Maravi

Lessons from Rupiah

Lessons from Rupiah
Written by Editor

There is a lot to learn from Rupiah Banda. All those who are involved in any form of leadership in our country, whether in government or in opposition, in the private sector or in the public sector, have a lot to learn from Rupiah. Even our compatriots in the trade union movement, in churches and in wider civil society need to study Rupiah and learn from him.

We wish that the lessons that Rupiah had to offer were positive lessons. But alas, that is not the case. Rupiah’s lessons are negative lessons. If we were to summarise what Rupiah has to teach those that are in leadership about leadership, we would say it is simply this: How Not to Lead.

Observing Rupiah trying to lead our country or not trying to lead at all as the case seems to be, is a painful exercise. At a time when the nation is crying out for leadership, a re-assuring voice of control, Rupiah is failing lamentably to provide any leadership.

It seems when Rupiah applied to become president of Zambia, he had no clue what the job involved. He thought that this job was about relaxing and letting others do difficult jobs. How else can we explain the clumsy approach Rupiah has brought to State House? It is a frighteningly careless approach to public affairs. If Rupiah was younger than he is, we would have said he is immature. But maybe this is the problem. Maybe we are expecting too much from Rupiah because of his age. We are expecting a certain selflessness that comes with having been on earth for a long time.

Children by nature are self-centred, the world must revolve around them. That is part of their development. It is what is known as egocentric stage in the development of the child. There is something wrong when this type of behaviour persists to the ripe old age of 72 or more. In the egocentric stage, children have no real ability to be sensitive and to care about the feeling of others.

In many ways, they can even show aggression to what are supposed to be the objects of their love such as their parents. If they want something, they will fight, they will kick, they will cry until they get it. But as they grow older, we all expect children to exercise more sensitivity. We also expect them to learn patience. This is the normal development of a child.

A child who has developed normally will slowly learn that it is not always right to insist on what you want especially when there are other children in the vicinity who may be needing more urgent help.

These basic lessons that children learn when they are being brought up are what seem to be missing from Rupiah’s leadership style. He is an insensitive self-centred old man who appears to have missed the opportunity to learn how to be considerate of others.

This is the lesson that all of us can learn from Rupiah. It is wrong, it’s immoral to call oneself a leader when you fail to be considerate and sensitive to the needs of those that you are leading. The behaviour of Rupiah during this crisis of strikes that has engulfed our nation has clearly demonstrated how not to lead.

At a time when our people cannot access medical care because of crippling strikes, Rupiah and his handlers found it fitting to announce from the comfort of picturesque Cape Town that the President was receiving treatment for a knee problem that has been troubling him over the last few days. At a time when his government is failing to address the strike in the hospitals, Rupiah’s way of showing solidarity with the masses of our people who are dying due to failure of the medical services is by staying away from Zambia and receiving treatment in South Africa.

Is Rupiah telling us that this treatment could not be offered at home since we are told that he had this knee problem even before he left home?

Anyway, we are not surprised. In Rupiah’s strange way of thinking, he thought that by telling the nation that he had a very successful knee operation, the nation was going to feel sorry for him. That somehow the nation would understand his failure to lead at this critical time and attribute it to his knee problem. This is the kind of nonsense that seems to be coming out of Rupiah’s camp and the way they try to manipulate public sympathies.

This is not the first time that Rupiah is trying to manipulate the public instead of dealing with the underlying problem.

He has been doing the same in the economic front. Since Levy Mwanawasa died, it has become very clear that Rupiah was never in a position to provide the kind of leadership that this country needed to steer the economy in the right direction. Rupiah has no stomach for making difficult but necessary decisions that his job requires him to make.

As a result of this failing, Rupiah has resorted to behaving like a public relations officer for Zambia. One of the major problems with this approach is that Rupiah is busy trying to please all sorts of friends of his and so called foreign investors at the expense of actually delivering in accordance with the expectations of the people. Rupiah does not seem ready to sit down and understand what the nation needs to be able to move forward.

For him, it is enough to just complain about the international economy without articulating how it affects our country and what measures he is taking to protect the economy. For him, it seems enough to just complain that there is a global credit crunch. This is Rupiah. This is the second lesson we can learn from him. He is not only insensitive but he is also a leader who does not give himself the chance to understand the problems of the entity he is leading so that he can come up with relevant initiatives to address the problems of our nation.

How else do you explain a man in Rupiah’s position behaving the way Rupiah is behaving? At a critical time in the history of our country’s labour relations, Rupiah chose to take off. First, he went to watch a football match in Chililabombwe last Saturday. Second, Rupiah went to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe for a Comesa summit.

When his friends were flying back to their capitals, we suppose, to go and check what was happening, Rupiah jetted off to Cape Town for another meeting. What time does Rupiah have to reflect on the problems of Zambia?

Rupiah’s behaviour is not normal. He has stayed away from Zambia for one week at a time when his nation needs some committed leadership.

It is not the first time that Rupiah is leaving Zambia at a critical time. This year’s Labour Day celebrations were taking place against a background of massive job losses and many worries amongst the workers of our nation. One would have expected the head of state to show solidarity with the workers. But what did Rupiah do? He took off to go and visit his birthplace in Zimbabwe.

Against this background, we understand and appreciate those who are cynically asking the question: “When is Rupiah Banda visiting Zambia?”

This kind of leadership can never be a recipe for success.

Labels: RUPIAH BANDA, STRIKE

posted by MrK @ 3:16 PM