Fluksman Samuehl
My senior leader comrade Nahas Angula penned down a piece in The Namibian newspaper, dated 29 July 2022, titled ‘Democratic accountability will improve service delivery in local authorities’.
Comrade Nahas Angula further made an interesting analysis regarding the state of affairs at some local authorities – notably the City of Windhoek.
Building on Comrade Nahas Angula’s reflections, this piece advances the conversation by zooming into the overall leadership requirement to building a capable development state such as Namibia – a country that deserves to enjoy respect at global stage.
Effective leadership is about providing clarity, hope, purpose and to inspire confidence to the people. One wonders what might have gone wrong to arrive at this point of deviation from the principles of effective leadership. What is clear is that when collective leadership fails, everything else is likely to fail; the reason is that everything rises and falls on leadership – no two ways about it.
Sadly, some local authorities have become highly politised and toxic environments, disregarding the law, losing development focus and effective service delivery. Differently put, some leaders have become a liability to the state, less appealing to the populace and not offering any sustainable solutions to the present challenges our people are facing daily throughout the country. The impotence of leadership is the cornerstone of my analysis. This is reminiscence of what plays out at the City of Windhoek and elsewhere else – not only at the political front but Namibians have witnessed endless leadership infightings and squabbles at NFA House as well as at some traditional authorities and churches, mainly over leadership successions – just to mention a few. As we dream to build a capable development state in view of the development ambitions of vision 2030, by creating a flourishing industrial economy with improved living conditions and happy citizens, we need to ask ourselves honestly whether we have the kind of leadership qualities in place that match our development ambitions. But how did we get at this point in terms of Namibian politics? One should know how people get elected and assume leadership status at local, regional and parliamentary levels. Ultimately, these people largely determine the state leadership capacity in Namibia. To start with, the current intra-party electoral system being applied by most of our political formations is nothing else than a popularity contest with a membership card in good standing. Put differently, the intra-party electoral system debunks merit. Given the journey we have traversed since independence, it appears this intra party electoral system continues to do more harm than good to our democratic governance architecture. The current intra-party electoral system is seriously flawed, outdated, irrelevant and counter-productive, as it overlooks capacity of a person, relevant experience, talents, educational background, capability, competence, role modelling status and influence of the person in a particular space, including ethics and integrity. In other words, now than ever before, Namibia needs to adopt a fit for purpose electoral system to enable the country to make headways in view of growing demands associated with public offices. Again, I should emphasis the point made earlier that whoever we elect in a three-tier government democratic system ultimately determines the quality of state capacity.
As a consequence of the flawed intra-party electoral system, which is not merit based, it has proven to have opened up opportunities for incapacitated leaders, incompetence, inexperienced and unexposed dead wood – unable to lead, resulting in service delivery failures, stifling governance due to leadership paralysis at some public institutions.
For far too long, Namibians have allowed the absence of leadership and/or uninspired leadership to take centre stage and do nothing, hence things are in the manner they are. The absence of effective leadership leaves people in the state of despair, hopelessness, disheartenment, discouragement, desperation, distress, anguish unhappiness; despondency, depression and pessimism, etc. The irony of the present situation is that there is no consequence management for repeated leadership failures – leaders simply do not accept full responsibility as pointed out by senior Comrade Nahas Angula in his piece. In such circumstances, a leader’s presence equals absence.
Former US Secretary of State and world-renowned scholar in international relations Henry Kessinger described leadership as “taking people where they would not have gotten by themselves”.
In other words, effective leadership is about making others better as a result of the leader’s presence and making sure that impact lasts in his/her absence.
In the words of Dalai Lama, ‘our purpose in this life is to help others, and if you cannot help them, at least don’t hurt them’.
Now than ever before, Namibia needs competent leaders with clear key performance indicators (KPIs), leaders who subscribe to the values of professionalism, responsibility, accountability, integrity and those who appreciate a sense of urgency by providing genuine inspiration, hope, direction and instil hope to society.
Namibia is more than 30 years into her independence; a lot of dynamics have evolved, while flawed leadership selections have remained unchanged. This mismatch is harming Namibia’s developmental efforts. Continuing with this outdated system, the development aspirations and ambitions of the country shall remain elusive if not curtailed all together. Therefore, Namibia needs to introduce merit-based politics so as to capacitate our state at all levels of governance.
To enable Namibia to leapfrog implementation of her ambitious development agenda at the three tier government levels, deliberate efforts should be made by all our political formations to realign and recalibrate the intra-party elections in a way that it attracts talented best minds, capable men and women of integrity – those possessing ingredients for effective leadership qualities.
Moreover, Namibia competes with the rest of the world. It will be a sad day for our democracy if we continue to ignore that the world has moved on while we remain ignorant to that fact that we need best qualifying candidates to capacitate the three-tier government system.
It appears that Namibia will be better off when embracing a merit-based electoral system that attracts and allows for the deployment of competent and qualifying relevant leaders at all levels of governance. The process of assembling competent team of leaders has to start from within our political formations, including head-hunting those having abilities to lead well. Recently, I had a privilege to address the youth during the entrepreneurial mentorship conference and expo 2022, held at the harbour town of Lüderitz in the //Kharas region. I emphasised the fact that Namibians are yearning for competent, ethical and capable leadership, ready to hit the ground running and bring about tangible improvements in the lives of the people particularly the impoverished poor in our society. People do not like to be managed but well led.
Strong moral leadership is more precious for the future of a nation than gold, diamonds, or oil. It is guided by a common vision that reflects the most fundamental human aspirations, conforms to the universal spiritual principles that govern human life, and is expressed in shared moral values that can ultimately form a global ethic. Put differently, Namibians are desperately yearning for top quality leadership at all levels of governance – leadership that is exemplary, genuine, sincere to serve, disciplined, truthful, principled, competent, initiative and target driven incorruptible – and people of integrity, ethical and moral leadership (reputable and fit for public office), and displaying a burning desire to succeed in serving the masses.
Now than ever before, Namibia deserves leadership that is determined to respond proactively to all challenges in a way that will bequeath to the future generations a legacy worthy of the pioneers who founded our great nation, a legacy defined by prosperity, security, stability and a life filled with dignity and respect
As we confront poverty and underdevelopment, we need to pay special attention to the needs of the citizens, particularly the vulnerable youth constituency in the manner not seen before so as to bring about genuine empowerment of the young people of Namibia.
Let us embark on a journey of genuine empowerment of our people at all levels. We must steer a course among challenges on many fronts with confidence, optimism and determination.
*Fluksman Samuehl is a scholar of international relations and strategic studies, and former Member of Parliament. The opinions expressed herein are his own.