The Vice Mayor of Musanze District recently resigned her job and it has made news. Her act came right on the heels of another former public official, Nyanza District Executive Secretary, who quit amid allegations of under performance.

The same performance related reasons were cited in the Vice Mayor’s case, though the head of her District Advisory Council denied it, confirming her stance that the decision was purely personal.

The culture of resigning one’s job is still new in our societies. For a number of reasons, it will take sometime to be entrenched.

Resignations can be caused by negative or positive reasons, or even reasons which may defy any of these two categories.

Securing a better rewarding job for example can result in giving up the one being held. A job can also be abandoned when the holder no longer feels challenged.

Lack of dynamism in a particular job, something similar to monotony, can result into loss of interest. Rwanda’s economy is growing fast, with one of the major effects here being more job options.

Unbearable pressure in terms of long working hours or demand to deliver certain results by the employer can lead to throwing in the towel.

Failure to account for public resources under one’s responsibility often lead to stepping aside. Social scandals committed by public officials or people of a certain standing in society has caused a few resignations.

In societies where the ability to probe and expose, especially by the media is high, where accountability measures are advanced and checks and balances mechanisms developed, resignations are a normal thing.

The trend that is gradually becoming characteristic of Rwanda is performance improvement. In some places pressure mounts from all corners when a given employee’s attitude is that of ‘business as usual’.

Also growing along with the other sectors of the economy is capacity in the media. Ability to carry out investigations will naturally result in more revelations, and not all will always be pleasant.

And yet consistent high level performance will have bred consistent high expectations. A combination of the above scenarios translates into resignations in future becoming normal, drawing attention only depending on the significance of the surrounding issues.  

Ends