We enter the New Year with the same old burdens |
We enter the New Year not with renewal, but with remembrance – remembrance of the same problems, the same pains, the same untold miseries that have stalked this land for decades. Time has moved forward, calendars have changed, and digits have been replaced, yet nothing fundamental has changed in the lived reality of the people. We transport ourselves into the New Year carrying all our past baggage – old wounds, festering injustices, and unfulfilled promises – still crying out for improvement, reforms, good governance, an end to cancerous corruption, and relief from elite capture that continues to destroy the very fabric of our society.
The illusion of change collapses when confronted with facts.
Our rulers peddle an official unemployment rate of around 7 percent, projecting an image of relative stability. Yet renowned and independent economists place real unemployment closer to 22 percent, exposing a massive gap between official narratives and lived reality. Each year, over 22 million young people enter the labour force, hopeful yet increasingly disillusioned, only to find shrinking opportunities and closed doors. This youth bulge, instead of becoming a demographic dividend, is fast turning into a social and economic time bomb.
Hunger, meanwhile, stalks millions. More than 8 million people are experiencing acute food insecurity, unsure where their next meal will come from. Among children, the crisis is even more heartbreaking. Around 38 percent suffer from stunted growth, a permanent scar of malnutrition that impairs physical and cognitive development. These are not mere statistics; they are lifelong sentences imposed on innocence.
Education – the most powerful instrument of social mobility........