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by Alagi Yorro Jallow.
Fatoumatta: I have been reflecting on these presidential candidates who are busy promising the youth and the poor public money in the (unlikely) event that they make president. As a career learner, I wanted to know which part of our public finance legal and regulatory regime allows the president to give any person public money. Finally, I have a pen and paper ready to take notes.
The visionary leader is sufficiently altruistic to care about others besides themselves. S/he, at the very least, “stands for something,” mainly the amelioration of the conditions of underprivileged, marginalized, or oppressed groups. The self-seeking “leader” may convey the impression that he cares for others, but deep down, s/he looks out for no interests except their own.
The narcissistic streak in the power-obsessed “leader” shows up at various stages. When canvassing for an important position, the entrepreneur-leader makes promises s/he very well know s/he cannot fulfill. Standing for absolutely nothing (except personal survival and advancement), the self-obsessed “leader” switches party allegiances at will and is dictated by momentary power considerations.
The visionary leader enjoys the followers’ spontaneous loyalty, thanks to the latter’s favorable rating of the leader’s strength of character, tenacity, judgment, and other unique attributes. The self-seeking leader may also engender solid emotional reactions from their followers.
Fatoumatta: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States during the Great Depression. In response to the worst economic crisis in US history, he implemented his New Deal domestic agenda. A fundamental part of this deal involved putting money in the pockets of impoverished Americans in a manner that did not impugn their dignity. To that end, he sanctioned State programs that paid one group of men to dig up holes in the morning and another group to fill them up in the afternoon. Of course, neither group knew what the other did. However, they all derived immense satisfaction from earning what they believed to be paid for an important national exercise.
From time immemorial, human beings have been defined by the work they did. The etymology of names like Smith and Tailor stemmed from the occupations of those who bore them. A great work ethic was an admirable and desirable character and was often touted as the sure pathway to success. The same obtains today so that in virtually every culture across the globe, hard work is celebrated and, in most cases, rewarded commensurately.
Therefore it flies in the face of popular convention for leading politicians in the Gambia to attempt to suborn the youth with promises of free lunches if elected after December 4, 2021, presidential election. A presidential candidate has promised to direct national funding to the bottom of the pyramid in a bottom-up economic model. Presumptively, the youth will be the greatest beneficiaries of this model, never mind that they have been given short shrift in an administration the candidate is a part of. Another has proposed a welfare system where every unemployed youth will be given a monthly stipend of an unspecified amount monthly. Unfortunately, he is a little economical with facts on where the money will come from. The economy is on its knees due to gross mismanagement.
Fatoumatta: Like Roosevelt’s America, the Gambia is facing its worst economic crisis ever. The only difference is that whereas intractable global events occasioned America, the Gambia’s has been precipitated by grand corruption and incompetent leadership. A surfeit of pie in the sky promises have not yielded the promised economic nirvana. Pledges to put the youth at the center of action have proved illusory. Their usefulness rarely extends beyond the ballot box, forgotten until the next election cycle when campaign promises come in fast and furious again.
This incoming December 4 presidential election presents the youth with an opportunity to break from the past. At the election of 2016, almost 46 percent of registered voters in Kenya were 18-29 years old. This election cycle will comprise more than half of the electoral register. This speaks to the fearsome power that they wield within their hands if only they realized it. It is possible to fill the top tiers of leadership from within their ranks if two things happened: They registered en masse and, secondly, came out on election day to vote. This is why the apathy towards current national registration exercises must be a cause for concern for every right-thinking Gambia. Understandably, the political class has strung the youth for far too long, so that despondency has become their default position. However, it is within their hands to upset the current political order and usher in one that truly reflects their hopes and aspirations.
Perhaps the second step towards that end, after registration as voters, is to develop their accounting metric by which they can gauge prospective candidates. This would help debunk the established political order embellished success tales even when everything around them points to systemic failures.
Unfortunately, the challenges mentioned above rarely get the attention of the position-fixated “leader.” Where the visionary leader values service and citizen welfare, the transactional leader is interested solely in power.
Without leadership, society or its parts will be unable to envision a willed future or translate its dream into preferred outcomes. Instead, without leadership, a dream will remain just that, or even worse, fantasies of a distant and unreachable world. When the youth variable is tagged onto it, leadership turns into a subject with a comprehensive and exciting connotation. The idea of the youth in leadership positions spontaneously interrogates the concept of leadership and the tests that the presidential aspirants would have to pass to qualify as genuine leaders. A visionary leader distinguishes themselves from self-seeking transactional leaders by fully grasping the challenges confronting society or an organization and developing innovative and effective remedies. Examples of the difficulties are cultism in government and institutions and within the putative leadership class, endemic corruption, rising incidence of crime, mass, and graduate unemployment, terrorism, kidnapping, and sundry threats to public order.
When s/he acquires the power, the transactional leader rules over his subjects. However, at the same time, his visionary counterpart governs in the interest of all. However, the followers’ loyalty to a self-seeking leader will depend on the leader’s dexterity in the alternation of the carrot and the stick, his/her continued hold on the power of patronage, and the followers’ inability or reluctance to wean themselves of dependence on a “beneficent,” “God-sent” leader.
The inability to stand one’s feet may be due to ignorance of options, and short-term personal calculations may dictate the reluctance. However, whatever is responsible for the self-seeking leader’s hold on his followers cannot make for lousy governance persistence. Leaders can also be identified by the effort each makes to proffer solutions to vexing problems. The visionary leader acknowledges that the knowledge and competencies s/he needs reside in others apart from themselves. She, therefore, makes an extraordinary effort to look for the best and the brightest. S/he does this by constituting think-tanks on various subjects and by encouraging a free flow of ideas.
Fatoumatta: For a self-seeking leader, this is asking too much. Ideas are threatening in that they challenge the status quo and may take the “leader” where s/he has no intention of going. Second, the self-seeking leader stands for nothing except personal survival and prosperity. Utterly disinterested in the vision of a better society, such a leader is most unlikely to look for the best and the brightest. He is far more likely to surround himself with flunkies and bootlickers. At any rate, the self-seeking leader wants to be in control, while brainy subordinates may be challenging to control.
Fatoumatta: The Gambian youth must shun the handout culture that keeps them dependent on the benevolence of politicians. True dignity comes from sheer industry and not gratuitous tokens from political exploiters. For far too long, the youth have been called the “leaders of tomorrow.” Tomorrow is now. Let the youth get to work—no more free lunches.