A generational vision that trumps age

Nick Mangwana View from the Diaspora
AN item that is transmitted by repetition and replication is called a meme. These will probably play a role in the next harmonised elections. One just hopes that there will be more focus on substantive issues than some vacuous and lame brained shallowness.

There is a meme that is a construct of two pictures. One is a face of President Mnangagwa put side by side with that of Nelson Chamisa who recently assumed the position of MDC-Alliance leader and presidential candidate. This picture has different captions. One of them says that one represents the past whilst the other represents the future. The other one asks “which face would you choose to be your President?”

This type of thinking betrays political banality and shocking superficiality. As has always been the rebuttal of this columnist, Zimbabweans are not looking for a boyfriend.

They are not looking for a playmate. They are looking for a leader in tune with their aspirations and one who is prepared to sacrifice all including their one and only life to ensure those aspirations are met. To ask Zimbabweans to choose a leader on the basis that their face looks fresh and pleasing to the eye and more in optical tune with the demographics of the dominant young population, is to simply show how inane our politics is.

For this young generation to view their future through a prism of such intellectual shallowness is an indictment on our educational system. The current leadership spent its prime and younger years trying to pursue a certain vision. Why is it different now with the current post-independence generation and that of the millennials? Why have we produced a young generation so narrow and obstinate that they insist on seeing things through such idle and narrow chinks of their cavern? Why are people so asinine that their political consciousness is shaped by such frivolity?

As we head into the next harmonised elections we should choose leaders on their pedigree for transformational politics and not for generational contemporariness.

So far President Mnangagwa has articulated a vision of transformational politics that has turned Zimbabwe’s polity on its head.
No other person among the current crop of those vying for the presidency has done that. What we have had is not a vision but sloganeering and vacuous rhetoric. Every week we hear one fanciful and ridiculous claim after another. The other time it was lies about a $15 billion funding from the United States. That only led to a diplomatic humiliation. Also on show was some unbelievable haughtiness as the young man involved completely refused to apologise and do the right thing. Now leaders that fail to take responsibility are not responsible. They surely cannot be trusted.

The generation whose future will be determined by the outcome of the harmonised elections should be inquisitive enough to unpack any statements that are coming from those that aspire to lead them. What we are seeing right now is the exact opposite.
Those whose future is being burnt in sizzling pork pies are the ones shielding the ones telling them lies from public scrutiny! They even call themselves some kind of “vanguard”. Vanguard, protecting what? Well, they are making sure their leader is not asked about his convictions. What are they actually? How about something as simple as his motivations? What drives him?

There are so many transformational questions to be asked by this generation if they are to get a leadership that represents its aspirations. Unless its aspirations are to simply have a pretty face on the walls of government offices.

Research has shown that there is no relationship between leadership behaviour and age. Right now Zimbabwe is looking for a leader with a progressive perspective, whose experience has shaped their view of what does not work and what can work. Our country is not some laboratory, and we are not surely some guinea pigs. We need to know which direction someone wants to take our country and how they are going to do so. These have to be pragmatic solutions underpinned by realistic assumptions, which are defined by our practical situation and realities.

For someone to take to the podium and tell people that if he becomes President, Zimbabwe will have a train that will do Harare to Bulawayo in 30 minutes is quite fanciful. It would be great, were it realistic then well and good. But it’s not, because in the first place countries well ahead of us in development are nowhere near achieving this. Then secondly why is dashing people between the two cities a priority when there is nothing in terms of business that would require some corporate player to be dashing between the two places? Are we so fanciful that with our level of unemployment sending people from Harare to have lunch in Bulawayo has suddenly become a priority that should inform our vote in the second half of this year?

It is fatalistic for this generation to channel its future in some over-saturated enclaves replete with fantasies. In President Mnangagwa you are not going to get someone who is going to excite you with some rhetorical flourish. If you want those by all means attend one of these charismatic churches and be enthused. You are also not going to get some pop star looking manufactured poster boy. If you are looking for such just run an X-factor show and pick your leader from some fame seeking trash. But if you are looking for a leader, who can engage in cross-generational dialogue, who can engage on issues without having to be right, one who has faced political challenges in his life and has accumulated enough experience to face unforeseen challenges, then everyone knows who to vote for.

President Mnangagwa is the undoubted frontrunner in the coming elections. Does he meet the above descriptors? Since this age has shown a penchant for preferring banality to substance, why not engage it in its turf?

The President has shown adaptability and cross-generational flexibility by getting on social media and the ability to engage at that level. He has already shown that engaging with the younger generation is not guided by one’s Birth Entry Number, but through socio-emotional sensitivity and adaptability accompanying a desire to correct the mistakes made by one’s own generation. When one then adds an effective leadership style that inspires everyone else to perform, one has a cocktail for success that can only propel our battered nation to prosperity.

People have to ask themselves why anyone who has worked closely with our current President is beholden to him? The explanation is his skill as a team leader and his style of leadership. He is known never to make it about himself but about the collective vision.

This columnist dares anyone to speak to any current member of Zanu-PF’s Political Bureau or current Cabinet and glean their views. What emerges from such a survey is that President Mnangagwa practises a transformational leadership style. Now, what Zimbabwe needs is a 21st century leadership and not some hang up on when a person was born and how young they look as if we are looking for some athlete. It is certainly very adolescent to ignore very clear aversive traits setting off red alarm bells just because one is young and a contemporary. If this current generation is going to be held responsible for recklessness by the next, it would be for this.

How can they forgive us if we choose student activism over transformation leadership? When Nelson Chamisa was confirmed as leader of his party, President Mnangagwa congratulated him. In his congratulatory message he added, “I hope all my opponents will keep this campaign calm and clean and allow the people of Zimbabwe to decide which direction Zimbabwe will take over the next five years”.

Sorry Cde President, ‘calm’ is not what you are going to get. That’s expecting too much from such excitability. But that lack of calmness would also be seen if such a one is given reins of power. Does Zimbabwe need that? Can this generation afford that?
As a generation transformational leader, the current President has displayed a positive emotion that is able to communicate a vision for the country that has motivated both follower and foe. This cannot be compared to the “attack, attack, attack” narrative that is calculated to engender negative emotions. If this is what people believe should define this demographic group, then sorry manhingi (what a shame).

This nation cannot afford to be flooded with much more distressful negative message where people go all out to paint pictures of doom and gory. If a leader purports to represent a generation and their aspirations, they then should be able to generate enough excitement based on a common vision. Those looking for a gigolo are free to vote on all the other clichéd characteristics other than vision and leadership style.

The new dispensation is transformative. It should not be derailed by giving power to another version of what was, what we removed and what took us here.

The generational connection between this dispensation should not be based on a number on some birth certificate, but on a common vision, joint aspirations and what’s being offered. The nation has seen the green shoots. These should now be allowed to bloom and come to fruition.