When privilege replaces competence and the tyranny of proximity

Paul T. Shipale (with inputs by Folito Nghitongovali Diawara Gaspar)

The question few dare to answer

What troubles you more, acknowledging your own lack of competence, or admitting that your proximity to power is a personal privilege that, more often than not, comes at the expense of the national interest?

This question is not directed at one individual or one institution. It is directed at every society that has allowed personal loyalty to overshadow merit, competence and accountability.

It is also a question that demands intellectual honesty.

Most people find it easier to defend their position as the human ego naturally seeks validation. It prefers to believe that every achievement is the product of talent and hard work, even when invisible privileges have opened doors that remained closed to others.

Yet nations are not built upon comforting illusions. They are built upon uncomfortable truths.

The difference between trust and favoritism

Every functioning society depends on trust.

Leaders must surround themselves with people they know and trust. Businesses recruit individuals whose judgment they respect. Governments rely on advisers whose integrity they have tested over time.

Trust, therefore, is not the enemy.

The problem begins when trust replaces competence instead of complementing it.

A healthy institution appoints competent people it can trust.

A dysfunctional institution appoints trusted people regardless of competence.