Everything Rises and Falls on Leadership

Everything rises and falls on leadership...that is according to John C. Maxwell bestselling author and speaker on leadership...and I agree fully with his statement...

After church yesterday, I went for lunch at the Pastor's house where he was basically welcoming new people to the church and used it as an opportunity to know more about us...during my time there, I discovered that his wife had been to Malawi in the early 90s and as we talked, she asked about the economic/development status of Malawi... she remembered it as being one of the poorest countries at the time and asked if there had been significant change since then...

The obvious answer was..no, we are still in the top 15 poorest countries in the world, we are perhaps worse off than we were in the early 1990s (I cannot support that empirically, but it's a view I hold)...and the question she then asked was... why? What are the causes of this lack of progress?

My answer... LEADERSHIP

I know we can go into arguments about economic development..under/unexploited sectors...educated and empowered citizenry etc...but it all boils down to leadership.

Malawi has got a lot of potential in its people and resources, but these remain unexploited because of decisions that are made by our leaders. As we were approaching the 50 years of independence celebrations (were they really celebrations), rather 50 years of independence anniversary...it struck me that a good part of the things we can point to as marks of our development can all be traced back to the first 30 years of independence, the Kamuzu period. In fact even our laws... a good number of the sectoral legislation and regulations date back to the Kamuzu period...which means in essence, Kamuzu is still governing the country..

We have had 20 years of democracy..and what do we really have to show for those 20 years? Increased corruption, nepotism in appointments to key positions, and this one...a growing dependency on hand outs...

There used to be a time when I would go visit my grandparents in the village and they would not expect to receive anything from "aku tauni"... in fact they would give you things to take back with you...now, I go to the village and I am expected to carry everything I need with me including food..and on top of that have something to give to my relatives...people have forgotten what a blessing it is to give others...to share... there is now no self sufficiency...And most of this can be traced back to the period after 1994... there was a period where we made some considerable progress...but that was short lived...

Government is now subsidising consumption rather than encouraging production...the most recent example is the proposed subsidy on cement and iron sheets...why not subsidise production so that a larger part of the population, the more productive part actually benefits from it... it would reduce the costs of construction which have a spill over effect on other areas of the economy...

Additionally, do you know that in Malawi we no longer have large or middle scale farmers? Except maybe for Crown who have only started recently...the rest of our farmers are small scale farmers... The reason why we are still just focusing on small scale farmers? Well... it gives someone political mileage... our leaders are focusing on themselves and the next term.. rather than looking at what will benefit Malawi in the long run...

I mean...let's have a look at our 4 past presidents...what can we say is their legacy? What are the positive things we can point to?... The one that stands out amongst the 4 is Kamuzu Banda...and for about 5 years... Bingu also did some good work...and by that I am not talking about the 5 star hotel...which is yet to be fully opened... Our leaders have generally underperformed..and that is the reason why we have not made much progress in the last 20 years...

So this is my conclusion... we improve on the type of leaders we have in Government and our country will make considerable progress....

Credit Where Its Due

And we're baaacckkkk.... hehe... consistency is hard to come by right...

Some thoughts from last night...and this goes to my mum...I call her Pretty Woman...others the Queen Mother...great woman she is...

I have grown up in what people have termed a "single parent" home... I have been raised by my mum...and me and my sisters agree that she has done a great job raising us up, especially taking into account what it has cost her and also looking at what she has achieved in life...

Growing up, there are many things that I took for granted. There are lessons mum was teaching me that I did not appreciate at the time, in fact at times it felt like punishment. But I am now seeing the fruits and in hindsight I acknowledge the role that my mum played... some of the lessons may have come because of the prevailing circumstances.. but I still cherish them and applaud my mum for having the wisdom to use those circumstances as an opportunity to teach me so many valuable lessons on life...

From a young age, my mum gave me responsibilities... from as young as 7 or 8 I learnt to wash my clothes... starting with the small things and later graduating...when I was 10 I learnt how to cook nsima (for those who are not from Malawi, this is our staple food) and I mastered how to cook vegetables to an extent that for the next couple of years, I was asked to be the one to cook vegetables...during the same period.. when I was 9-11.. I learnt how to take care of my living space... I remember we would have a general cleaning session every Saturday... we would clean up the pantry, our rooms, the living room, the kitchen...whichever room was picked for that weekend...later on, when I was 12... I remember living just the 2 of us... me and my mum... she would prepare lunch before she left for work...and would prepare supper as well.. my job was to make sure the kitchen was clean before going to bed... so I would clean the plates, the pots and wipe all surfaces... we did not have house help...which, at the time, felt like punishment...

When I first moved out of my mum's house last year, I was struck by how the lessons had stuck with me. I was cooking and I found myself washing whatever I was using, utensils, plates, boards etc...such that by the time I had finished cooking, the only things that remained to be washed were the pots I was using and the plates we would use to eat from... it hit me... this is Ms. Liwewe at work haha... the thought came again this week as I was preparing some food for myself...

Today, I look back and I appreciate all the lessons that I learnt... today I can cook for myself, I wash my own clothes...and no... I did not use a washing machine..and I can look after my living space...

So this is to say thank you to the greatest woman I know... MY MOTHER... thank you for all the valuable life lessons you gave...