We should filter BBI report and adopt its good ideas
A copy of the BBI report.
Those who support the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) do so with a lot of conviction while its opponents are scathing in their attack. Ironically, the constitutional change bid has been as divisive as the politics it seeks to remedy.
But what stands out for me is its pursuit of a cure to the perennial challenges we invariably go through every electioneering period. The results are there for all to see — lives lost, livelihoods ruined, businesses devastated and the economy stagnated.
There is fear among business people and investors about what next year’s polls hold for them. And looking at the pattern of ugly pre-and post-election experiences, these fears are not misplaced at all.
The depths to which we sink every electioneering period is a shameful indicator that we have a long way to go to a mature democracy. I believe this was the major concern for the BBI proponents.
On this intention to seek a cure for our turbulent politics and violent elections, few would find fault with BBI. Granted, finding a solution to the multiplicity of challenges to a peaceful and prosperous nation needs more than one initiative but concerted and collaborative effort from all. It calls for sobriety and a broadminded approach to our shortcomings.
Harmonious coexistence
The road to a harmonious coexistence lies in deliberately talking to one another, continuously coming up with national cohesion projects and being unrelenting in our effort to engage on how to build a better country that our offspring will live happily, devoid of the toxic politics that has brought untold suffering and blighted our ethos and aspirations.
That is not to say BBI is perfect. Far from it! It has several sections that are superfluous, mundane and simplistic and read like the manifesto of a political party. But again, there are sections that, if implemented, would bring about peace and cohesion and silence our perennial post-election war drums.
But a government with a serious agenda for the country can deliver the good ideas in BBI. Besides, if the Constitution was implemented to the letter, most of the troubles cited in BBI would not have been an issue.
Let us not allow this initiative to disappear in the din of heated politics. With the 2022 polls almost here, as usual, everything else will soon be put on the back burner as politics takes the centre stage. And as political temperatures rise, some politicians will unashamedly play the ethnic card, brazenly whip up tribal emotions and hype sectarian interests — if only that would further their political ambitions.
In a winner-take-all political dispensation, it is easy to stir up ethnic sentiments. This is what BBI sought to cure. It may not have prescribed the best remedy but that a group of people made an attempt at a solution was a step in the right direction.
BBI doesn’t have all the answers but it still is a good start and an important building block to a mature, progressive and forward-looking political system. Let us not throw out the baby with the bathwater.
