In one of my recent articles, I stated that between a radio programme discussing politics and another discussing production, the former would be inundated with callers while the latter would hardly have a caller. This would be so because what passes as a discussion of politics in Malawi is basically a discussion of people. The real intention of anybody itching to discuss politics would be to humiliate and diabolise a certain individual or group of individuals while venerating another.

An age old idiom goes: “great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people”. We all derive a great deal of pleasure from discussing people, don’t we? Politicians probably top the list of those who are discussed extensively. But this is an activity that does not have much by way of returns. Usually, we are not any better off after discussing people than we were before discussing them. At every opportunity, Malawians will discuss politicians but do not emerge from such discussions any wiser than before.

This column would suggest that we take a break from discussing people and move two rungs up the ladder, past the level of discussing events, to the upper level of discussing ideas. Instead of saying so-and-so has devalued the Kwacha, for example, we should graduate to the level of discussing why the Kwacha keeps losing value and what we can do to halt its free fall.

I heaved a sigh of relief when I recently watched Napoleon Dzombe on TV and on Youtube. He has no time for discussing people. From the word go he discusses ideas. His vision is to mobilise rural dwellers into some form of production, initially by growing a variety of crops or animals and subsequently turning them into products that can be sold at a higher price. He wants to replicate this model at several places in all the regions of Malawi. When I spoke to him last week, he told me that the machinery for processing the produce into valuable products had already arrived in the country. Dr. Dzombe is not a politician and does not do this to court cheap popularity.

What Malawi needs, and urgently so, are people who think and act like Dr. Dzombe. People who will take an indefinitely long vacation from discussing people and graduate into discussing ideas are the ones that will take this country forward. Once you start doing this, you will realise that ideas beget ideas and, as such, can keep you occupied fully, and discussions of people begin to fade away. Those call-in radio programmes would change complexion beyond recognition if people started discussing ideas.

Back to Dr. Dzombe’s ideas: do they represent idle talk? Not in the least! The way I understand it, his idea is to cause money to migrate to the rural areas. By producing, in the rural areas, what the people living in the urban centres need or want, the products will move into our towns and cities while money moves in the opposite direction. That way, the village dwellers, who are by far the majority in this country, will have a bit of disposable income and will become meaningful players in the economy. If that is not development, what is?

What Dr. Dzombe envisages is a situation where the villagers will buy him out and become shareholders. He will use the proceeds to set up a similar production facility at a different place. The locals in that place will again be offered the chance to buy him out, then he will move into yet another place. Over time, a number of rural production facilities will be set up throughout Malawi, not by government nor by politicians but by a private citizen who means well. Yes, a private citizen who cherishes discussing ideas and eventually implementing them.

Dr. Dzombe perfectly fits into my model of development. I have stated on more occasions than one than one that a country develops not so much by the acts of politicians as by those of private citizens. Britain had the Isaac Newtons, the Michael Faradys, the Jethro Tulls, the George Stephensons and a whole host of others that contributed to the development of that country. Germany owes it to the Johannes Gutenbergs, Karl Benzs, the Nikolaus Ottos, the Rudolf Diesels et al for its development. America has developed because of the acts of people like Thomas Edison, Ira Rubel, Henry Ford, Elon Musk and countless other private citizens.

In Malawi we have people like Napoleon Dzombe, Simbi Phiri and others in relative obscurity who can make the country turn the corner, provided they are supported by all of us.

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