'Brick by brick, a country is built by its owners'

The two often repeated philosophies of the Second Republic - "A country is built by its owners" and "Leaving no one and no place behind" - are not mere rhetorical statements to pontify the niceties of the English language of "those without knees" — as blacks in loin skins described British colonisers when first touching base in this country, then Rhodesia, in long trousers that concealed their knees.

On the contrary, the two are exhortations, especially to rural communities that regard themselves as marginalised, to not have their backsides perpetually nailed on their seats with begging bowls raised for food hand-outs and cash but to stand on their own feet and fend for themselves.

Which suggests that a need must be embedded in the begging communities in point to utilise the soil on which they squat with their arms folded but with the bellies of their family empty — the soil that the gallant sons and daughters of this land retrieved from foreign usurpers by means of the AK-47 rifles and sacrifices of their precious lives for the revolution to herald back our land on the back of freedom and independence.

An imperative need therefore exists in the two philosophies for the powers-that-be to embed the need in rural communities that suffer obvious need for them to stand up, use their arms and all their strength, seeking assistance where that value is reposited, for them to be counted with the rest of Zimbabweans in building, call it developing, our motherland.

A report published in this newspaper, three days ago, to the effect that the National Enhanced Agriculture Productivity Scheme will be expanded, with more banks contracting increased hectarage as Government steps up efforts to boost food security in the country, is one important way of developing our country but which will obviously not cover every part of this country's 10 provinces district by district.

But one of the two repeated Government slogans says no one and no place must be left out in the Government's development strategies.

A panel discussion on one local radio station this last Wednesday strongly suggested how this country's national development should include everyone and suggested the need for rural folk to grow different varieties of vegetables for sale and export to neighbouring countries as well as providing for their families so that, for instance, children don't drop out of school for lack of money for fees.

Boreholes could, and should, be sunk in villages where dams or rivers with perennially running water do not exist, for the people to grow vegetables to improve their nutrition while also generating revenue for themselves so that they do not become habitual beggars.

The panel mentioned that shops selling seeds for different varieties of vegetables also employed people with horticultural expertise on growing and protecting the different types of vegetables that one might wish to grow.

Today, many school leavers make beelines from rural areas to urban centres in search of jobs which are scarce and the jobless end up going out of the country in search of greener pastures but with most of them receiving what amounts to slave treatment on foreign lands, some of which are infamous for their criminal activities, with the risks of the diasporan Zimbabweans being harnessed into that despicable culture of criminals.

Moreover, there's a popular song about young people from urban ghettos who spend time "locked up" in loafing for lack of employment.

In this communicologist's view, that song should be instructive to schools in rural areas to set up vegetable gardens and where possible crop fields to empower school children with skills for growing veggies at home, for instance, upon completion of their education so that they fend for themselves and their families as employment in urban areas is not like manna dropping from heaven.

Of course, the above also pre-supposes that members of Parliament representing rural constituencies should not campaign for continued support from their constituents for their continued tenure in the august House but must work with chiefs and other traditional leaders to ensure that no person and the constituencies under their jurisdictions are left behind in development as a fulfilment of one of the two slogans now holding sway in political discourse in our country.

If all of us Zimbabweans put our shoulders to the wheel, as the saying goes, none of us and no place in our beloved country will remain undeveloped.

The onus is on us as owners of this beloved country to attract investors with much needed capital by demonstrating our unity and that we are indefatigable in making our motherland a great success story in the global village.

The sky will be the limit in national development with self-reliance as a culture for all of us, Zimbabweans.