It has become a clich├® over the years to make a big issue of how Botswana has been a role model and a case of exceptionalism in Africa when it comes to the country’s success in unity, tolerance, diversity, nation building and multiculturalism, when put side by side with other African countries, more especially in the sub-region.
It must be said, however, that to overemphasise Botswana’s successes in these areas is actually to underestimate the amount of ground work that still needs to be done.
There is no time for complacency.
Dwelling too much on our successes can lead to a terrible belief among ourselves as a nation that we have conquered all there was need to.
The truth of the matter is that there are still a lot of things that need to be addressed.
There are simmering issues of ethnic exclusion. They cannot be postponed for ever.
Landlessness among our people is an issue that we continue to ignore. The truth is we only do it at our own peril. Poverty is a scourge we cannot allow, as is the case with inequality, unemployment and low levels of citizen economic empowerment.
When the embers of landlessness finally go ablaze as they have done elsewhere in Africa, this country will pay a very heavy price that would even reverse the gains we have made over the years.
Overall, there is no doubt that strides have been made, but there are many underlying risks, many of them simply just too profound as to discount what progress has been made in many areas of uniting this country into a solid, one nation that can stand all the test of disunity as seen from other countries in the region.
There are questions for example, bizarrely left out of in our public discourse pertaining to why, since independence, it would seem like power has been vested largely in the northern parts of the country, obviously at the subtle but potentially problematic exclusion of the south. These too have to be addressed, or else a lunatic will one day come into the scene and take advantage of it all.
That is how Hitler came into power in Germany. He did not steal elections, he did not kill his way into power, rather he used his rhetorical prowess to capitalize on already existing national variances that had stayed too long without being addressed.
Since independence, it has been a deliberate policy of Botswana government to make sure that all natural resources belong to all Batswana.
While other countries have gone different routes to allow tribes where such resources are found to own those resources at the exclusion of everybody else, Botswana policy, most succinctly pronounced by the founding President Sir Seretse Khama and land later given more intellectual impetus by President Festus Mogae has served this country exceptionally well. This policy should not be taken for granted. The nation needs to be continually reminded of its potency, especially how well it has thus far served this country exceptionally well.
It, therefore, does not sit well with those of us who do not take national unity for granted to hear calls by some tribes openly demanding that certain resources in their areas should be reserved for them at the exclusion of other Batswana.
What will become of this country for example if people in Botletli were, god forbid, to demand that proceeds from diamonds extracted from areas like Orapa, Letlhakane and Damtshaa mines to be of their exclusive use?
What, for example, will become of Botswana if people around Jwaneng mine, who sacrificed their grazing areas to make way for the mine were all of a sudden to demand total and exclusive ownership of that mine and all that comes from it?
These are difficult questions, which thankfully the government of Botswana long ago set a very strong foundation to answer by determining that natural resources belong to the state and that the government would use proceeds from therein to develop the entire country.
This is not to say genuine concerns as those raised by people of Tlokweng, who because of their proximity to the capital city have paid a price higher than many of us as they had to give away sizeable chunks of their land to the state for national use, should not receive unique attention from authorities.
Imagination, innovation and creativity are needed to answer these new challenges.
In answering these challenges, it is, however, absolutely imperative that we do not take our eyes off the ball, which is nation building, national unity, and allowing ourselves as a people to continue existing in our strand of Unity in Diversity that has become the envy of the world over the years.
