There is a West African proverb that has been imported into Lexicology and was made famous by the American President Roosevelt in 1900; ‘Speak softly and carry a big stick’.
This gave birth to what is now referred to as Big Stick Diplomacy, the essence of which is that success is more likely when a non-confrontational approach is adopted yet everyone else involved knows that you have a more forceful option at your disposal.
This is the position the Gen Z protests seemed to have the government in, yet diplomacy, the first component of statecraft was not employed. Statecraft is defined as the art of conducting government affairs, with the purpose of checking the selfish ends of human nature and building a strong nation that protects the possessions of its people.
Statecraft consists of four basic elements, the first is diplomacy; this is management of relationships, whether internal or international and comprises representative negotiations and communication.
In a continent of 54 countries that currently have 35 ongoing violent conflicts, the need for better diplomacy cannot be downplayed. However, this can only happen if there are designated negotiators from all sides involved.
The Gen Z protesters however were unable to designate or produce effective parties for negotiations.
The second aspect of statecraft is strategies aimed at the disciplined forces and reactionary teams or goons, and how to protect the citizens from violence and excesses that accompany such protests.
The protesters made great attempts to record and broadcast violations; however, the follow-up with legal and human rights advocacy has been less successful.
The number of deaths resulting from the Gen Z protests is estimated at between 40 and 60 persons. By comparison, in Venezuela post-election protests are said to have caused 24 deaths. While in Bangladesh similar protests recorded over 300 deaths.
In all these cases, it was a great national tragedy, that those people were mostly killed by security forces.
Economic policy is the third and essential part of statecraft.
The protests started with the call for rejection of the Finance Bill, 2024, a tool the government uses to raise revenue and borrowings against its intended expenditure.
With the robust protests and subsequent withdrawal of the Bill, there have been no alternative suggestions on fiscal, monetary or trade policy that could be adopted instead for sustainable development.
Some of the Finance Bill's budget items singled out in the protests underwent review but there has been no active continuous engagement between the parties. Maybe this is once again due to an absence of structured leadership with supporting back office.
The last component of statecraft is governance. This is defined as the system by which a country is controlled and operates and the mechanism by which its people are held to account.
The aspects of governance most complained about were the principles of the officials and the non-compliance to processes, with wanting performance being the centre stage.
This resulted in a disbanded cabinet, which is the apex tool for government policy, and the proposal of a new cabinet with divergent centres of political powers. This is envisaged to give better consensus-oriented and participatory policies.
In lieu of the protesters having no format to engage in, this opportunity of inclusion into the cabinet fell to the political party that spearheaded protests last year and suffered an even greater loss of lives by their supporters.
The demography favours the youth, who comprise the majority of the Gen Z protesters, when it comes to competitive politics, with an estimated 67 per cent of them being eligible voters.
They have however not been able to take advantage of this despite 80 per cent of the unemployed being in their age bracket.
A better collaborative thought-out action plan informed by an understanding of the intricacy of statecraft plus having a visionary leadership would make such protests more successful.
As once said by Deng Xiaoping, the leader of China credited with his country's tenfold economic growth, one needs to focus on practical outcomes – ‘It doesn’t matter whether the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.’
