Professor PLO Lumumba has reiterated the need for political hygiene in Africa, and that got me thinking about hygiene as taught in the health sector : washing of hands, personal cleanliness etc. When you ignore the rules of simple hygiene you invite diseases around your members. This is basic and it is serious.
Hygiene requires that you do the right things and that you do things right. It teaches you to think about the consequences of what you do and what you fail to do. Hygiene protects you now and preserves you for tomorrow. It is good for you, your neighbor, your family and the community: whosoever has something to do with you or comes in contact with you, or is affected directly or indirectly by your actions, benefits from your observance of hygiene. When you don’t do things hygienically, we call you unhygienic.
That Africa is unhygienic in the environmental space goes without saying, but the political space is even worse. People do whatever they want with impunity without regards to how it affects the environment, the community, the human race. Because there is no serious accountability framework in place, these folks get away with these things, and leave the next generation thinking that impunity is might and might is right. Someone has to call out these unhygienic leaders. Unhygienic practices cannot be allowed to fly anymore.
Our generation is so unhygienic that our political space stinks. The stench emanating from unhygienic political arena is unbearable, signaling that total decay of the system is imminent. Do we need a prophet to tell us that when we don’t brush our teeth, decay is inevitable?
Some of the countries of Africa are like a person that has not had a bath in years, no manicure, not shaved or washed his clothes for that long. If such a person sits next to you in a bus, how long would you make that journey before you change your seat? Is it surprising that our young people die in the Sahara desert running away from unhygienic political and economic systems? Is it surprising that our ladies take to prostitution in foreign lands?
To fix this disaster, accountability is long overdue. There has to be a way to hold public office holders accountable. The people have to require and demand hygiene from the leadership, and the people must refuse to be intimidated with money stolen from the system courtesy of unhygienic practices. But until we stop giving big titles and nonsensical respect to unhygienic politicians, how are we going to enforce hygiene?
Our society will continue to go the way of decay until and unless we make hygiene a requirement in governance. This is my suggestion and this, I believe, has worked in places. Just as the need for hygiene cannot be overemphasized in the health sector, so it is in the political sector. Hygiene could be everything. It could be both preventive and curative, and we are in dire need of both right now.
@MezieOkolo is a voice from diaspora, and a US based leadership analyst.
12/21/2019