YOUR BUSINESS IS OUR BUSINESS : Heed experts’ advice on ‘economic’ monsters

One of my favourite columnists in our East African region in this day and age is a professor of Economics at the Dar es Salaam Campus of the Mzumbe University going by the name and style of Dr Honest Prosper Ngowi .

If I say so myself, Prof Ngowi’s writings have never failed to impress me – if only for their simplicity and down-to-earth approach...

However, in My Book of Things, economic theories and similar thingamajigs relating to the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services as routinely enunciated in lecture theatres and similar highbrow environs are rarely applied in real-life situations by politicians and all those of their ilk in the corridors of power! Honestly, nations could, would, prosper (no puns intended here, honest!) from such enunciations which are usually matter-of-factly so brilliantly-articulated by well-meaning academics...

Indeed, countries like Tanzania would today be in Seventh Heaven on Cloud Nine in the social and economic development stakes if – and only if – those economic theories and principles were applied in Hi-Fi (high fidelity), year in, year out!

The reality on the ground is, however, quite the opposite – with the opportunities for such development being spat upon and trampled underfoot, so to speak! Look at it this way...Tanzania does indeed have in its collective lap (so to speak) all the requisite ingredients with which to create a prosperous nation of a contented population through meaningful and sustainable socio-economic development. Among the readily available ingredients are at least three out of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere’s four: People; Land and Good Policies.

Alas – no matter what camp-followers and other political sycophants say to the contrary – the ‘Fourth Nyerere Ingredient,’ Good Leadership, has been singularly lacking down the years following the country’s (political) independence from foreign rule in 1961! There’re also a bazillion other positive developmental ingredients, such as the phenomenal endowment of natural resources: precious/rare minerals; marine and forestry potentials...

Yet other endowments range from a good climate and comparative advantages that include a clutch of willing and able partners-in-development, as well as geostrategic positives – like being a logistical entrepot to half-a-dozen landlocked countries! Yet, an abundance of opportunities as defined in functional economic theory hasn’t helped Tanzania to be lifted by its successor leaderships out of the socio-economic morass the country and its hapless people have been wallowing in, ‘compliments’ of home-grown leaderships post-Independence! For the sake of argument, let’s take as an example just one recent article by Prof Ngowi which was published in The Citizen-on-Saturday (Sept. 12, 2015), under the title ‘Are politicians addressing causes of Joblessness?’ In a sense, the article is timely – coming as it did when Tanzania is transfixed in the hard and painful ‘throes of revolutionary social change’ (M. D. Geismar pardon!)

The Good Professor goes into the trouble of defining unemployment in all its ugly aspects. He then outlines the causes of joblessness in general, before finally charting the way forward – albeit doing so much too briefly, in my view!

Clearly, the article was directed at aspirants ogling elected public positions in the ongoing electioneering towards Polling Day on Oct. 25 this year!

But, no matter... What matters here’s the fact that, apart from merely glossing over the hydra-headed unemployment monster – simply stating that they’ll tackle it if elected into office – none of the political ‘job-seekers’ has gone into the nitty-gritty of the problem, detailing how they’ll efficaciously tackle same!

As it happens, Prof Ngowi has done half-the-job for them in his article. The politicians must, for example, know by heart the fundamental causes of unemployment, mentally go to their root – and practically eradicate same as a matter of course. Clearly, this has never happened in the past, leading to ballooning of the unemployment scourge! ‘The need for issues-based election campaigns cannot be overemphasised... Politicians need to address the real issues,’ Ngowi states.. Cheers!