However, the advent of Corona has shown us that we are just another poor African country. Nothing exceptional about us. At the drop of a hat, government ran out of ideas and revenue. The first instinct became to tax citizens more and more. As well, it is now proven that the depleting mineral resources and tourism sector can never make us a high income country. The solution then is for us to industrialise today. We cannot create enough jobs and grow this economy well enough by taxing citizens out of their senses as this government is doing.
In similar vein, drawing up an austerity budget as a way of reducing government expenditure with the goal of saving the economy is the same as rubbing chicken pox hoping that it is a remedy: the Minister of Finance must visit a book written by Mark Blyth on the history of a dangerous idea. It has been proven for the previous 55 years and time immemorial that taxes and levies alone, can never raise sufficient capital for the state. The government must push for industrialisation and citizen economic empowerment with prominence given to indigenous black Africans and guard against narrow nationalism. By so doing, we will be affirming the words of Julius Nyerere when he said, “nationalism that is not Pan-Africanistic is dangerous and reactionary”.
