Towards the end of his presidency, Sir Ketumile Masire assembled a high powered team of individuals with the mandate to map out the kind of nation we aspired to be.
That team produced what came to be known as Vision 2016.
The team deliberately squared on 2016 as it would coincide with the time when Botswana would be celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Today we are four years away from realizing the goals we have set out for ourselves to achieve in 2016.
When Vision 2016 pillars were crafted the idea was to gaze at the future and imagine how our country would have transformed into an ideal 21st century society with major strides in all spheres, be they social, economic and or political.
With only four years to go it is befitting that we ponder the question: will the Botswana of the coming few years be a prosperous, caring and compassionate one where citizens are not only proud of their identity but  are economically empowered to meaningfully participate in the running of their economy?
In those four years remaining, are we going to see a Botswana where citizens are major players and drivers of the economy in the construction industry, the diamond industry, telecommunications, tourism and so forth? Our take is that on the economic front nothing has changed. And we cannot expect any miracles in the next four years.
If anything, given the indicators currently playing out the gap between the rich and poor will continue to widen. 
While there is nothing wrong with setting the bar high, we appear to have set ourselves very high targets which from the look of things we may never be able to realize especially in the absence of social cohesion, lack of localization of skills and our failure to diversify our economy. As it is many of the ideals as enshrined in Vision 2016 may just be pie in the sky.
At the moment there appears to be no ownership of our Vision by the majority of the citizenry. The vision does not seem to tick with anyone. We still harbour deep seated tribal prejudices where a minister finds nothing wrong in reminding others about their origins. We still have minority groups that are denied basic education in their mother tongue at their crucial developmental stages.
We have also failed dismally to produce an ‘educated and informed nation’ as per our aspirations on the Vision 2016 pillars. Illiteracy especially in the rural areas is a major problem.
Those that manage to excel at school are also saddled with the lack of unemployment.
It is also disturbing that while we aspire to be a regional internet hub, computer literacy remains a major challenge.
It would not be imprudent to conclude that the Vision2016 dream is like a dodo – dead because at this hour of our democracy we still have lawmakers who frown at the idea calling for a declaration of assets and liabilities.
The traditional system of ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ has been steadily collapsing ever since independence. ┬áWith our independence, we have employed methods which are alien to our Africanness and botho to address our social ills.
We are effectively in a dog-eat-dog world where materialism has given rise to the erosion of empathy towards those who are less privileged. We shun our culture and embrace those of others.
As a nation, we must seriously take stock of what we set out to achieve in our Vision 2016 and soberly admit that we are a thousand miles away from realizing our vision.
