The God Complex of our politicians

We need leaders who can say "I don't know" or "I was wrong" and that's okay.

In his book his new book, "Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure", Tim Harford, an economist, argues that; the world has become far too unpredictable and complex for today's challenges to be tackled with ready-made solutions and expert opinions. Instead, Harford suggests that, we need to learn to embrace failure and to constantly adapt, to improvise rather than plan, to work from the bottom up rather than the top down.

He comes up with a term called the "God complex" which is practiced by most individuals in leadership positions when they pretend that they know all the solutions. Looking at the state of Zimbabwe today, one is inclined to agree with this gentleman.

There unfortunately is a "God complex", where some leaders in our government or public sector including opposition political parties, believe that because they have a "position" or a "title", they therefore possess the monopoly of wisdom and solutions to the complex social problems we face.

What this has done, is to create a culture of worshiping of our leaders, while alienating those who may have viable alternative solutions or ideas, simply because of their rank in the party or their position in an organization. The result is that, wrong solutions are often implemented, simply because the leaders say so, or bully those around them, using rank to push their inappropriate ideas.

The God complex plays, itself out each and every day, especially in Zimbabwe, where we have a "chef" mentality. For example, ZANU (PF) has dismally failed to develop the country, but blames everyone else beside themselves for that failure.

The perennial problem is that, ZANU (PF) is led by parochial old men, who not only are unwilling, but are unable to see a new Zimbabwe that is significantly different from the past. They don't know what they don't know. In fact, they deliberately suppress dissent or the rise of the "young turks" into important positions within the party, in order to protect their interests and opinions. They have never stood up and accepted their mistakes, but display unfathomable arrogance.

A clear example is how Gideon Gono single handedly decimated this economy, but still insists that he "saved' Zimbabwe. Nothing can be further from the truth!

The same applies, of course, to agriculture disaster, gukurahundi and muramabtsvina. These were monumental errors of judgment that still weigh heavily on our brains, like a nightmare to this day. Isn't it rather amazing that, , there hasn't been any iota of acknowledgement by ZANU (PF) that "we were wrong" or "we could have done things better?"

Instead, for example, we get headline news on ZTV that Zimbabwe is importing maize from Zambia, as if it's a major achievement for the country. How laughable because, it is highly likely that, that maize was grown by the same white farmers we expelled.

I can also bet you that, the disunity we find within the MDCs today for example, is probably solely based on egos and certain individuals believing that only they are right and know what is best for Zimbabwe. I disagree with that.

In his video, Tim Harford says, imagine a politician standing in front of us and saying "I do not have all the solutions, but I have a few ideas which we can try out and see which one works the best to achieve what we want".

That would be incredible wouldn't it?

The God like complex can also be found in the private sector where, executives and managers behave as though they have all the solutions and ideas. This marginalizes those employees who may not have big offices or big paychecks, but could come up with new smart ideas or solutions that could make huge difference.

This, of course, was also the case in the past where, whites played "God" to blacks. I hear that this is purportedly still rife in countries such as South Africa, especially in the farming and mining sectors.

All of us should really note that, there are a myriad of ideas and solutions out there, on how we can get the country to develop and progress. What we must do, is to encourage debate and multiple views and be brave enough to admit that, despite our titles, experience, positions and perks, we really still don't know everything.

Admitting that we don't know is, to me, the most honorable and empowering act anyone can take. The cost to Zimbabwe and the lost opportunities because of this "God complex' are astounding. Dictatorships arise because of this mentality.

Zimbabwe needs leaders who are not only accountable to their followers, but leaders who take full responsibility for the results that they create, whether intentionally or inadvertently.

We need leaders who can say "I don't know" or "I was wrong" and that's okay.

Vince Musewe is an economist based in Harare; you may contact him on [email protected]

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