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By Jerome-Mario Utomi.
When one is favoured with longevity, says my grandfather, he must eventually contend with one out of two inherent probabilities. If the individual is not met with a flood of blessings, chances are that such a fellow may be visited with torrents of afflictions during his extra or “injury” time. I did not for a long time deem it necessary to unravel what this statement means until the recent Robert Mugabe saga burst forth.
A few months back, after reading a piece authored by Mbizo Chirasa, a poet and very prominent voice in Zimbabwe, I concluded within me that Robert Mugabe’s days as president of Zimbabwe were numbered. I, however, neither envisaged that it would end this soon nor contemplated it would occur via undemocratic means.
Mbizo Chirasa, in that piece, opined that ‘the revolutionary CADRES believes that change in Zimbabwe must begin by changing the leadership matrix in the ruling party, including laying off their political lotterist, Robert Mugabe, and his cabal, as the people were tired of the Mugabe hegemony.
Mugabe, in that article, was roundly blamed for the infuriating scorn the liberation veterans received from the verbal cyclone, Grace Mugabe, whose verbal acid burns the fontanels of the eldest liberation strongmen, most of whom are victimized daily in the corridors of power. She concluded that Grace Mugabe has become Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe is now Grace Mugabe. She has also tasted more sweetness than bitterness in the power trenches since her meteoric rise to the politburo – the highest decision making body in the ZANU-PF power structures. Case closed.
Very instructively, the above synoptic gospel marked the beginning of the end of the great Mugabe as the Zimbabwean president. While Mugabe’s travails have become a pulpit, it is now left for all to listen to his sermon. Conversely, Mugabe himself has learned no lesson from his current situation as he is still brandishing hope against all known logic.
Adding context to this discourse, I will state categorically that I am not in support of his removal through an undemocratic means and will never support any group that gets to power using non-legitimate and undemocratic means.
With the above in mind, it is also pertinent to say that the stage for this debacle was set by President Mugabe’s total consecration of himself, his government, and the soul of Zimbabwe to the ‘immaculate’’ hands of Grace Mugabe, his wife.
But in doing that, he failed as a student of history to harness the social responsibility postulations which strictly advised that every freedom must go with a responsibility. This political miscalculation of Mugabe as a person that loves education so much should be enough reason for him to seek further tutelage on managing women. That is, if he survives this onslaught.
President Mugabe and his wife, Grace, were deceived by a barefaced illusion that made them feel more nationalistic than patriotic. A compelling evidence for this claim is that at a point, they viewed Zimbabwe as their personal property, thereby affirming indispensability and superiority over other Zimbabweans. That, to my mind, is the missing link that landed Mugabe in this sorry state.
This is a situation that should sound a note of warning to our present crop of leaders. The recent outburst by a serving senator of the federal republic that he will spend the rest of his life in the Senate is a symptom of ‘Mugagbeism’. He needs to be reminded that political positions are not ‘hereditary.’
Another thing that the ‘lion’ of Zimbabwe failed to note as a president is that knowing when to, and when not to, is the victory. Yes, I appreciate his love of education. But in all fairness, I must say that the volume of knowledge he acquired wasn’t best applied. If not, he ought to have departed the political stage when the ovation was loudest, and not wait for the military to kick him out.
In the same vein, I am aware that Baba Mugabe as a scholar must have come across the aphorism which says that ‘for one to know about the road ahead, he must ask those coming back’. on this ideology, Mugabe, again, failed as he deliberately decided not to ask or learn from the like of Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo.
He did not also remember at any point to seek leadership tutelage from Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire and other African presidents via their biographies. Instead, he banked on his six degree certificates and on the ‘grace’ of Grace Mugabe. He brazenly allowed power to move from the corridor to the bedroom.
As a typical African, he overlooked the slim line that separates the family from leadership. Mugabe, to me, was a victim of ‘defocused leadership vision and we should draw a lesson from his current predicament.
Still on the negative side, when the economy of Zimbabwe is looked at, one will discover that Mugabe was more of a burden than an asset. To buttress this point, it is on record that the Mugabe-led administration made virtually all Zimbabweans millionaires, but economically powerless, because of uncontrollable inflation. Yet, he did not bother to unravel the damage/disservice he was doing to both the economy and the people.
Comparatively, while Mugabe is bemoaning his current plight, his fate, even though still unfolding, presents a very good learning platform for current and aspiring leaders in Africa. Failure to draw a lesson from his travails will definitely lead to a vicious circle of leadership failures.
To the military, I hope and pray that their role will remain strictly interventionist.
Utomi writes from Lagos
