wish to hear what else is in store for Batswana besides backyard gardening and other very constrained attempts, especially in the wake of very trying environmental challenges of dwindling rainfalls, continued increasing prices of major commodities like food, fuel, access to land and other basic life commodities.
Today’s state of the nation address should provide hope to Batswana that they can still trust government to create an environment within which they can compete equally and fairly for the few opportunities of empowering themselves economically.
*Molaodi teaches Public Administration at the University of Botswana
