ZAMBIAN’S ELECTIONS AND LESSONS TO REST OF AFRICA

Zambian President-elect Hakainde Hichilema’s election as head of state of the southern African nation, and his message to his compatriots offer plenty of lessons to other nascent democracies in Africa.

His election on the back of a landslide victory is one of only a handful instances in Africa where an opposition candidate has unseated an incumbent through the ballot box.

Zambians have had their say chiefly because the organs charged with upholding and overseeing democratic processes in that country did so without fear or favour. That is how it should be.

Zambia’s electoral commission has shown that it is possible, albeit rare, for electoral commissions appointed by heads of state, which can hardly be described as independent in the first place, to act independently and resist undue influence with a view to letting the people’s voice be heard loud and clear.

Unfortunately, in many African countries, electoral commissions are firmly in the pockets of the powers that be. What such countries essentially do periodically is go through the motions of holding elections, whose results are usually a foregone conclusion even before the first ballot is cast.

In his acceptance speech from his residence in Lusaka on Monday, Hichilema made some quite “unAfrican” remarks.

His call that Zambia’s public broadcaster cover opposition activities exhaustively to ensure its own survival is almost unheard of on a continent where incumbents tend to hog all the limelight and publicity through media funded by taxpayers.

It should be noted that Hichilema was subjected to an almost total blackout by state-owned media during his time in the opposition.

Hichilema has been in and out of jail numerous times in recent years as his rivals attempted to undermine him, and clip his political wings, but his message to his former tormentors on Monday was one of reconciliation and assurance.

It is still too early to judge Hichilema since he has not yet been sworn in, but we sincerely hope that he means what he says.

HOW TO ADDRESS THE SKILLS GAP

Employers often complain about how difficult it has become to get workers with the right skills. They argue that, more often than not, they have to invest a lot of money in shaping up and bringing their employees to the desired standards.

What, then, is the cause of this mismatch? Clearly, our education system has problems. It provides the labour market with semi-skilled and barely-skilled personnel. What is even worse is that it tunes the minds of students to think of “getting an employment somewhere” rather than self-employment.

This calls for serious reforms. To start with, all those with a PhD should, by law, transform themselves into institutions capable of creating jobs.

This would not only help create more decent jobs but would also encourage innovation. Production too would rise.
The role of the government is to provide an enabling environment for this transformation to take place.

It must ensure that the education system is aligned with modern needs.
Families should fine-tune children’s thinking so they appreciate self-employment from a young age.