Dear Comrade,
Most of our political leaders are not helping the stereotype that they are pathological liars. Honesty seems to be an even rarer commodity in America here, where a high premium seems to be placed on rhetoric. There is lots of bombastic language and carefully crafted images of a future that will ever only truly be approximated. I often watch the speeches in admiration, not of the content but the form. A scene is often evoked in my mind — that of President Museveni’s prologue in the 2016 Presidential Debate: “Now I am here to talk about Uganda, not about fiction. If you want fiction and a Nobel Prize for literature and composition, then you can talk the way you want to talk.” His own politics and political history aside, the concept is useful — fiction is a misdiagnosis of society’s challenges that inevitably results in maltreatment.
We’ve said before in this column that leaders ought to be solution providers — managers and doctors of society. They owe the people a vision and a direction where their countries ought to go. There’s a fine line between painting that vision and the audacious lies we sometimes hear. These lies are sometimes conscious. One particular American politician does it so effortlessly it's awe-inspiring. Most times, however, lies are a product of ignorance. Those who peddle them are driven by a justified frustration with the status quo. Frustration and righteous anger are not excuses to not interrogate issues well. They can’t herald socioeconomic transformation because they are not programs.
In the economy, these populists end up promising manna from heaven. I recall a student election in 2014. A chap walked into our classroom during night prep and promised that if we voted for him, he would change the only pit latrine we had in the school to a waterborne toilet. He very obviously didn’t have any regard for our intellect. But folks cheered and he waxed bolder about how he would increase the thickness of the chapatis sold in the school canteen. There was an uproar in the class. I stood there, stupefied. I was a newcomer, oblivious of the political dynamics of the school — how much power the prefect orate (student government) had vis-a-vis the school administration. I would later find out when I got the privilege to serve as both Assistant Head Prefect and Head Prefect. A few questions for this chap: How exactly was he going to get these things done? What power and leverage did he possess to effect any of these changes? He lost the election because he was indisciplined. The fellow was a populist proper. He could lie however because even if we elected him, we wouldn’t have held him accountable owing to the power dynamics between students in my alma mater. He was our senior, period.
In 2022, someone who could be held accountable ran for president. The man had been part of the system before as VP and instead of honesty — he chose half-truths. Populists have a thing for outsiderism. The strategy is to blame the guy in office and paint them as the sole hindrance to the country’s progress. The challenge with this is obvious. It is the classic problem of laughing at the old and frail. It is foolish because you will — hopefully — get there someday. Our man sided with the downtrodden and hardworking — 'the hustlers’. “Kazi ni Kazi” (work is work). He inherited — scratch that — changed roles in a country characteristic of most in Sub-Saharan Africa. Aid-dependent and neocolonial, with a political class draining the state's resources, much of the meager government revenue goes toward debt servicing — in short, a country rich in potential but poor in reality He failed to acknowledge this fact and instead chose to sell Disney fantasies to his electorate who stayed true and got him in. When it was time to do the accounting, the chickens came home to roost. If your public debt is already 78% of your GDP, the people — whom you promised heaven on earth as long as you are at the helm — now have to pay the price to enter the pearly gates of economic prosperity. If you are actively fighting the historical deficiencies of the American education system in teaching other geographies and histories, through self-education, you’ve probably seen the demonstrations in Kenya.
Many African leaders are yet to make peace with the fact that they have come of age at the wrong time — in the age of mediocrity. History has consigned them to being ‘mediocre’ leaders at best. Their aspirations seem circumscribed by the fact that they are presiding over poor countries in an economically hostile ocean full of sharks hell bent on keeping it that way. It’s not an excuse for bad performance but it should tame the rhetoric. We can’t blame these men for the circumstances of their birth. We can however hold them culpable for the promises they make. At all points, one must choose honesty. Cabral said, “Hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories.” But I don’t expect they have read him. How could they? Some are yet to be treated for bibliophobia.
Olemo Gordon Brian is a senior at Notre Dame studying political economy. He is deeply interested in Africa's development and the emancipation of man. You can contact Olemo at bolemo@nd.edu.
