Go for leaders with economic interests at heart
By PD columnist, July 27, 2022The ongoing political contest has been framed as a battle of wits as the various contenders prosecute their manifestos. What is evident is there seems to be a convergence of sorts as to the issues bedevilling the country—unemployment, rising national debt, access to healthcare, cost of living, distribution of the so-called national cake, the gender agenda and many more.
The economic proposition has been framed as trickle-down versus the bottom-up philosophy as the underlying model to guide strategies of the contenders when they become in charge of government policies and expenditure. Some equally novel agrarian approaches have been proposed, too. An ethical and family centred approach is also in the ring.
It is interesting to observe the consensus that is building on the issues that need to be resolved. It is also noteworthy there is a realisation that the resources available to run the country are limited to a large extent and what is needed is a good set of leaders who will be innovative, efficient, creative and who will go the extra mile to ensure they optimise positive outcomes required to address the issues that need resolution.
A maturing organisation, and in this case nation, should be united in what needs to be done. Aspiring leaders should then compete on the methods of achieving a common set of objectives and resolving shared challenges. This means, elections are not so much of who but more of the plan. The reason for our actions, the motivation of our intervention should be the same; the good of the country.
The identification of the purpose of existence and issues facing a county is thus an integral part of resolving the issues. In fact, the issues and purpose of existence must unite us.
As a country, it is important the methodology of identifying and quantifying the challenges and goals be as objective as possible. This will then mean recruitment and placement of leaders to drive performance towards achievement of the goals and resolving the challenges is based not on knowledge of the issues but ability to harness the wherewithal and lead the team towards expending a collective effort to solve the challenges and meat the goal.
When leaders reduce the contest to fault-finding, name-calling, witch-hunting, weeping of tribal emotions and animosity, religious intolerance and the now en vogue mass hysteria and crowd-pulling as a show of leadership prowess, some objectivity is lost and the issues that should be mainstreamed are given less priority. That is how leaders then get away with sweeping and non-committal pledges, carefully crafted to win the vote only to be discarded after the elections.
Any plan for the future must take account of the past and the present. Disregarding the past and the present predisposes the future to the risk of repeating avoidable mistakes.
The release of the 2022 economic survey by the government, for example, could not have come at a more opportune time. The survey has laid bare critical information on performance of various sectors of the economy, indicating which ones have grown, stagnated or contracted, ascribing values of measurement and percentage changes.
Aspirants for national and county offices have access to baseline data from where they can build contextual programmes on the basis of current economic realities. The data provides the think tanks of the various contenders with uniform data from whence they can build ideologies, plans, strategies and philosophies to make the economy better.
The report thus provides a unifying factor to all, including those who even dispute its findings. Just as in academic merit exams where candidates are graded after answering similar questions, the survey report gives Kenyans an opportunity to frame the economic question for the country and counties, which question must then be answered by each aspiring leader.
Leaders in noncompetitive positions and opinion-shaping platforms such as the media and scholars and even the electorate should require of the aspirants a clear answer to the economic baseline data as reported in the survey. Holding leaders to account on sweeping and utopian promises and statements is now possible. Election debates, various talk shows and town hall meetings should engage aspirants based on this report. This will ensure voters are well appraised of the capacity and ability of the aspiring leaders to understand and design programmes that will improve the economic wellbeing of all Kenyans.
Whenever we find ourselves arguing as to what is wrong instead of how to solve the wrong, then we are in a bigger problem. Indeed, a problem has been half solved if it has been clearly articulated.
— The writer is Managing Partner-Africa Social Financing Centre — davis.tayo@africasocialfinance.com