Of the village economics. Economics is all about production, distribution and consumption of resources. These factors lead to satisfaction. There is a village/s in this very country that fully understands these factors. So as you all complain about high costs of living demand and supply, this village has not crumbled. Why? Because in this village, owning a cow (livestock) is an obligation. You are an outcast if you don’t have one. If not your piece of land is full of maize, beans, cassava, sweet potatoes…if not, then you are good at supplying labor for the above. Unwritten working hours exist. Drought presents a chance for those who are lucky enough to have a river at the edge of their land to manually irrigate. Production is continuous in this village. They are farmers.

For any excess production, these villagers sell to their neighbors next door, less than a kilometer away. Distribution is easy. They are business men/women. They consume their own fresh produce. They prefer fresh milk, posho-mill flour and “river edge” vegetables. When things are tough in the country, they only experience lower income and marginal price increase from their neighbors. They set off the loss through production. Banks, agents and mobile money shops are present in their shopping centers signaling financial deepening.

The only things that such a village needs from the government are; good roads, electricity, security and other social amenities which they eventually get. Such villages/estates are here with us. They could be counties that feed the nation. Their vote works! It works because they work hard and infrastructure (from government) follows production. Their standards of living display satisfaction. They believe in sorting their challenges because eventually, economics is about satisfaction.

They vote not for pride but to keep the above economic factors flowing uninterrupted and because a society gets the leaders it deserves, this village/estate has leaders who truly understand their culture. Any leader who displays departure from their norms is rejected. As you shout about the high cost of milk, flour… these villages/estates are already sorting their challenges internally. In an election year, can you campaign in such regions using economic propaganda?