Human beings have a tendency of misusing what's available in plenty. Mahatma Gandhi's memorable words that there's enough for everybody's needs but not a single one for anybody's greed comes to mind.
Ironically, those who bear the blame are those tasked with leading during the times of austerity following a meltdown. At Independence, the few who spoke loudly about abuse of office and public trust had their voices drowned in the cacophony of the new-found ‘freedom’, their calls hardly registered.
The problem is that with the normalisation of looting, soon people were made to believe that it was a way of life and would scramble to have their turn on the dining table, thus the birth of ethnic mobilisation.
Society therefore expects much from public servants both for themselves and the people, a euphemism for theft. Today, we are grappling with acute existential challenges of our time, partly brought about by human-induced missteps.
As a consequence, unpredictable, devastating weather patterns have become commonplace and no longer merely threaten but wreak havoc on our lives. This has affected food systems and negatively impacted our healthcare.
But because of our collective amnesia or proclivity to look for ready coffee as solutions, we prescribe and design applications that don't go far enough or are themselves conduits for corruption.
The systematic systemic destructions have brought us to a point where bold steps are inescapable if we have to remain afloat. But our toxic politics will not allow for thorough introspection. Politicians know that people are gullible and want ready remedies so they continue prescribing antidotes that are sweet to the ear but yield nothing tangible in terms of resolving the problems.
It is on this score that I find current talks between the opposition and government ill-advised. At a time when the opposition should be tracking every amount the government is receiving and spending, apart from offering alternative policy and legal proposals, they are more concerned about how they can be incorporated into government.
Apart from reconstituting the IEBC, the other agenda items are backroom manoeuvres for getting a slice of the cake. The sugar-coated but sweeping statements such as exclusivity are meant to justify the grumbling and disorient the government.
Skewed representation in government has been a recurring theme every time there's a new government. We seem not to know how to solve it but more importantly, we refuse to call out the culprit— our broken political system and culture that revolve around ethnicity.
We can do all the talk but if we don't mobilise differently the results we get won't be any different: More rewards will go to people who identify with the government of the day. While the Constitution paints a glowing picture about where we should go, it creates unhealthy competition and unmatched expectations that keeps us litigating anything and everything.
Economic and political analyst
