THE EXTREMELY URGENT NEED FOR ZAMBIAN POLITICAL PARTIES INTRODUCE LEADERSHIP AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

One of the realities that professionals can not ignore, is that the day to day work of politicians does affect the professional landscape of any nation. As a People Management and Soft Business Skills Expert, I was curious to find out some things as they pertain to leadership and skills development programs among our Zambian Political Parties. I have a few suggestions to make and I will thus speak directly to our political parties in this article. I hope you find it insightful albeit very brief.

Next year 2021 is an election year in Zambia. I would like to appeal to all Political Parties fielding candidates for MP to consider introducing mandatory LEADERSHIP AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS for all their candidates. In fact charge for this together with the adoption fees to increase your party revenue and makes sure attendance of these programs is a prerequisite for adoption FOR THE SAKE OF MOTHER ZAMBIA . It will contribute to the quality of their contribution to the nation because whether we like it or not PARLIAMENT HAS TOO MUCH POWER AND IT MATTERS WHO YOU SEND THERE irrespective of whether you are from the left or right of the floor in the house.

WHY IT IS EXTREMELY CRUCIAL TO HAVE LEADERSHIP AND OTHER SKILLS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS PRIOR TO PEOPLE BEING ELECTED MP

1. Our constitution currently puts a grade 12 certificate as the minimum requirement to be MP. Interestingly a good number of our Honourable MPs are either exactly grade12 or have some form of certificate in a field. The information about profiles of our MPs is on the National Assembly website. It will give you an idea of their training academically.

The question then is what kind of jobs are grade 12 certificate holders occupying in the industry? The truth is that they are are not present at the policy making table of business entities which are way smaller than a nation. HOW DID WE THEN CONCLUDE THAT THEY CAN COMPETENTLY REPRESENT US AT THE "NATIONAL BOARD ROOM"?

But being a democratic system, our people have the constitutional right to be represented by whom they wish to represent them. After all leadership is not just about education. Many uneducated people have lead their societies to greater development.... BUT THEY NEEDED SOME FORM OF SKILLS.

How do we solve the paradox then??? THAT IS WHY I ADVOCATE FOR LEADERSHIP AND PARLIAMENTERY SKILLS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS prior to election because people report at parliament to work not to be trained. And in fact I doubt that the National Assembly has enough resources and time to train all who come to the house in the core skills. Moreover they come to work not to be trained per se. And in my view training them when already elected does not really secure their attention.

2. MPs are responsible for the legal framework of the country

3. MPs ratify international treaties

4. MPs approve budgets and supervise the executive in managing the economy

5. MPs ratify constitutional office holders from chief Justice onwards. Meaning the state of the judiciary and other key wings is influenced by parliamentary ratifications.

6. MPs are the immediate pool of human resources for the Executive because the constitution stipulates that you can only appoint cabinet ministers from parliament.

7. MPs represent the people and champion development in their constituencies.

The list of the roles of MPs is vast. Now the versatile nature of this work already shows you that even being a PhD holder is not enough because what you need are actually more of skills than a particular academic qualification. Having more qualifications just tells us that someone stands better chances of learning and understanding matters and not competency to deal with the complex parliamentary matters. Especially that things like morals do not really come with academic qualifications.

My humble suggestion therefore is that as you adopt that candidate for us please remember they will need :

1. Legislating skills

2. Ability to interpret economic matters

3. Understanding of global politics and treaties

4. Policy formulation and implementation

5. Public Finance Management skills

6. Ratification skills

7. Corporate Governance

8. Human resource management

9. Community engagement and mobilization and general stake holder management skills

10. Project management

Etc

Yes we have technocrats but unfortunately it is not the duty of technocrats to decide for MPs.

Now is my argument about academic qualifications? Not at all.. My argument is for political parties to consider introducing LEADERSHIP AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS to impart skills in these key areas. If you make it part of the mandatory process of adoption, you might score the following benefits :

1. You will supply the nation with a very high level pool of potential MPs to drive what the people want most which is continuous development. That is why doing it before adopting is key so that even those who are unsuccessful are trained as they wait for opportunities.

2. You will raise more money for your party activities as you charge a mandatory fee and use your more experienced members as trainers

3. You will improve the general performance of MPs irrespective of party and increase the satisfaction of all citizens and consequently your political fortunes.

So I repeat, don't get me wrong, this is not about grade 12s but about the calibre of MPs for the Zambia of tomorrow irrespective of the sponsoring party.

I sincerely hope this son of Zambia has your permission to share these thoughts in a highly politicized environment. If you belong to a political party you may wish to share this with your party .

At this stage Dear Zambia WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Note: I am past the question of whether the leadership and skills development programs for MPs currently exist right now or not because they don't. Most training work in the average Zambian political party is aimed at party mobilization especially for canvassing votes.

Thank you for reading.