DONT BABY ME, PLEASE!

Maturity when it comes to human growth and development is a stage whereby one learns to do things on his or her own. The self-evident ruin of being a crybaby is that it can be unacceptable and humiliating. It gets to be indeed more of a challenge after you have grown to be a parent and must begin driving by case.

In the Bible, there is a quotation: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child; I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away my childish things.” These words could be used to reflect the general state of mind between mature and immature leadership in the country.

 

It is true that as children, we thought and reasoned as children, but when we grew up, we quit our childish ways. However, it appears that the leadership from both sides of the isle did not get the script.

There comes a point in life when he or she is no longer a baby, toddler, teenager but an adult. A baby cannot be said to be mature in that it lacks capacity to use initiative for earthly existence or to fend for itself. For instance, it messes its pants and starts crying for someone to do something about the mess, it cries when hungry because someone has not put food in its mouth, it fails to plan for its own future because someone must do so on its behalf. Simply put, it is immature. The worst insult actually is for someone to come to you as an adult and start panel-beating you to down-size into a baby. You may be wondering as to who actually does such awful things, but wait I will show you that it is happening in our time and era.

While babies specialize in crying, demanding and blaming everyone around them for all life challenges, mature people are solution givers. In every country there exist both babies and mature people, those who perpetually stretch out their hands to receive free things and others who fight their way through life challenges without expecting some super-human to fall from heaven and give solutions. While others keep crying and waiting for a super-human fix their hunger problems by squeezing feeding bottles into their mouths, there are people running business, getting educated, building houses, and farming to improve life. 

Is anyone out there aware that we just coming out of rain season, and some people have been busy converting rainwater into money through plowing the ground? Is someone out there aware that unlike the olden existence on only two giant Public Universities, our able Government has allowed emergence of several Private Higher Learning Institutions and people are busy acquiring and upgrading their academic papers? Is someone out there aware that some once inaccessible places of Zambia, those that could not be reached by road due to absence of road infrastructure, are now open and some people are busy making use if the golden opportunity to make money?

There comes a time in life when one must attain levels of maturity to do certain things on their own. Simply put, no one will bath you if you do not do it yourself, no one will sweep your bedroom and house if you do not do it yourself, no one will take you to school if you do not do it yourself, no one will make Zambia clean and habitable if you do not do it yourself, and the list is endless. Actually, the person who comes to you promising to handle or deal with you like a brainless physically incapacitated human is disrespecting and insulting you. Who told them you need someone to sing 'baby-lala' songs for you to doze, give you Giant-Size nappies for you to relieve yourself as you sleep or walk around the streets, drop mille meal through your roof and windows as you sleep. Are they taking you for a fool or what?

I love our President His Excellence Edgar Chagwa Lungu in that he won't treat people like headless chickens. He does not promise to turn the entire nation into a bunch of crying helpless babies. Who has heard him give baseless false promises of having capacity to solve this or that for every citizen? The truth is that poor people are everywhere, even in places considered Super-Powers. In fact others sleep in streets, bungalows and card boxes in some of these nations.

In this our 55th year of independence, Zambia has done relatively well and we have a lot to be thankful for since gaining independence from Britain. But it is time for the leaders to cast aside their outrageously childish behaviour and in the national interest demonstrate true political maturity. This is needed in the current budget debate, given the problems facing the country.

History has taught us the valuable lessons for understanding the present through the lens of the past, but the current problems facing the country is far different from those in the past. What is particularly needed in Zambia is more mature leadership, especially at the political level both ruling and opposition. The immaturity that now exists in governance is an issue of great concern to all. It is hindering the progress in the country and preventing the people from realizing their full potential.

Zambia needs modern, transformative and civilized leaders who will cast aside their pettiness and childishness and adopt a more mature approach to politics and governance. The viciousness of our leaders from past and present governments down to the party level has led to the division of the races and the exclusion of many in society.

My plea to my fellow Zambians is that we reject self-proclaimed super-solution givers. The world is today mulled in mud because of wanting quick-fix methods. It is due to fast foodstuffs that the majority of our loved ones left earth half-way on their earthly journey. Start solving problems. Grow up and refuse to be treated like a street-boy who has never seen the inside of s class-room.

There are many outstanding Zambian with skills and talents in the Diaspora who would like to make a tangible contribution to the development of the country. But they are being excluded by pettiness and partisan politics. Zambians in the Diaspora who have effective problem-solving skills to complement the local skills are being denied the opportunity.

Zambia is a democratic country which means that it is natural to have intense and open debates on different ideas. Certainly, a person’s ideas will face criticism from others. Criticizing another person’s ideas does not necessarily mean that the critic is an enemy or does not like the person whose ideas have been criticized. In civil society, criticisms are not only viewed negatively; many often contain a positive dimension. However, some politicians are so thin-skinned and childish that they take every criticism, even when it is well-meaning, as a personal attack on them. When his views are challenged, the followers unleash insults against you. That’s being crybabies.

Zambia is way too smart to be divided by such pettiness. It is time for the politicians to be mature and see the positive side of criticism instead of trying to be spiteful. They should learn to agree to disagree without being vindictive but with respect for one another. This will go a long way towards political maturity and the unity of the country.