The nexus between leadership and toilets as development

In the month of November is the observance of World Toilet Day. It doesn’t get due attention but it is indisputable how central toilets are to ensuring we live dignified lives.

It is in keeping with this dignity that I bring into focus two varying perspectives on the subject of toilets from an African leadership standpoint.

The first is from the current president of Zambia, Hakainde Hichilema or HH, who recently referred to toilets in a manner that went viral in some African countries.

The other is from the former president of Tanzania, Benjamin Mkapa or Big Ben, who also spoke about toilets in his autobiography in a manner that is thought-provoking.

On what HH had to say, it is best to quote none other than the Sunday Nation of Kenya business columnist, Sunny Bindra, whose pieces also appear in the The Citizen.

“Soon after I was pondering the tweet, the president of Zambia weighed in. Hakainde Hichilema has been in power in for a year. His achievements to date are mixed, but he is a fresh face who inspires many to believe real change is possible. He recently made a speech that stirred up social media all over Africa.

The president asked gathered Zambian leaders why they feel they have to drive high-end luxury vehicles worth $200,000 or more. He pointed out that forgoing one such vehicle could build toilets in markets across the land- a far more pressing need than allowing one fat-cat to park his behind in soft cushioning.

“If you want the luxury ride, asked the president, why don’t you buy it yourself with your own money? You only pretend you can afford it, because it’s the taxpayer’s money you are using.”

Bindra goes on to say: “And that’s the crux of the matter. Unearned money, somebody else’s money, is very easily spent.

I have, in the past, echoed the sentiments of Frédéric Bastiat, who asked us, in economic life, to see not only that which is seen, but also that which is not seen.

When we spend big on luxury projects, we see the outputs of those projects. What do we not see? That those billions do not arrive from nowhere; they come from the pockets of taxpayers.

Those taxpayers now have less to spend on things of their choice. There is no free money.

“Successive generations of politicians, however, have come to regard government money as free money. Taxpayers have no choice but to cough it up; it sits there in huge quantities, awaiting disbursements. It did not have to be worked for; for there is no personal cost or sacrifice to spending it. Where does it often get spent? On giving the spenders unearned luxuries, and on projects that have no real need to show a return on investment.”

Now onto Mkapa.

“My greatest preoccupation is this abdication of responsibility for self-development.

How can you have primary schools without toilets more than fifty years after independence? How can we say Tanzania is developing? I see members of parliament travelling all over the world to learn about how others are undertaking development. Do you really have to travel to learn from others how to build latrines for a school? What is the legacy of leaders who think development means that Tanzania can have primary schools or secondary schools without toilets? I read in newspapers that a corporation or embassy has helped a school to build latrines and we see this as development, which is ridiculous! Is there no shame that as a citizen you expect the government to do everything for you? How can you justify asking your government to dig simple pit latrines for the primary school in the village. Why doesn’t the village collectively take on the responsibility to dig the latrines? Instead they complain that the government should do this. Is this development? What does self-reliance mean, fifty years after independence?”

Essentially what we have from HH and Big Ben are competing top-down and bottom-up models. I personally go along with the top-down model.

The bottom-up model of Mkapa on the surface make common sense but it is another way of abdicating national leadership in my thinking. It is tantamount to leaving the downtrodden to their own devices.

For that matter, I would have expected at the very least that Mkapa would have found it necessary to touch on the role of local governments in driving the people’s self-development.

Local governments are a crucial layer of leadership that is too often left to suffocate at the hands of national government that is bogged down in its own web.

It is not by accident that with many of our national governments mired in their web, a legal researcher and fellow columnist of Bindra at the Nation, Kaltum Guyo, when commenting on HH’s speech, wrote: “Corruption and impunity are pretty much the preserve of many African leaders.

These problems would mainly be associated with African rulers or despots. Even in countries with a semblance of democracy, a ruler would be the person blamed for Africa’s woes. This is because many African politicians rule, rather than lead.

“The concept of “ruling” has its genesis in colonialism, The concept of “ruling” has its genesis in colonialism, where the colonial powers assumed ownership of their subjects to subjugate them. It has been replicated by the African rulers from independence. Democracy has not diluted this thinking. Many an African president, once elected would go into the mode of being a ruler.

The terms “ruler” and “leader” are sometimes wrongly used interchangeably. In the case of a ruler, power tends to be centralised and its mainly a top-down affair. Hence, many despots (rulers) tend to be the ones ordering the plunder of their country’s resources because what he or she says is final as power rests vertically at the highest, rather than lateral, office.”

Happy one year HH!