Patriotism is about honesty with self

NAIROBI: Patriotism is defined as an emotional attachment to the nation that an individual recognises as their homeland. In other circles, it is known as national pride. This is an easy concept to embrace; for example, when Kenyans are flying high at various athletics championships or when we speak of our very own Nobel Laureate, the late Prof Wangari Maathai. In fact, the list of things that would make my chest swell with pride can fill this page and run over to a couple more.

But there are times when I look at the goings-on around me and feel deeply embarrassed for the state of our nation and what our actions say of the values that we claim to hold dear. This is one of those times. Last week I wrote about corruption and all manner of waste versus the attitude that has been adopted towards teachers’ livelihood. In response, my readers, some of them non-Kenyans, reminded me of many more instances of sleaze which, in a bid to hold onto my sanity, I had quite possibly chosen to conveniently forget.

Being the butt of jokes in relation to what we tout as leadership is one thing. That, maybe we can live with by developing a thick skin. And then every time you leave the continent you dread the conversation about your homeland because even though no one will deliver an outright barb, their eyes soften with pity when you start to speak of where you hail from. So you arm yourself with all the positive stories you possibly can for when you have to defend your country. The routine gets a bit old and empty sometimes.

Sometimes you want to be the first to lash out at the social ills even if that gets you labelled as unpatriotic. What can I say? I am but human. Does it make me unpatriotic when I express anger at the injustices we have to contend with as the electorate? Or does it just make me unpatriotic when I speak up against them in the company of non-Kenyans? Isn’t acknowledging that we have problems the first step towards resolving what ails us as a country?

As I was perusing the Sustainable Development Goals, I was struck by the irony of the times we are living in. For example, the first goal relates to poverty. While poverty eradication is a noble cause, I cannot help but wonder whether our concerted show of buy-in makes a mockery of the whole process. As we keep quoting, the amounts lost to corruption as quoted extensively by anti-corruption establishments puts the money we lose to these vices at between Sh300 and 400 billion per annum. Wouldn’t that amount resolve a significant number of the development and social challenges we are facing in one fell swoop?

The fourth, which refers to quality education, comes at a time when our public schools have been shut down, one month before students have to contend with exams. That this standoff may be resolved in the coming days aside (though I should mention our style of resolving is using threats and pushing participants as close to the edge as possible), it speaks volumes that we are so laissez faire about the long-term effect this will have on the country. I find it interesting that in some misguided short-term way, even people who should know better are advocating for development projects being affected by bolstering education in a bid to end the teacher’s crisis.

This suggests that these two are opposite factions while in the actual sense, they are inextricable. Study a successful nation, any successful nation and tell me if you can separate its success from the quality and accessibility of education for its citizens. Consider the statistics. Africa has the youngest population in the world with over 200 million people aged between 15 and 24 years and this is predicted to double by 2045. Furthermore, 60 per cent of Africa’s unemployed population is cited as the youth. The media even goes as far as to refer to the youth in Africa as a ticking time bomb.

The growth in terrorism linkages to the African youth has been attributed to lost hope. As the gap between the rich and the poor grows - we have heard it said that though Africa is growing, its people are not - and the youth find themselves grasping at a livelihood in whichever form it may offer itself, social ills will continue to rise.

We say that the day you give a hopeless person a gun and a purpose is the day you give them something to live for. The late Nelson Mandela said ‘education is the most powerful tool you can use to change the world’. I will preach this until I go hoarse, we cannot afford to develop such a cavalier attitude towards education, not if we are truly intent on developing our country.

Far from it being unpatriotic to speak up against where we’re falling short in our countries, I think that patriotism is being truly honest with ourselves about how we can get better at governance and execution for success.