I would like to ask or wish, that the main opposition party that were recently the sitting government, would rethink their position as the government-in-waiting, because, as they well know, ever so often the people clamour for change and are not always patient and sometimes act before they think, or can be easily persuaded to do someone else’s bidding.
Granted that over the last few years there have been several changes of Government and that seems trendy for every five years, they must not take for granted that this trend will always continue.
I say so based on their last tenure in power during which many of their actions and policies were questionable, and in some cases people wondered if their philosophy and governing modules were in their interest.
To this point if you were the Government and at the end of the last general election your party was not only rejected but badly beaten to the point that only two of your candidates won their seats, this should tell you, in no uncertain terms, that the people disapproved of your way of governance or policy direction.
To this end rather than to continue to shoot arrows in the air or try to find loopholes in everything this government does, you should get indoors and have a true and honest assessment of your style of governance. You ought to assess if some of your projects were top-heavy or unrealistic or maybe carried out in an ad hoc manner that gave rise or left opportunity for manipulation, malice and other things …
You have to determine if some of your ministers were corrupt, used some of the projects for personal or only self-interest, if the word ‘cash cow’ has merit and if your advisors, or legal team had the country’s interest in mind. And if you were to be re-elected, would you govern as you did prior, have the same head of establishments, or even the same leader.
All these factors and reasons must be debated and analyzed to come up to the decisive reasons why your party was rejected. It cannot be let’s continue without self-assessment, you cannot continue without accepting blame. Have you decided what you will not do again, and if re-elected, who you ought not to trust in the party, who you gave too much power, or autonomy, or who are some of the people responsible for the downfall of the party?
Do you think that the governance of tomorrow should be as yesteryears? Don’t you not think there should be a new thrust towards development? Don’t you think that borrowing plenty can become a noose? Don’t you think that wasted funds could have been saved, or that there was too much duplication, or unrealistic and unnecessary stoppage of some projects? Do you not think that some of the external consultants screwed you up? Do you really understand the needs of the people, or the country? Do you shake hands and accept the development plans of all want-to-be investors? Do you think you had enough stringent measures in place to safeguard the government against unscrupulous behavior, and so forth, and so on?
My point is you need to go back to the drawing board. As the saying goes, ‘wheel and come again’, because you cannot expect to do as you did in the past and regain the people’s confidence. If you and your party must remain relevant, I suggest you re-examine the horns and be realistic with your findings, call a spade a spade and stop running government on favours and appointing misfits.
This is my wish: that you guys check yourselves. Criticize when it becomes necessary but stop running behind every bone and stop seeing only faults with this regime, and start thinking of new ideas, new methods of governance, as well as new people at the helm of the party, to make the party create new dreams, new thinkers, persons with new visions. It should not be about who gets the credits if it benefits the country and stop wallowing in the past, stop slinging mud just too muddy the waters and offer us a better alternative and a brighter vision.
Stop dealing with sour grapes when you fall or fail, instead you should stand up and start again, but avoid the old pitfalls, and get rid of the misfits. And never take for granted the thinking that “the people don’t know what they want” and can be given a six for a nine.
And last of all, too many parrots all repeating the same nonsensical comments, over and repeatedly. Like I said earlier, just “Wheel and come again!”