In this write up, it is imperative to look at what development is? Development means different things to different people at different times and disciplines. This means depending on the person’s background of knowledge, time, and environment, development is defined to suit them. To the layman’s understanding, whatever is done to improve the quality of lives of human, other living things and the environment as a whole is development. It is true that human beings by our nature don’t want to accept the responsibility of our actions or inactions/mistakes. I cannot pretend to say that this phenomenon started from this generation or this country. It is as old as Adam and Eve. When Adam and Eve ate the forbidding fruit, none was ready to accept the responsibility. As if they knew that, admitting their sin could land them into punishment. Each of them tried as hard that they could to fix the blame to the other. Adam said he was misled by Eve, she also said she was deceived by Satan. If Allah had asked Satan, he would have a convincing reason why he did that. Allah in His wisdom did not go further. He stopped at that point and past judgement.
WHO IS RESPOSIBLE? – POLITICAL LEADERS, IMF or WORLD BANK?
With time, everything is possible. Countries that are able to leapfrog from developing countries to developed countries did so on a solid change of attitude and collective responsibility. Example of these countries are China, Singapore, Taiwan, etc. They are called Asian Tigers. They didn’t receive loans nor grants from these Briton Wood Institutions. It took a collective responsibilityand change of attitude of all citizens.
We are quick to blame our political leaders for doing little or nothing for the development of the country or Africa. I’m not here to defend any political leader. Let that be done by their parties’ communicators or serial callers. The business of this write up is not to either praise or condemn NPP or NDC. These two political parties belong to the same father but different mothers or similar cars with different number plates. I cannot expect citizens who have retentive memories of all the things that they were promised by these politicians in opposition to water down their expectations with blink of eyes. In opposition, they say all manner of things in order to win elections. They make citizens into believing that the sitting government is sole responsible for the development of the country. They (opposition leaders) and the rest of us are mere spectators. In some instances, opposition leaders in their quest to grab power, make people into believing that worse conditions like high temperature and drought which are direct effects of climate change are the legitimate outcomes of the sitting government’s incompetence.
However, in every society, there can never be bad leaders without bad citizens (followers). These perceived bad leaders are subsets of the society. In fact, there is a direct and positive relationship between the attitude of the followers and the leaders of communities. In most cases, followers are more powerful than the leaders. This is because, citizens produce leaders but leaders don’t produce citizens. Perhaps, the only difference between these followers and leaders on corruption is the degree and kind, but not the form. Leaders do it at the macro scale and followers do it at the micro scale. For us to develop as a nation, sub-region or continent, let’s change our attitudes of how we defend or condemn these political leaders. If truth comes from an enemy’s mouth, it doesn’t make it a lie and the opposite is the true case.
Author: Mohammed Hamid
Phone: 0242541297
Email: hamid71976@yahoo.com
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