Balaam Barugahara Atenyi is no stranger in the public eye. In the social spaces, he cut out a niche as an unrivalled promoter of both artists and politicians without the slightest inkling or trace of any politician’s traits. It is generally agreed that in the business world he has been successful, a feat that has been a blend of his organizational skill and his simple lifestyle he cuts in the public. He portrays himself as a man who doesn’t worship affluence and power. The pride that comes with rubbing shoulders with the mighty hasn’t been manifested in his character. He has kept his simple demeanor putting on the same colour and fashion of T-shirt generating public debate whether it is the same t-shirt he has or a set of them, he keeps on changing. Be as it may, being a man of means and cutting a simple life has won him admiration.
However, his recent dive in active politics is likely to weigh his abilities to marinate his business acumen with politics. The youth docket is one that requires skills, zeal, patience and commitment. On face value Balaam seems to have a reserviour of experience from which to draw insights of dealing with youth whose patience wanes so fast. His appointment as youth Minister may have raised a few eyebrows, but generally it wasn’t a shocker. He has an amiable character, right connections and general appreciation of the youth whose entire adult life, he has been close to in the entertainment realm.
It should be noted that, however, politics is a totally different ball game, which puts you under microscopic observation for every twist and turn with competing forces awarding different marks for the same act.
It is here that Balaam must disprove naysayers by applying skills from the business world to politics. He started off by kicking a political storm. The plea to the president to release the NUP rioters on the very day of swearing in, denotes a man on mission. Unfortunately, he ran in opposition headwinds, castigating him for the gesture instead of applauding him. May be, he had good intensions, but failed to realise that NUP diehards aren’t keen to have the issue resolved, thus the impasse. The continued incarceration of rioters, earns them political mileage by portraying the govt as draconian, bent on violating people’s rights. There has been a nonchalant attitude by NUP leadership to avail the details of all purpoted prisoners and their immediate family members.
Politics aside, Balaam has a daunting task to inspire hope among the youth who are educated but unemployed, the jobless uneducated without skills who need to make a living, the unemployed who are unemployable to create personal means of survival through government deliberate policies.
These are huge challenges that I presume the appointing authority had in mind before picking him. There have been several policy initiatives targeted to alleviate the plight of youths with mixed results. His immediate role should be to evaluate the cause of these mixed outcomes. It is not enough to be visible in youth functions and activities, without taking stock of what has been achieved in a myriad of programs in the past, the pitfalls and possible remedies.
There is general goodwill in the public about Balaam’s appointment given that it was his close association with the youth as a promoter rather than his elective politics. His hustle resonates well with the common youth who look up to him as a role model, he is a true hustler. He looks a workaholic whose business as a promoter made him mix with common folks. The biggest challenge he faces is his ability to maintain this stature with a change in fortunes as a minister now.
Will he maintain a down to earth stature or power will get to his head? Either way, as a person, he wouldn’t like to fail or fail the appointing authority that must have had strong reason for picking him to head the youth’s docket.
The skilling program has been skewed mostly towards the uneducated youths, but the reality is that even the educated lack skills. So his role will be how to integrate both classes of youths into the skilling program for the job market.
Externalization of labour is faced with issues of irregular external labour contracts, working conditions and provision of consular services to youths in foreign lands, solving the problem of labour smugglers that abandon the youths in foreign countries, how to register all external labour to ascertain countries of operation and the pay structure. This will call for a multi-agency co-ordination involving foreign missions, immigration and internal affairs.
It is important to analyse why in the past little has been achieved. The externalization of labour should be a negotiated process between countries not private entities. Terms well stipulated, contracts understood by the worker before leaving the country.
Balaam will need the skills of multi-tasking and creating synergies with state institutions if he has to succeed in this daunting task before him. Short of this he will join the list of previous Ministers whose contribution needs a microscopic exactness to find.
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