Common sense has eluded our brother in Singapore

Liban Mugabo’s column‘ Letters from Singapore’, caused me to analyze his common sense approach to Africam issues. His last article entitled ‘Common sense is often a rarity in Africa’ had him missing on two key points. The first is the fallacy his title is. To me I interpret his title to mean that he is pronouncing that the vast majority of Africans are fools. I will straight away tell our brother Mugabo that common sense is plentiful in Africa. Common sense abounds in Africa. As a Pan-Africanist I take offense that a fellow African can pen such a statement. If he is studying in Singapore, the chances are that it is Mother Africa’s generosity that took him there. I will only conclude that our brother is somewhat detached from what goes on in Africa or that he has chosen to look the other way as we move on. Point number: I feel that the writer does understand what the Private Sector Federation (PSF) does. I am not the Public Relations Officer (PRO) for the PSF but as a commentator of the Rwandan business scene, it has not escaped my line of interest and work to understand what the PSF does. I know of the ‘Beyond Advocacy’ approach that the PSF has been championing; this means that the umbrella body, of the country’s emerging private sector, does much more than mere advocacy but rather surpasses it. It goes much deeper into issues needed to get the sector up and running to enable it actualize its mandate of being a true engine of the country’s envisaged transformation. This is where common sense has escaped our brother too.Perhaps he has been away for too long. If not then he ought to have known that Rwanda’s private sector has certain challenges it needs to surmount in order for it to be accorded this momentous task. Policy makers are aware of the challenges that the country’s private sector faces. Since, it has been acknowledged that Government has no business being in business that only leaves the private sector, which in turn, has all these challenges as a key actor for assisting the country to register the planned transformations needed. If that is the case then how do we assist this sector to get out of its array of challenges? Is it not through its umbrella organization-the PSF? Is that not common logic? In this light it is only a case of common sense to ascertain the fact that the PSF is mandated to assist since it is the sector’s only known avenue for making this form of assistance needed to prop up the country’s private sector. Need I say that common sense is not needed to get this fact right? ojiwah@gmail.com