NIGERIAN/AFRICAN “METHUSELAH POLITICAL LEADERS” WHOSE LOVE FOR, AND HOLD TO POWER HAVE NEVER YIELDED THE DESIRED DEVELOPMENT OF THEIR SOCIETIES/PEOPLE
January 29, 2021 | News
Is it not surprising to note that all the Holy writ recorded about Methuselah was that he lived for Nine-hundred and Sixty-nine years and died? Despite living for that long, nothing else significant was recorded in his name in the entire Bible.
NIGERIAN/AFRICAN “METHUSELAH POLITICAL LEADERS” WHOSE LOVE FOR, AND HOLD TO POWER HAVE NEVER YIELDED THE DESIRED DEVELOPMENT OF THEIR SOCIETIES/PEOPLE
Is it not surprising to note that all the Holy writ recorded about Methuselah was that he lived for Nine-hundred and Sixty-nine years and died? Despite living for that long, nothing else significant was recorded in his name in the entire Bible. That is how best I can describe most Nigerian and African Political leaders who, oftentimes joined politics as young men, and they glue themselves to power throughout their lifetime, to keep enjoying the fringe and illicit benefits of being within the Government space. Africa has become a continent where Political leaders would rather remain and die in power than to leave Office when the ovation is loudest, or when the people no longer want them in power.
These were the thoughts that came to mind when I saw a picture online that showed the disturbing fact that, between 1982 to 2020 (38 years), the United States of America has had Seven Presidents (From Ronald Reagan, Goerge Bush, Bill Clinton, Goerge Bush Jnr, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden). Whereas, within that same period, Paul Biya of Cameroun has been in the Seat of Power in Africa. And that has been the prevailing circumstances in African politics. Most African countries and African Politicians are just like the situation in Cameroun. The only difference between that country and others like Nigeria is that in countries like Nigeria, where Presidents and Governors only get to serve Two terms in Office, they still plant their stooges and loyalists in Office after leaving. Thereby maintaining some level of stronghold and influence from outside, so as to keep appropriating to themselves the benefits of having been in power. Countries like Nigeria have also had persons who had earlier served as Military Heads of State as young men, and have again served/serving as civilian supposedly-elected Presidents as old men. But despite their being in the Government space in all these years put-together, they have left more harm, woes, troubles, and underdevelopment in their societies and in the lives of the people they were meant to serve.
In Nigeria, many of our State Governors after serving two terms (8 years), still find their way into the Senate, where they continue to earn both the outrageous salaries/bonuses of Nigerian Senators, and also Pensions as former Governors, whose figures are usually the same as when they were Governors. With such practice, how on earth will their States and the country at large ever achieve development? At the Federal level, the likes of former President Olusegun Obasanajo, and Muhammadu Buhari, having been Military Heads of State, actually returned as Presidents, which Obasanjo did two terms (8 years), and Buhari is on his way to completing his own two terms in office. Obasanjo even plotted for his Third Term in Office but his plot was resisted by the then National Assembly. Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (Rtd), after stepping aside as Military Head of State, according to him, he made efforts to return to Government as a civilian but could not. This is why we keep having ‘old recycled hands’ in Nigerian Government space, whose ideas and style of governance are completely outdated without any iota of vision, innovation and creativity. Also, 99% of them are/were in Government for the wrong reasons – not to serve!
It is only in Africa, that it took the intervention of the International Community, ECOWAS and the invasion of the territorial land of The Gambia, for former authoritarian ruler, Yahya Jammeh, who had been in power for 22 years, to be practically forced out of office to allow a democratic elected President Adama Barrow to take his rightful place as the new President of The Gambia in 2017. Even at that, it was rather shameful and disgraceful that Yahya Jammeh, as the authoritarian former ruler of The Gambia who was forced into exile to leave office, still had the audacity to have stolen millions of dollars in his final weeks in power, plundering the State coffers and shipping out luxury vehicles by cargo plane.
We have also witnessed to how South Africa's Parliament had descended into chaos, with opposition Members of Parliaments (MPs), denouncing former President Jacob Zuma as a "scoundrel" and "rotten to the core" because of corruption allegations and then brawling with guards who dragged them out of the chamber. The raucous scenes unfolded on national television and was broadcast across the world, as opposition members tried to stop Mr. Zuma from addressing the chamber, repeatedly telling the President and declaring him unfit for office. In the surrounding streets of Cape Town, Police and hundreds of military forces patrolled to guard against protesters who want Mr. Zuma to quit. And we could not help but wonder why would a man, whom it was obvious the people no longer wanted him to remain in office, still insisted to remain there until he was finally disgraced to quit?
Let us also recall how in Egypt, millions of people demanded an end to the 30-year-rule of President Hosni Mubarak, and in Tunisia; unarmed and educated youths protested their deplorable conditions and ousted Ben Ali out of office – putting an end to his 23-year-old reign in office. Such situations would have been avoided if the usual ‘Die–in-power-political’ leaders in Africa would learn to leave the seat of power when the ovation is loudest, rather than running their countries like their personal property and that of their families.
Other countries with such ‘dictatorial’ and ‘autocratic’ leaderships in Africa, and the number of years they have been in Office include the following: late Col. Muammar Ghadafi of Libya - 41 years; Edwardo Dos Santos of Angola - 38 years; Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea - 41 years; Robert Gabriel Mugabe of Zimbabwe - 39 years; Paul Biya of Cameroun - 38 years; ousted Hosni Mubarak of Egypt - 29 years; Dennis Sassou Ngueso of Congo Republic - 31 years; Yoweri Museveni of Uganda - 34 years; Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan - 27 years; ousted Blaise Compoare of Burkina Faso - 21 years. Others are: King Mswati III (absolute monarch) of Swaziland - 35 years; Idri Deby of Chad - 31 years; Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea - 24 years; Yahya Jammeh of Gambia - 22 years; late Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia - 19 years; Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria -19 years; Ishmael Omar Guelleh of the Republic of Djibouti -12 years; Paul Kegama of Rwanda – 21 years. Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo – 19 years; President Laurent Gbogbo of Ivory Coast - 11 years; Abdouleyye Wade of Senegal - 12 years, etc.
With all of these “civilian-military-decorated” autocratic and dictatorial style of leadership evident ‘only’ in the African continent, we are not surprised that Africa, despite its enormous human and natural resources, is still ‘backward’ and replete with all kinds of societal ills you can think of.
Zik Gbemre.
January 29, 2021
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes
Is it not surprising to note that all the Holy writ recorded about Methuselah was that he lived for Nine-hundred and Sixty-nine years and died? Despite living for that long, nothing else significant was recorded in his name in the entire Bible. That is how best I can describe most Nigerian and African Political leaders who, oftentimes joined politics as young men, and they glue themselves to power throughout their lifetime, to keep enjoying the fringe and illicit benefits of being within the Government space. Africa has become a continent where Political leaders would rather remain and die in power than to leave Office when the ovation is loudest, or when the people no longer want them in power.
These were the thoughts that came to mind when I saw a picture online that showed the disturbing fact that, between 1982 to 2020 (38 years), the United States of America has had Seven Presidents (From Ronald Reagan, Goerge Bush, Bill Clinton, Goerge Bush Jnr, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden). Whereas, within that same period, Paul Biya of Cameroun has been in the Seat of Power in Africa. And that has been the prevailing circumstances in African politics. Most African countries and African Politicians are just like the situation in Cameroun. The only difference between that country and others like Nigeria is that in countries like Nigeria, where Presidents and Governors only get to serve Two terms in Office, they still plant their stooges and loyalists in Office after leaving. Thereby maintaining some level of stronghold and influence from outside, so as to keep appropriating to themselves the benefits of having been in power. Countries like Nigeria have also had persons who had earlier served as Military Heads of State as young men, and have again served/serving as civilian supposedly-elected Presidents as old men. But despite their being in the Government space in all these years put-together, they have left more harm, woes, troubles, and underdevelopment in their societies and in the lives of the people they were meant to serve.
In Nigeria, many of our State Governors after serving two terms (8 years), still find their way into the Senate, where they continue to earn both the outrageous salaries/bonuses of Nigerian Senators, and also Pensions as former Governors, whose figures are usually the same as when they were Governors. With such practice, how on earth will their States and the country at large ever achieve development? At the Federal level, the likes of former President Olusegun Obasanajo, and Muhammadu Buhari, having been Military Heads of State, actually returned as Presidents, which Obasanjo did two terms (8 years), and Buhari is on his way to completing his own two terms in office. Obasanjo even plotted for his Third Term in Office but his plot was resisted by the then National Assembly. Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (Rtd), after stepping aside as Military Head of State, according to him, he made efforts to return to Government as a civilian but could not. This is why we keep having ‘old recycled hands’ in Nigerian Government space, whose ideas and style of governance are completely outdated without any iota of vision, innovation and creativity. Also, 99% of them are/were in Government for the wrong reasons – not to serve!
It is only in Africa, that it took the intervention of the International Community, ECOWAS and the invasion of the territorial land of The Gambia, for former authoritarian ruler, Yahya Jammeh, who had been in power for 22 years, to be practically forced out of office to allow a democratic elected President Adama Barrow to take his rightful place as the new President of The Gambia in 2017. Even at that, it was rather shameful and disgraceful that Yahya Jammeh, as the authoritarian former ruler of The Gambia who was forced into exile to leave office, still had the audacity to have stolen millions of dollars in his final weeks in power, plundering the State coffers and shipping out luxury vehicles by cargo plane.
We have also witnessed to how South Africa's Parliament had descended into chaos, with opposition Members of Parliaments (MPs), denouncing former President Jacob Zuma as a "scoundrel" and "rotten to the core" because of corruption allegations and then brawling with guards who dragged them out of the chamber. The raucous scenes unfolded on national television and was broadcast across the world, as opposition members tried to stop Mr. Zuma from addressing the chamber, repeatedly telling the President and declaring him unfit for office. In the surrounding streets of Cape Town, Police and hundreds of military forces patrolled to guard against protesters who want Mr. Zuma to quit. And we could not help but wonder why would a man, whom it was obvious the people no longer wanted him to remain in office, still insisted to remain there until he was finally disgraced to quit?
Let us also recall how in Egypt, millions of people demanded an end to the 30-year-rule of President Hosni Mubarak, and in Tunisia; unarmed and educated youths protested their deplorable conditions and ousted Ben Ali out of office – putting an end to his 23-year-old reign in office. Such situations would have been avoided if the usual ‘Die–in-power-political’ leaders in Africa would learn to leave the seat of power when the ovation is loudest, rather than running their countries like their personal property and that of their families.
Other countries with such ‘dictatorial’ and ‘autocratic’ leaderships in Africa, and the number of years they have been in Office include the following: late Col. Muammar Ghadafi of Libya - 41 years; Edwardo Dos Santos of Angola - 38 years; Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea - 41 years; Robert Gabriel Mugabe of Zimbabwe - 39 years; Paul Biya of Cameroun - 38 years; ousted Hosni Mubarak of Egypt - 29 years; Dennis Sassou Ngueso of Congo Republic - 31 years; Yoweri Museveni of Uganda - 34 years; Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan - 27 years; ousted Blaise Compoare of Burkina Faso - 21 years. Others are: King Mswati III (absolute monarch) of Swaziland - 35 years; Idri Deby of Chad - 31 years; Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea - 24 years; Yahya Jammeh of Gambia - 22 years; late Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia - 19 years; Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria -19 years; Ishmael Omar Guelleh of the Republic of Djibouti -12 years; Paul Kegama of Rwanda – 21 years. Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo – 19 years; President Laurent Gbogbo of Ivory Coast - 11 years; Abdouleyye Wade of Senegal - 12 years, etc.
With all of these “civilian-military-decorated” autocratic and dictatorial style of leadership evident ‘only’ in the African continent, we are not surprised that Africa, despite its enormous human and natural resources, is still ‘backward’ and replete with all kinds of societal ills you can think of.
Zik Gbemre.
January 29, 2021
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes