Louis Brown Ogbeifun

By Louis Brown Ogbeifun | May 8, 2008

During my primary school days, we were taught one subject called “Civics”. It taught us the way government works, the social responsibilities of government, the citizens and society. We were told that democracy is the government of the people, by the people and for the people. I am sure our founding fathers that designed the course content of civics, realized that the primary school should be the building block of an ideal society. In trying to marry the contents of civics and democratic tenets, we were made to see leadership and governance as a shared responsibility between the leaders and the followers. We had the opportunity at that early age to know that as citizens, we have certain rights, which no government can breach though not absolute.

Age 0-12 represents the formative years where real education of character, behavior, attitude and mind sharpening towards the building of a virile and enlightened society takes place. The children of this age bracket develop the skills of leadership and interaction through the formation of playgroups. They mimic the actions of their parents by making fire using tins as pots and weeds as vegetables. They play the roles of pupils and teachers using volunteers for each role. They know who among them fits in as Pastors, Imams and the congregation during such role plays. They practice the art of trading using sand as commodity and stones as money. All these actions were learned using their skills of observation on the activities of various segments of the society.

Today, these attributes of our educational system have been cocooned to the negative side of education and history. There is a total reversal of our value system because of the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of our leaders. I am not referring to the moral uprightness and intellectual sagacity conferred by the formal school or religious systems, after all; Mugabe who is a bad dream in the realm of leadership holds more than six degrees from world acclaimed universities. Mugabe understands the definition and the content of civic education and democracy to mean total allegiance by the people to the government even when they are dying of poverty, hunger and disease. It is a system that guarantees food, education and good health for only the Mugabes. Every other person should toil day and night and go to bed with empty stomach. Any complainant against this inequality automatically goes to prison or sent into exile. He believes it is a system that owes no allegiance or responsibility to any man, dead or alive. His concept of democracy is a government of Robert, by Gabriel and for Mugabe.

Our forefathers lived with the monarchial system in which the king exercised control over the activities of his kingdom. With colonization and civilization, our ethos, cultures and traditional belief systems were destroyed and made to adapt to the political structures of our colonial masters. In the abandoned system, ascension to any throne was guided by the strict adherence to the culture and constitution of the people. The chief priest as an oracle of the gods consulted the gods for who would rightly ascend the throne in the midst of other contenders to the throne from other ruling houses. In some, it was passed from father to son. Any subversion of the process was punished by the gods. The repercussion of such breaches was swift and often disastrous and the judgment was very timely. This instilled so much fear in the people that nobody wanted to encounter the wrath of the gods. Therefore the passage of kingship stools from one generation to the other obeyed the rules of succession. In that system, succession planning and mentoring were key aspects of the learning process.

Since the evolution of western political structures, the African continent has been riddled with sit tight leaders for several decades. This started with military dictatorships, counter coups, soldiers turned civilian presidents etc. Africa is witnessing the worst sit tight leaders in the political history of the continent. They dot the landscape of Africa, from the east to the west and from the north to the south but the man of the moment is President Robert Gabriel Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

Democracy in so many parts of Africa respects no constitution. It has no succession plan nor creates room for learning the curve. It has turned to a one man show business, where the mantle of leadership is passed from father to son. These sit tight leaders muscle their way to power. They stay on for decades without any plans to leave the corridors of power. They are so wise that they cannot entrust the country to the care of any other person so that the country will not collapse after their exit. If not, how can one explain a situation where one man rules a nation of millions of people for more than three decades, yet, no other person has what it takes to be a president or prime minister? They hang on to the reins of power with a do or die intent and of course, they get killed in their palaces when the people resist their tyrannical rule. When they are lucky to be alive during such rebellions, they run away to foreign lands to enjoy their loots. There they die and rot away without fanfare accorded to presidents.

Sit tight leaders begin as friends of the masses. These crops of leaders have the same modus of operation. They usually have very humble beginnings and use Marxism as their ideological base. They pretend to act as the mouth piece and volunteers on behalf of the rest of us. More than ninety percent of them started as freedom fighters. They fought in the trenches and jungles for decades against colonialism, apartheid, social injustice, inequality, repressive regimes, misrule of politicians or their colleagues in khaki uniform whom they accuse of corruption. They propagate and sermonize Marxist ideologies without end. Unfortunately they end up as super-jumbo-capitalists, amassing stupendous wealth that would last several generations.

They come with different reasons for venturing into the political arena. A few examples will suffice, since much has been written on these despots over time. Kamuzu Banda ruled Malawi from 1961-1974. After a humiliating defeat at the polls, he fled to South Africa where he finally died. Idi Amin seized power from Obote in 1971. He wreaked so much havoc on his people and left Uganda worst than he met her. When he was forcefully removed from office in 1979, he fled to Libya and later relocated to Saudi Arabia where he died in 2003. One of his wives pleaded with the Ugandan government to allow his corpse to be brought back to Uganda for final burial to no avail. Yoweri Museveni has been President of Uganda since 1986 and only God knows when he shall relinquish power. Mobutu Sese seko forcefully took power in 1971. He ruled Democratic Republic of Congo until he was ousted in 1997 by Laurent Kabila. He died in exile in Rabat, Morocco in 1997.

Once they hold the reins of power they work gradually to buy the conscience of the people. The first step is to promise a return to civilian rule in less than three years. This promise is never honoured. Once they get entrenched, they begin to unveil their real political agenda. They soon put in place legislations against what they perceived as immoral and anti-social behaviours. For instance, Kamuzu Banda banned kissing in public and wearing of clothes that would expose the laps of females in Malawi. He told his people he was trying to protect the dignity of female folks. Some rename their countries in their native dialects. We saw this happen in Rhodesia now known as Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Some pretend to promote African cultural awareness by wearing home made clothes. To endear themselves to the people, they would nationalize assets of the multinationals and give them at give away to their acolytes and fronts. We saw this under Dada Idi Amin of Uganda, Kamuzu Banda of Malawi and now the enfant terrible of African politics Robert Mugabe. All these in their estimation are done to build confidence in the people and portray themselves as true messiahs.

Haven achieved their objectives, they move to the next stage of consolidation. Their operations follow the same pattern

•  Formation of a broad based coalition and buying off perceived political enemies through political appointments,allocation of oil blocs, mining leases and juicy contracts. All these are done to set their opponents up for a kill.
•  Those offered appointments face trump up charges of sedition and corruption. They are made to face judges that have been bought over and ready to do the will of the payer. At end, they are sentenced to long term imprisonment or a bargain to go into exile.
• Redistribution of public assets to a few trusted allies.
• Appropriating more funds for security at the expense of the people’s welfare programmes
• Buying off the military top brass with shady economic interests, which gets them attached to the apron strings of the rulers for life.
• Buying off the top echelon of the judiciary. Those who refused their entreaties are dismissed, retired or killed.
• Identifying and sponsoring of selected leaders of civil society organizations to attack the views of political opponents and critics.
• Driving underground political opponents, critics, and journalists especially the foreign press.
• Formation of killer or death squads to hunt political opponents.
• Gradual prosecution and assassination of opponents and critics.
• Becoming increasingly inaccessible. They are only seen with those die-hard trusted friends and allies who are beneficiaries of the largesse of the spoils of office.
• Surrounding themselves and their acolytes with thousands of soldiers that could prosecute a civil war.
• Shutting down radio and television stations and the print media that are anti-repressive behaviours.
• Unleash terror on the same people they vowed to protect.
• Subverting the constitution they swore to defend
• Effecting constitutional changes that would accommodate tenure elongation.
• Hiring of willing foreign consultants on image laundering expedition.
• Destruction of the educational systems in order to make the masses less literate to ask questions about governance.
• Destruction of the socio-economic systems so that the people become poorer. Since the poor are perpetually working hard to make ends meet, they are oblivious of the goings on in their surroundings and too weak and afraid to demand their rights. Unfortunately, rulers have forgotten that when people are reduced to the level of mere animals, though the animalistic instincts may take time to overcome the human rational instincts, the revolution of a hungry bunch will only be the elixir needed for a rebellion that will sweep them off. Not too long ago, Kibaki had a taste of what it takes for the masses to demand a right unlawfully denied.

Zimbabwe under Mugabe has witnessed the good, the bad and the ugly. According to the legend of afro beat music, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, at the end of any military incursion, they leave behind sorrow, tears and blood (STB), which are also the trademarks of despots, tyrants and corruptive regimes. This exactly is where the rule of Mugabe has left Zimbabweans. More than a quarter of the population has fled the country because of the oppressive regime of Mugabe. Those who have no where to go are experiencing hell on earth. There is shortage of foreign exchange with Zimbabwean dollar exchanging at about 120,000 to one United States dollar, inflation is said to be at more than 100,000%, the land redistribution programme has brought calamity to this land locked country with the worst food shortages ever known in the history of Zimbabwe, more than 4,500 white farmers have had to leave the country to settle in other parts of the world, there are shortages in medical and food supplies, the once booming tourist industry has nose dived with massive deforestation and more than half of the wild life destroyed, unemployment rate is said to be in the region of 80%, life expectancy is in the average of 34-37 years, which is one of the lowest in the world, the school system which was the pride of Africa is becoming one of the worst in the world, the citizens have long abandoned the elitist food regime for no alternative at sight. It is sad that the food basket of the southern part of Africa has been led to a pitiable enclave. It is the saddest commentary that a president who cannot provide food for the populace has the affront to import guns that will be used to continue the reign of terror over innocent and harmless people. Thanks to those workers in South Africa who refused to offload the ship load of guns heading for Zimbabwe.

The panacea to bad governance is to know our rights as taught by civics. Wherever we are as Africans, we should demand of our leaders, good governance, selfless service, transparent and accountable leadership. Where these are lacking, we should institute a process of advocacy against all forms of misrule. Where this fails, we, the masses who are the victims of bad rulership, must not relent in protesting against political fraud, misapplication of public funds by public office holders, sit tight tendencies and such other behaviours that are antithetical to the development and sustenance of democracy. We must learn to isolate those whose source of wealth we cannot ascertain from religious and social gatherings. Society must desist from the praise singing disease, which is the tonic that gives false performance scores to political office holders. We may not be able to directly enthrone a leader in another country other than ours because of the sovereignty each nation enjoys but we as democrats and progressives without borders should stand up in defence of democracy by lending our voices to resent tyrants and sit tight leaders wherever they are in the world.

African leaders who believe in the self worth of man should stop any form of romance with sit tight leaders. Sit tight leaders should be expelled from the gathering of civilized people. Any nation found to be stashing money in their vaults for corrupt leaders in any part of Africa should be alienated by world leaders of civilized nations.

It is often said that the fly that has no wise advocate and counsel will be buried with the dead. Time is running out for his royal majesty, excellency, chief, dr and life president of Zimbabwe, Robert Gabriel Mugabe. The only window of grace open to him is to follow the footsteps of his elder brothers and go into exile now where he will live the rest of his life like Idi Amin, Mobutu Sese Seko, Kamuzu Banda etc. He might choose to remain adamant by holding on to the sharp end of the political sword that may spill his blood when drawn by the larger majority who are holding it at the other end. Mugabe is on the last quarter of the extra time in the game of politics. He has played his last joker with the last elections, which his own government declared in favour of the opposition. Zimbabweans have spoken boldly and widely through the ballot box. They have unanimously rejected everything Mugabe stands for. The opposition in Zimbabwe should not accept the power sharing formula or a re-run of election, which is usually the option B of election riggers and fraudsters as it happened in Kenya. Mugabe must respect the will of the people by honourably handing over to the winner of the election NOW. When the bell tolls, it serves as a call to a special occasion.This bell is calling to an end the rule of a man who though fought for the emancipation of his people from apartheid has only succeeded in leaving the same people in the wilderness without manna. He has successfully dumped them in the tunnel of poverty, helplessness, hunger, disease and hopelessness. In this tunnel, tomorrow is like a thousand years. The referee in this political chess game is watching his stop watch. The seconds are tickling by. Mugabe is racing against time and surely this is not a match he could possibly win. I pray he does not end up like the fly that must be buried with the dead.

Reference

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe#cite_ref-0

http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biography_home/1465:0/Robert_Mugabe.htm

 

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