Issues of development aren’t trivial for one not to meditate upon. For everyone whose sanity and intellect is in the right frame, making a profound evaluation of one’s past is a step in righting the past mistakes.
After 50 years of independence and more than 20 years of democracy, signs that Malawi will develop are not easily apparent.
Development has numerous facets and in judging development of a country, one has to answer these questions right; how many facets of development have developed, how many have shrunk and by how much?
Infrastructure, health, education, economic balance, governance and GDP per capita top the development benchmarks list. We, the citizenry, have every reason to appreciate the situation we are sailing our nation through and, therefore, better placed to give it a better direction.
Our road infrastructure is poorer compared to our neighbours. Potholes define the roads and it’s a pity that we are used to them and happily maintaining the same roads yearly. Where will this take us to? Isn’t it retrogressive?
The planners of Mzuzu City erected an airport in the central business district, eventually hindering construction of skyscrapers that may in the end block aircrafts. Where will the city expand to?
The health sector is not spared. Just recently, one clinical officer made a daft diagnosis of a sick infant. In this day and age, should Malawians shudder every time they get sick because they may end up being specimens of a wrong diagnosis? To be frank, ineptness of a health practitioner is as threatening as murder. How can a country develop if taxpayers foot one’s school expenses and the beneficiary comes out of school half-baked? What a dismal investment!
If politics and universities are always not on the same page, how would we improve the quality of our products, the graduates? When students dream of being employed than to employ, how will we drop the rampant unemployment level to the lowest degree possible? Who will employ those people who haven’t been to the university? We better save our mindset from myopic thinking.
Do we see light at the end of the tunnel that someday our economy will stabilise just for a year? I doubt. Our Kwacha gains value only when we are selling our gold leaf, tobacco. Although farming employs 80 percent of the workforce, investing in it has proved to be risky. When will tobacco prices begin to transform lives of ordinary Malawians? Maybe we should hold our patience.
Our GDP per capita largely reflects a nation that has done everything it can to get listed among the poorest countries in the world. Do we see any tangible signs of moving out of this unenviable group? Our actions hold the microphone.
How can we develop if government business is abused inexplicably? It is common knowledge that, mostly, if one has a business that supplies goods to government; it is quite obvious that some political games have been played. Because of this precedence, quality of goods supplied and services rendered are not getting any better.
How will Malawi develop if government top brass Cashgate our peanuts all year round mercilessly? Instead of making developmental decisions, they are busy siphoning the non entities’ only hope. Is that a step ahead? Or a back slide?
Unless we turn our list of priorities right and start making sound decisions, we will have a grip on the status quo we seem to be proud of.
