Why’re voters so gullible?
IT WILL forever remain difficult, actually, near impossible, for African liberals to contest and prevail in elections, especially at a local level. Political campaigns at the municipal level are grounded on lies and false promises.
Self-righteous candidates, usually aspiring politicians with no known record of civic society activism, would say things like: “If you vote for me, I will build clinics and roads for you and, God willing, turn our ward into a small heaven”. The tragedy is that it is not uncommon to see gullible citizens repeatedly falling into this deadly electoral illusion year after year.
The government, as it is configured today, ought not to be trusted. How a gathering of 1 200 councillors, 220 Members of Parliament, and 32 Cabinet ministers is designed to achieve anything, let alone do anything for ordinary people, is impossible to comprehend. To believe a politician can suddenly be endowed with a heart to care about your personal and social needs defeats logic.
Yet, not all is lost in this cacophony of electoral mirages. The most – nay, the best these elected glorified beings can do is only to make laws, policies, and regulations that make it easier for us to look after ourselves and our families.
The moment an office-bearer promises to do anything material, we should switch off and look the other way. No wonder we perennially remain in a permanent state of electoral anxiety and expectation. We never seem to learn from past experiences.
We Africans, particularly Zimbabweans and South Africans, were spoilt by colonialists and nationalists in equal measure. As a teenager in Bulawayo, white municipal councillors made sure we had fantastic roads, great social centres, and potable water. We even had great “cocktail” bars like Madlodlo and breezy stadiums like Barbourfields. It never occurred to me I would have to look after these assets one day, myself, as an adult in independent Zimbabwe.
Back home in Shurugwi at Mashoko Business Centre, the shoddy but enthusiastic detachment leader of Zanla guerrillas told the bemused villagers in 1978 Robert Mugabe was fighting for their freedom and he would return their motherland to them.
Even today, Zanu-PF still say they gave us our freedom and democracy. Thus, we ought to be eternally grateful. In 2002, opposition MDC vowed that if we voted for them, they would turn cities and rural villages into paradise – provided we voted Zanu-PF out. Indeed, we voted Zanu-PF out of all the towns and cities – and the MDC did exactly the opposite of what they promised. They turned towns and cities into rural villages! Was it their fault? No. It was our fault because we keep believing politicians are, in fact, God “who provides”.
We are now a year from the electoral year 2023, and guess what: both Zanu-PF and the new CCC boys are telling us exactly what we heard in 2018 – that if we vote for them next year, they will turn our towns and cities into paradise!
A political manifesto is, by design, an audacious, hairy compilation of unfulfillable promises. Manifestos are deliberately engineered to not tell us what we need to do.
Here’s anecdotal evidence. In the small settlement of Ruwa, 20km east of Harare along Mutare Road, there is a small industrial shopping village called Msasa. On my right, I see Puma petrol station, Farm and City, Chicken Inn, Nissan Clover Leaf Motors, and units like Tenda Buses, Puroil, some bottle stores and betting shops.
One assumes these are corporate citizens who pay rates not just to the Harare City Council but also licence fees to the state road agency, Zinara. But these retailers also make lots of money from us – in US dollars – because we patronise their services.
The roads and parking spaces in front of their businesses are akin to a war zone – littered with deep potholes. Customers struggle to park their cars – let alone walk – due to these potholes, congestion and vehicular chaos.
Just further down the road at Halsted Brothers, those “brothers” took it upon themselves to resurface the bituminous road and draw white parking lines to make life comfortable for their customers. Halsted Brothers also pay rates and licences to both Harare City Council and Zinara, but they are responsible citizens who know that if they don’t do anything for themselves, neither council nor Zinara will.
In my neighbourhood, all but a few residents think that one day the Ruwa Local Board will resurface all roads, install street lights, provide water, build clinics, and ensure we have a state-of-the-art shopping centre with clean vegetable markets. The citizens expect this because they pay rates and licence fees.
They think if they keep pestering the council, one day, all the promises made by politicians in 2018 will be fulfilled.
Yet, if I went on the campaign trail today and said: “If you vote for me in 2023, I will help you resurface the roads, install street lights, provide water, build a clinic, and ensure we have a state-of-the-art shopping centre with clean vegetable markets, all this on your own”, nobody will vote for me. Why? Because the “government will” belief is almost spiritual, to the point of mental paralysis. I understand why liberals would not get a single vote: Because we believe citizens can do things for themselves.