...So, About The SONA

By its textbook definition, the State of the Nation Address (SONA) is supposed to be a way for a president to comprehensively lay out important issues facing the nation and how his administration plans to address them. Because it is a head of state's only chance during the year to extensively engage the country on the machinations of his administration, it should be as overarching as possible.

President Boko's maiden address, to an extent, exhibited a clear understanding of the nation's challenges and how to address them. However, its proclivity towards being vague on the solutions to some issues like gender-based violence also left much to be desired.

Currently, Botswana's main challenges, among many others, are unemployment and an undiversified economy reliant on a luxury gemstone. In his speech, President Boko explicitly recognised these challenges and their impact on the very fabric of the country's existence and made a promise that "we shall overcome" them. He further delved into exactly how his administration was planning to help the nation overcome these issues.

On the challenge of unemployment, President Boko laid out vocational training and apprenticeships, linking educational capabilities with the requirements of the job market and a national housing strategy which would seek to employ the majority of youth as some of the proposed solutions for the unemployment scourge.

On economic diversification, he cited a National Development Fund, national sectoral strategies to strengthen agricultural innovation, reforming local capital markets to boost their capability to fund local projects and a national infrastructure plan which would focus on energy, logistics and internet connectivity.

Now, if there is one thing our nation's leaders are infamous for is overpromising and underdelivering. But in the second republic, it would perhaps be unfair to paint the incumbent administration with the same brushstroke as that of the previous administrations. Like everyone, they, too, deserve a chance to prove themselves. After all, President Boko set a self-imposed 100-day goal to achieve some of the administration's promises, so it will be easy to judge progress by mid-February of 2025.

Following his maiden SONA, the majority of critique was premised on the fact that Boko had failed to expound on how his party's manifesto promises were to be implemented. This is a very fair critique, and to be honest, the president has not talked about those promises either in his inauguration speech or his first SONA. By ignoring his promises to the electorate, promises which, to some extent, paved his way to the highest office in the land, President Boko risks living up to the stereotype of past leaders of Botswana: overpromising and underdelivering.

The issue here is not failing to achieve those promises. Revision of targets after having access to more information is a normal part of any project. Even coming up short on promises is welcome,  though the president set himself a high bar of "we dare not fail". As long as the challenges which barred the achievement of those promises are clearly communicated, something the current administration has not explicitly communicated.

Another legitimate critique is that President Boko, in his address, bizarrely left out how his administration's plans to tackle the scourge of gender-based violence. According to recent statistics from the United Nations, Botswana has the 4th highest rate of rape in the world, with almost 90 rape cases per 100,000 people annually. The country also has the 6th highest femicide rate in the world, at a rate of almost 8 murders per 100,000 women. Instead, the president went off on a tangent about the need for the country to boost its declining birth rate, an important topic but not nearly as important as the literal life-or-death matter of gender-based violence.

In summary, President Boko's maiden SONA was qualitative and quantitative in its coverage of the state of the nation at the moment and where his administration was taking the country. However, whether it was satisfyingly qualitative or quantitative is an issue up for debate. The good outcome is that we now have a measuring stick to assess the new administration's work over the next 100 days and beyond. 

With a seemingly inspired administration, a robust opposition in parliament ready to remind the government of its promises, and a nation which is showing more care on national matters than ever, it is lining up to be the dawn of a new Botswana whose citizenry will be proud to be a part of.