State Of The Nation Address Needs Faces
By: NDUMBA J KAMWANYAHPRESIDENT Hifikepunye Pohamba’s 2013 State of the Nation address on 3 April 2013 was powerful, too long, and heavy on policy content.
It was also an address that bordered on creating high expectations and over-promising. But if what you heard sounded familiar, you are not alone! This is because the President’s address contained nothing new, but a laundry list of old ideas and proposals, suggesting that Namibia is still faced with the same old problems. Neither did it contain ‘zingers’, as Americans would refer to shocking and revealing information.
However, the President offered some worthy ideas pertaining to the importance of the “information and communication technology sector to the socio-economic development of our country.” I agree. The sky is a limit when it comes to technology. Therefore, if carefully planned and implemented, information and communication technology would indeed help speed our way to achieving Vision 2030. As an addendum note to that, however, the emphasis should not be on consumption, as the President’s speech seems to suggest, but rather on citizens’ capabilities and creative energies. Put differently, let’s use the advent provided by technology (especially the new technology) to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, especially among the youth. Equally, to give credit where it’s due, the government must also be commended for the introduction of bold measures such as the National Integrated Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation System as well as the ‘Growth at Home’ approach.
The major news from the President’s speech is probably the knowledge that the nation’s unemployment figure has changed dramatically dropped from 51 percent to 27 percent. The market forces behind this rapid decline in unemployment are still unknown, but something the government is doing (or not doing) must be working. Though I would have loved to hear the President outline and spell out specific details about how he plans to tackle the country’s unemployment, especially with regard to improving the implementation of TIPEEG, a programme whose implementation process we now know has been shaky right from the start.
That said, my interest here is to talk about the other face of the state of the nation address which was lacking – a phenomenon that started long ago with President Sam Nujoma but also prevails at all levels of our government and private sector – from the President’s speech. Every state of the nation address usually has two faces: A policy and personal face. The policy side supposedly is objective, impersonal and portrays the actions of the state (or lack of it) in terms of what the government has done or is going to do. The personal face, you may call it the everyday life, on the other hand has to do with the stories, hopes and aspirations of the ordinary citizens. The nub of it is that the state of the nation is not only about policy prescription but also a forum (through his observation and interaction with the citizens) to inspire, invite and showcase the resiliency of citizens at national, regional, local, community and individual level.
The President thanked the Parliament and the security forces yet he did not find time in his address to thank an eye doctor who is doing wonders with old people, a pilot instructor who is devoting his time to teaching other Namibians to fly planes, a villager who is making sure that the community has water, and teachers and nurses who are doing their very best in a trying environment. Nor did the state of the nation speech acknowledge the resilience of the men and women of sport, who are marketing Namibia’s good name at home and abroad.
More importantly, as the country is reeling from the devastating effects of violence against women and children, with some of the killing reportedly having occurred in the run-up to the state of the nation address, the President should have invoked, even with a single name, the victims or their families in order to make an emotional public appeal against violence against women. It is against this backdrop that the state of the nation address over-focused on policy matters alone and made the President appear too mechanical and detached from everyday reality.