Son of the soil syndrome – the ugly side

The appointment of government delegates in some of our cities is drawing much commentary, like most appointments in our management fabric. However, unlike or similar to other appointments, the appointed government delegates seem to be origins of the related areas. This brings about the question of what gives rise to an appointment – competence, area of origin, bribery or some other form of loyalty?

By Enyih Paul Atogho

We know that the President of the Republic, as the First Man of the Law, is supposed to be the best respecter of the law. In fact, he swears and takes an oath to do this. Whether that law is conceived and enacted to serve the interest of all and sundry is another story of the Principles and Practice of Governance. If competence commutated in appointments and with the ability to perform, there would be no paradoxes of having the knife and unable to cut the yam.

Co-ordinated service is like sowing and reaping. We are told that one reaps exactly what one sows. This suggests that if one is interested in a rich harvest, one ought to be interested also in where to sow; that is, on which soil. The sowing of a good seed on good soil brings-about a good harvest. The reverse brings-about problems of varied cataclysms. This seems to be the case in some appointments where the chief executive’s hands are tied by the exigency of the law.

This has extended to several other areas of governance where the rule of the ability to perform is often sacrificed and made the Sloven’s slave.
Take for an example, the most-talked-about person in the world now – Barack Hussein Obama, President of the United States of America. Tracing his background from Kenya, his late father’s tribe and how the Kenyan Preisdent Arap Moi viewed and used it, we see how God’s invisible Hand often liaises with our actions to show the good plans He has for us. Father Obama emigrated to the United States where son Barack was born of mixed white and black parents. Then, the saga begins – Indonesia, Hawaii and then Chicago from where he emerged from Senator to President of the Most Powerful Nation on Earth.

Many others have succeeded in like manner where the hands of the law are free, not tied by some bigoted or short-sighted legislation. Still in America, Hilary Clinton is married to Bill Clinton, a native of Arkansas but who turned up as Senator for the State of New York. Today, she is Secretary of State for the United States of America and serving the American people.
The obnoxious notion of the Son of the Soil is very destructive in our development fabric. How would the people of the areas have reacted if the President of the Republic had taken competence and appointed a non-native to the post of government delegate? The point is to do the right thing to allow God, the source of all life and survival to do what he plans for us.

On the grounds that God has good plans for us, He requires of us obedience in doing His will to allow him use His Grace to help us. «A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how» – Mark 4:26-27 (NIV). Life is supposed to be lived as in a relay race or parts of the body which must not act selfishly but in collaboration to make the Whole a homeostasis; that is, a whole where if one part suffers, all the rest suffer and if all the parts enjoy, all the parts enjoy with it and God is glorified – 1 Corinthians 12:26.