State Of The Nation Disappoints

BOTH the questions and the answers in the session at the end of the State of the Nation address by President Hifikepunye Pohamba yesterday, left a lot to be desired.

Not all the opposition parties stood up to ask questions, and it is unfortunate that they did not maximise the use of this once-a-year opportunity or failed to make enough of the occasion. One of the more significant questions came from Congress of Democrats (CoD) leader, Ben Ulenga, who asked, among others, for the President’s viewpoint on the Zimbabwe human rights issue and reasons why the size of the Cabinet could not be trimmed.The President’s replies were disappointing.On the former, namely Zimbabwe, the President’s retort to Ulenga was to ‘come and see me in my office’ as he was not prepared to publicly discuss a matter which had been on the agenda of the recent SADC heads of state summit.The point of this question-and-answer session is surely to test the President in the eyes of the public in what is a rare and unusual occasion in this country, and the Head of State shows why this happens far less than it should! He surely should be equipped to deal with queries, rather than to solely dish out prepared texts because they represent a comfort zone.This was most unsatisfactory.The second point of the CoD leader’s question was the request to consider trimming the size of the Cabinet, which is widely acknowledged to be bigger, and therefore more expensive, than necessary for a country the size of ours.Again the President retorted simply that he had ‘no intention’ of cutting back, but he offered no reasons or justification or argument for that matter, to back up his categorical stance in this regard.The State of the Nation address itself, although probably quite an intensive analysis of the various Ministries and issues, was delivered in a way that failed to capture the attention of the audience, as was the case last year.Again the President shouldn’t, at this juncture of our history, be tentative in his approach.In addressing the issue of Government’s commitment to reduce poverty and create jobs, for example, the President talked about everything but whether we are succeeding or not in these goals.That’s what the nation needs to hear, and not things like ‘we want to proceed speedily but cautiously and our development agenda aims at achieving lasting outcomes …’ We need to hear him talk with much more urgency and immediacy about the problems we face and how to tackle them.Katuutire Kaura of the DTA wasted his question opportunity by asking, among others, about the State’s capacity to perform operations where those in need tended to make public appeals to raise money for surgeries outside the borders.This was a question which could easily be asked at any point in Parliament of the Health Minister.President Pohamba also, in so many words, described Chief Kuaima Riruako’s question/s as unintelligible, but then still went on to answer him for at least five minutes.Although much of what he said showed that homework had been done, the President did not himself address the most central question of the afternoon’s Parliamentary session, which was, plain and simple: What IS the state of our nation at present? I am not sure that Namibians are any the wiser after the speech.It was an invaluable opportunity for the Head of State to try and galvanise the nation into action on all fronts, whether it is to create employment opportunities, fight the scourge of corruption; combat HIV; or minimise poverty.In simple terms, he has failed to do so.It is a great pity, for he, of all our political leadership, could influence and mobilise the country in the most crucial areas of development and take us forward by sketching his vision and making us all want to follow.One of the more significant questions came from Congress of Democrats (CoD) leader, Ben Ulenga, who asked, among others, for the President’s viewpoint on the Zimbabwe human rights issue and reasons why the size of the Cabinet could not be trimmed.The President’s replies were disappointing.On the former, namely Zimbabwe, the President’s retort to Ulenga was to ‘come and see me in my office’ as he was not prepared to publicly discuss a matter which had been on the agenda of the recent SADC heads of state summit.The point of this question-and-answer session is surely to test the President in the eyes of the public in what is a rare and unusual occasion in this country, and the Head of State shows why this happens far less than it should! He surely should be equipped to deal with queries, rather than to solely dish out prepared texts because they represent a comfort zone.This was most unsatisfactory.The second point of the CoD leader’s question was the request to consider trimming the size of the Cabinet, which is widely acknowledged to be bigger, and therefore more expensive, than necessary for a country the size of ours.Again the President retorted simply that he had ‘no intention’ of cutting back, but he offered no reasons or justification or argument for that matter, to back up his categorical stance in this regard.The State of the Nation address itself, although probably quite an intensive analysis of the various Ministries and issues, was delivered in a way that failed to capture the attention of the audience, as was the case last year.Again the President shouldn’t, at this juncture of our history, be tentative in his approach.In addressing the issue of Government’s commitment to reduce poverty and create jobs, for example, the President talked about everything but whether we are succeeding or not in these goals.That’s what the nation needs to hear, and not things like ‘we want to proceed speedily but cautiously and our development agenda aims at achieving lasting outcomes …’ We need to hear him talk with much more urgency and immediacy about the problems we face and how to tackle them.Katuutire Kaura of the DTA wasted his question opportunity by asking, among others, about the State’s capacity to perform operations where those in need tended to make public appeals to raise money for surgeries outside the borders.This was a question which could easily be asked at any point in Parliament of the Health Minister.President Pohamba also, in so many words, described Chief Kuaima Riruako’s question/s as unintelligible, but then still went on to answer him for at least five minutes.Although much of what he said showed that homework had been done, the President did not himself address the most central question of the afternoon’s Parliamentary session, which was, plain and simple: What IS the state of our nation at present? I am not sure that Namibians are any the wiser after the speech.It was an invaluable opportunity for the Head of State to try and galvanise the nation into action on all fronts, whether it is to create employment opportunities, fight the scourge of corruption; combat HIV; or minimise poverty.In simple terms, he has failed to do so.It is a great pity, for he, of all our political leadership, could influence and mobilise the country in the most crucial areas of development and take us forward by sketching his vision and making us all want to follow.