Calling Leaders To Account

SOMETIMES I find it hard to understand what leaders of this country think of people they lead and their future. My frustration arose from recent topics in the New Era, Monday, 29 June 2009 titled: Nujoma pleads for Russian expertise and Education Minister challenge experts (researchers, scientists and development workers) to ‘take advantage of this enabling and innovatively contribute to addressing the development challenges that we as developing countries face’ (New Era).

What comes to my mind then is: so these leaders are aware of the dilemma we face as a country in terms of development, why then do they do nothing or very little to change the status quo? I wonder how many Namibian experts (in whatever form) were among those Minister Mbumba addressed at the launch of the Innovation for Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction towards an Enabling Environment for Systems of Innovation of Southern Africa (ISP-TEESA) programme last week. That makes me to further ask as to what the honourable Minister of the same Ministry that is to provide education and financial support to citizen to be ‘experts’ has been doing or done in that aspect. We know very well that becoming an ‘expert’ does not stop at the acquisition of first degrees, but goes to pursuing further studies in a particularly field. People have to acquire specialised knowledge and practice what they have learnt for them to be what the Minister calls ‘experts’. Yet, in Namibia we do not have a suitable support system providing for and grooming the highly industrious people we need and aspire to have as a country. Our leaders do a lot of lip-service to some of these important aspects. You can not just dream of becoming an engineer and the next day you wake up a practising one! You need to study and to study one needs money to pay for their studies! And this is where the leaders of this country are failing this nation, especially young citizens of this country.Secondly, I find myself perplexed by the way government particularly the ministry of education does business. If the aforesaid ministry is aware of the role ‘experts’ can play in developing the country, why don’t they take an active role in the successful implementation of many programmes and projects aimed at development that the ministry has crafted so far? Why not build local capacity in every field or area of study? We have built ourselves enabling and constraining environment that makes it difficult for our people from all walks of life to further their education. The principles of Education for all philosophy we adopted for at independence are not adhered to. Our national goals for education are not realised or practiced in totality at all levels (basic and higher). Many children of the have-nots and the least advantaged parents inclusive of a new class of orphans do not make it into tertiary institutions, and if they did, their study life will be a curse clouded by all misery as whether they will write their final examination or fears of their results withheld because of unpaid tuition fees. It is painful to see people who spent years in exile being fed, schooled and clothed free of charge by charitable organisation and caring countries do the opposite to their own people. One will assume we have learnt from that experience. Why do we forget so easily? This country has become a fort of hypocrites and professional liars. As leaders, you fail to put proper financial support mechanisms in place for young people to study for those critical areas and then you call for expertise from foreign countries? Do you know how much they spent on their citizens’ education to have cohorts of various experts in various fields? Do you think those countries took the same approaches and strategies towards funding education? Do you think they made it difficult for their citizen to secure bursaries, scholarship and study loans? The answer is no, they invested in funding people to further their studies in critical areas where they lack expertise. They have created lucrative bursaries to attract people in certain areas of study. They secured scholarship opportunities with interested parties to send their nationals to be trained elsewhere with strict conditions to come and invest back in the country. They also probably put in place study loans accessible to as many students as possible for them to further their studies. They created an ‘enabling environment’ as the Minister of education put it with conducive conditions to enable their citizens to acquire the education needed for their countries. An education that made those citizens to ‘innovatively contribute to the development of their own countries and address developmental challenges in developing countries like Namibia, yes an education that made them to be hired as consultants in countries that do not invest in their citizens such as Namibia. Is it not bad enough to scrap bursaries for your own citizens and when you are offered 100 bursaries by South Africa you forget? You claim not to want to run the country on a non-profit basis yet you forget offers like that and then you have the courage to plead for expertise. The same ministry returned a huge amount of money back to state coffers, while schools are in dilapidated conditions and thousands of Namibians sit at home scrambling for odd jobs in Chinese shops and shebeens because they cannot secure funding for their further studies! Where is the logic here? Honestly ignorance and hypocrisy is going to sink us all deep if we do not do anything about the state of affairs in this country.The Minister of Education called on developing countries to ‘change the way they do business if they have to tackle new challenges with a global dimension’ Very true and very sweet talk indeed! What I would like to know is particularly what Namibia as a country and particularly the Ministry of Education are doing in that regard? What is the ministry doing to ensure that issues of environment, sustainable development and wealth creation is genuinely dealt with in a proactive manner? How are science, technology and innovation promoted at grassroots level (rural schools and communities) to play a role in the development of this country?I am ashamed by the ‘careless’ attitude the leaders of this country, especially ‘young’ political leaders. Why are they so quiet about the plight of young Namibians? Do they really not know and cannot see how young Namibians are struggling to make ends meet? Do they not see how many young people are thrown in the streets by the education system every year? Are they not aware of the discriminatory conditions that make study loans not accessible to all to pursue further studies and become ‘experts’? Are these leaders not in touch with the realities at grassroots levels where the majority of the destitute youth lives? I challenge the likes of Peya Mushelenga, Pohamba Shifeta, Juliet Kavetuna to showcase what they have done to the youth since they got into parliament on the youth majority’s ticket! Comrades, are you finding it difficult to influence bills and laws that will transform the lives of young people and make things possible for them? I honestly beg for answers!Namibia is a signatory to many treaties, co-operation, programmes, projects and the likes, globally, continentally and regionally, yet the actual manifestation and impact of those well-aimed interventions are still to be seen and felt by grassroots people. I know many will arguably refer me to ETSIP, which to me though holds potential to transform the current state of education, does not solve our problems without the human factor – capacity, commitment and required leadership. Our educational problems in Namibia do not lie in the policies and programmes we put in place (we are very good in this area, ofcourse thanks to the consultants!) but in the leadership and management capacities to guide and take informed decisions that transform our people’s lives at grassroots level. ETSIP need necessary leadership and skilful educational managers who do not shy away from realities and conditions that taints and inhibit the successful implementation and realisations of our well planned initiatives. It is high time for our leaders to stop lip-service and implement all the good policies and programmes we have created as a nation since independence. It is high time we produce our own experts, and we can only do that by building our local capacity by providing bursaries and scholarship and loans to people to further their studies. 19 years is quite enough to have done much better and we should stop blaming history for not doing enough to transform the educational capacity of our citizens to the level which they can fully develop this country. It’s high time for our leaders to walk the talk and stop fooling around with chit-chat of history this and history that! I rest my case!Kaanandunge ka Shikongo Omusati region