The Sunday Mail
Chengeto Mayowe
Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo is a fast-growing proposition aimed at inviting all Zimbabweans not only to claim their stake in the economy, but to build it. This rallying call to nation-building clarifies duty and service to country. This is a sovereign existential philosophical and pragmatic view that is anchored in a template of self-determination.
This is a position of affirmation emanating from a Government that has confidence in the skills of its people. This is further reflective of the acknowledgement that the people have the capacity to rebuild their future from the ruins of economic decay and political incongruences. In any case, it is the people that found the means to liberate themselves from colonial rule. Therefore, the people still have the power to reconstruct themselves into a future that is free from poverty, disease, war and inequality. In asserting that a country is built by its own people, one cannot ignore the nostalgic reawakening it gives to our struggle for independence, which was hinged on the “We are our own liberators” principle.
When loosely translated, Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo means a nation is built by its own people. This gives surety that we have relevant remedies to our own problems as owners of this country. While we may be open to engaging the rest of the world to rebuild our economy and widen our revenue streams through mutually beneficial international investment attraction measures, we have an obligation to set our own development standards.
The mantra re-echoes our constitutional tasks as citizens of this country to give service and diligence to the economy and the re-engineering of our society to unity, peace and development. The first lap of attaining our independence was very crucial and it cannot be overemphasised.
However, today, all policy-making must be robustly anchored in the consolidation of independence values and mapping of new vistas to policy continuities and discontinuities. Clearly, we have the obligation to choose what positions us to posterity and abandon all vices that derail our economic development and the fruits of our democracy. One of the worst betrayals we can commit as a people is to think that external innovations will improve our nation and its systems of governance. It should be reiterated that most relations we are developing with other international actors are purely commercial.
Therefore, to expect that excesses in external investment attraction will eradicate our problems is a recipe for our demise as a people.
The modern scramble for Africa is real. Therefore, we cannot entrust outsiders when it comes to rebuilding our nation, more so when it is becoming increasingly obvious that nations are out to preserve their selfish interests. Global homogeneity is increasingly becoming more rhetorical than it is practical. Therefore, we have very limited choices in terms of those we can really trust with our resources, human capital and the preservation of our gains of independence.
Globalisation is showing signs of Anglo-American intentions to bleed the continent of its resources. It is a traditional fact that Africa has been placed on the margins of underdevelopment to maintain its status as a global extractive and exploitative ground for Anglo-American capital and other emerging global capital players. Therefore, it is imperative for the people of the continent to reassert their place in reclaiming their power and space.
Zimbabwe, as an entry point to this route, must be encouraged to use its populace to grow the economy. Value addition cannot be a miracle. Infrastructure development depends on the people’s passion to drive a self-determined own agenda for fighting corruption and ineptitude. The land with no crop will remain so, as long as no one ploughs it.
No innovation or effort is too small in our struggle to build our national economy.
Today, when citizens are placed at the centre of collective nation-building principles, partisan loyalties are submerged by enduring and binding emotions of belonging. The nyika inovakwa nevene vayo philosophy, as a locus of policy enunciation, is also critical in reminding us of our national oneness outside the confines of ethnicity, class, creed and gender binaries. This proclamation affirms that nationalism is alive in the operational trajectory of the Second Republic. The idea of building the country champions the virtues of hard work and patriotic sincerity.
Thankfully, the manifestations of this hard-work are clear for all to see in terms of policy reforms. Just last week, President Mnangagwa was commissioning a new set of houses, courtesy of the FBC facility. Unlike in other jurisdictions, owning a property takes long-winding mortgage processes. However, in Zimbabwe, people are pulling up mansions from all directions. Young entrepreneurs are making their own contributions to national development. The new malls sprinkling all over our metropolitan provinces reflect a spontaneous reflex to the call for citizens to build their economy.
Livelihood development, as a substantive matter, has seen most of our young people entering many sectors of national development, particularly in the agriculture, mining, technological and trade spheres to claim their share in the national economy.
There is no doubt that we have several economic challenges facing us as a people. The Government’s efforts to have a sustainable wage bill is another reality that our hardworking citizenry must grapple with. However, our current challenges must motivate invention of new opportunities in the economy and Zimbabweans are known the world over for the distinct creativity we have to change misfortunes to dollar signs. More efforts must be invested in ensuring that accountability is at the core of all systems of Government.
In line with that, the Government procurement culture has drastically changed to ensure that value for money is realised in all State transactions. That culture must cascade to all of us. Bribes must be shunned and dishonesty must die. Let us build our country, the only home God gave us!
