Robert
Mugabe held on to the reins of power in the Southern African nation of
Zimbabwe for nearly forty years, however the strongman has been dragged
away from the seat of power.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
Robert Mugabe
Finally, Robert Gabriel Mugabe is out of power. The strongman is grief-stricken. The bravado is over. In the twilight of his life, he has
been disgraced out of office.
He started well as a revolutionary; a freedom fighter with a
difference and a popular nationalist. But, the former president of
Zimbabwe did not finish the race well. His rule ended on a sad note.
Although military coup is no longer in vogue in Africa, the intervention
by soldiers, according to commentators, was understandable.
The coup was even denied by the mutineers. They were in want of a
decorative interpretation of their putsch. Yet, there was no widespread
uproar. The continent was not enveloped in anxiety. Even, Mugabe’s
unrepentant admirers and supporters – the residual class of combatants,
who opposed colonialism – were ambivalent. To them, the nonagenarian had
outlived his usefulness. Gone are the days when he was a mentor and
role model. In popular valuation, history may not be kind to him.
Fear of life outside power
Mugabe had an obsession with power. He relished the pomp of his
exalted office. He may have hoped to die in office. Gradually, he was
being referred to as a life president. As a czar, the country had become
his fortress. He is the lone rich man in a nation-state ravaged by
poverty and squalor. His net worth as at June was $10 million. Indeed,
Mugabe feared life outside power. He loathed the difficult adjustment to
the ordinary man’s lifestyle. He was reluctant to abdicate. Thus, he
became an obstacle to legitimate democratic succession in that country.
Elections were held to sustain his hold on power. He was a great
electoral manipulator. The umpire usually danced to his tunes.
Literarily, the electoral commission operated in his bedroom. He was
powerful and influential. From his country, he fired salvos at Britain
and United States (U.S.) under the guise of sovereignty.
At 93, Mugabe brooked no opposition. His word was law. He even
boasted that, if he would leave power, he must be succeeded by his wife,
Grace. However, the reality dawned on him yesterday. He was caged by
aggrieved soldiers. In that moment of tribulation, he was isolated for
ridicule. Power, no matter how long it is wielded, is transient.
There is a vacuum in Zimbabwe. The soldiers of fortune lack
legitimacy to hold on to power, although their self-imposed war of
liberation against Mugabe was applauded. If they attempt to establish a
military rule, the world will rise in unison to condemn their
neo-colonial posturing. Military rule is old-fashioned in Africa. The
onus is on the emerging military leaders to set up a transparent
transition process moderated by an interim leadership with a limited
time frame. The onus will be on the interim government heal the wounds
inflicted by Mugabe and unite the country.
The man of history
Despite his colossal mistakes, Mugabe was a man of history. He was a
member of the old brigade in Rhodesia, who fought for independence. His
compatriot was the late Joshua Nkomo, who parted ways with him. Nkomo
was tipped to lead the country after independence. The chance eluded
him. He became the leader of opposition. Later, he served as vice
president under Mugabe. The accord later broke down. Mugabe became the
undisputed leader.
From a tender age, Mugabe was greatly inspired by Marxism. He
served as the publicity secretary of the National Democratic Party or
the ‘NDP.’ Later, he founded the socialist-nationalist movement Zimbabwe
African National Union (ZANU), which resolved to drive the British out
of their homeland. He was detained by Rhodesian authorities for his
radical activities. After independence in 1980, Mugabe became the prime
minister, and later, the president. During his tenure as president, he
managed to unite the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) with ZANU.
He was highly protective of the Zimbabwean territory.
Born on February 21, 1924, he studied in all-exclusive Jesuit,
Roman Catholic schools, and also attended the Kutama College, where he
is believed to have led a solitary life and preferred to keep company
with his books. He also studied at Fort Hare in South Africa, graduating
in 1951. He later studied at Salisbury, Gwelo, Tanzania, earning six
more degrees, in addition to his Bachelor of Arts degree, which he
obtained from the University of Fort Hare. Mugabe became a lecturer at
Chalimbana Teacher Training College, Northern Rhodesia, between 1955 and
1958. It was around that time that he was greatly influenced by the
former Prime Minister of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
In 1960, Mugabe joined the NDP. The party was banned in September.
Thus, he formed ZAPU, which was led by Joshua Nkomo. In 1963, he left
ZAPU and formed ZANU, established on the basis of Africanist
philosophies of the Pan Africanist Congress in South Africa. ZANU and
ZAPU were officially banned on August 26, 1964, after a long political
unrest. Mugabe was arrested and imprisoned indeterminately.
In 1974, while still in confinement, he was elected, under the
influence of Edgar Tekere, to take over ZANU. Later, he was released
from prison along with other separatist leaders to enable him attend a
conference in Lusaka, Zambia. He fled to the border of Southern Rhodesia
and accumulated a troop of Rhodesian rebel trainees. The struggle
continued through the 1970s and the economy of Zimbabwe was in a state
of pandemonium.
In 1979, Southern Rhodesia became the independent Republic of
Zimbabwe. On March 4, 1980, ZANU won 57 out of 80 Common Roll Seats and
Mugabe was elected as prime minister. He sealed an accord with his ZAPU
rivals. In 1981, a war broke out between ZANU and ZAPU. Four years
later, Mugabe was re-elected and the fight persisted. After the murder
of two ministers from the groups in 1987, Mugabe and Nkomo decided to
merge their unions. They were united by economic worries. They were
dedicated to economic recovery.
Mugabe became the executive President of Zimbabwe in 1987. He chose
Nkomo as one of the senior ministers. Two years later, he implemented a
five-year plan, which greatly benefited the economy.
In 1996, he passed a revision in 2000, wherein the amendment stated
that Britain would have to pay compensations for seizing land from the
blacks and if the British failed to do so, Mugabe would in turn, seize
theirs.
In 2002, he won the presidential elections at a time Zimbabawe’s
economy was in near ruins with widespread unemployment, famine and AIDS.
He applied brute force to stay in office. This led him to win the
parliamentary elections also, three years later.
He lost the presidential elections to Morgan Tsvangirai in 2008.
But, he refused to leave office. He demanded a recount of the votes. To
gain maximum number of votes, he was on the prowl, violently attacking
and killing members of the opposition party.
After the bloodshed, Tsvangirai and Mugabe came to a mutual
agreement that they both would share power. In 2010, he selected
provisional governors for Zimbabwe without consulting Tsvangirai, which
proved that he still wanted to retain autocratic control. A year after,
he announced his bid to contest the 2012 presidential elections, which
was for an indefinite period, postponed to 2013.
He displayed his interest to challenge Tsvangirai once again in the
elections and in July 2013, when he was asked about his plans to run
for president in the future, he said he would like to rule Zimbabwe till
he hit a ‘century’.
Zimbabwe’s election commission declared Mugabe the president in August 2013 after winning a total of 61 per cent of the vote.
Unending reforms
Mugabe was a lover of reforms. When he was elected as the
President, he implemented a five-year plan, starting from 1989. In the
course of the five-year plan, he loosened price limits for farmers,
allowing them to set their own prices and he also built a number of
clinics and schools for the people. By the end of the five year period,
the economy had seen drastic positive change in terms of the
manufacturing, mining and farming industries. The United Nations (UN)
estimates unemployment in Zimbabwe to be as high as 80 per cent. The
economy of Zimbabwe is in ruins. Life expectancy is a little above 50
years. Massive hyperinflation has made the local currency of Zimbabwe
worthless. The exchange rate of Zimbabwe dollar is 35 quadrillion to $1.
The local currency has been retired and replaced with the U.S. dollar
and South African rand, and this has led to the near collapse of the
manufacturing industry in Zimbabwe.
In the club of dictators
Mugabe has not been the only face of horror in Africa. There were
other sit-tight presidents and dictators, who left behind legacies of
high handedness, brutality of the opposition and muzzling of democracy.
Their regimes were marked by horror, terror, chaos and bloodshed.
Paul Kagame became the President of Rwanda in 2000. He rose to
power through his guerrilla movement that ended the 1994 Rwandan
Genocide. He has spent 21 years in office. He has been accused of human
rights abuse, oppression of opponents and the press.
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was the President of Tunisia from 1987 to
2011. He assumed office in a bloodless coup, a month after he was
appointed the prime minister. He led Tunisia for 23 years before
stepping down in January 2011 due to massive protests demanding his
exit. Tunisia witnessed stability and economic prosperity under Ben Ali.
In 2012, in abstention, he was sentenced to a life imprisonment for his
role in the murders of protesters in the 2011 revolution that led to
his exit from power. He was accused of embezzlement, misuse of public
funds, suppressing political opponents.
Gnassingbé Eyadéma of Togo (1967–2005) was one of Africa’s
longest-serving dictator. He became the president after he led a
military coup. He died of a heart attack in 2005. His son, Faure, was
named the President of Togo in controversial circumstances.
Hastings Kamuzu Banda (1963–1994) led Malawi from 1961 till 1994.
Banda lost effective control of Malawi during his absence from Malawi in
1993 when he was flown to South Africa for an emergency brain surgery.
Bakili Muluzi, his former political protégé, became president in 1994,
after the general elections Banda had earlier postponed, was conducted
in 1994. Banda fought against colonialism and led of Nyasaland (now
Malawi) to independence as Malawi in 1964. His reign left Malawi as one
of the world’s poorest country. One in three children under five died of
starvation. He tortured and murdered political opponents. Human rights
groups alleged that at least 6,000 people were killed, tortured and
jailed without trial.
Gaafar Nimeiry of Sudan (1969–1985) came to power in a coup that
ended five years of corrupt civilian rule. He was ousted from power in
1985 and went into exile in Egypt until he was allowed to return in
1999. He contested in the 2000 Sudanese elections; he got just seven per
cent of the votes. He died at 79 in May, 2009. He signed the Addis
Ababa Agreement, which ended the First Sudanese Civil War and brought a
decade of peace and stability to the region. But, his indiscriminate
borrowing left the Sudanese economy in ruins. The Sudanese currency lost
almost 90 per cent of its value against the major international
currencies. He imposed Islamic sharia law in 1983. It led to a
two-decade long war religious war between the Muslim North and the
mainly Christian South.
Siad Barre of Somalia (1969-1991) took power in a coup. He ruled
Somalia for over 20 years before he was overthrown in 1991. He passed
away in January 1995, on exile in Lagos. General Barre’s exit left
Somalia without a central authority, and this resulted in a civil war
that left the country without a leader for over two decades.
Charles Taylor of Liberia (1997-2003), once described as the
“tyrant of death,” was the President of Liberia from August 1997 until
2003 when international pressure forced him to resign and go into exile
in Nigeria. He remains one of the most brutal dictators in Africa till
date. He is currently serving a 50-year sentence for his involvement in
what the judge described as “some of the most heinous and brutal crimes
recorded in human history.” He was found guilty of terrorism, unlawful
killings, murder, violence to life, health and physical or mental
well-being of persons.
Yahya Jammeh of Gambia (1994-2017) took power in a bloodless
military coup in 1994. In last year’s general elections, he was defeated
by Adama Barrow, and surprisingly, he conceded defeat, only to reject
the results few weeks after. He finally left Gambia on exile to
Equatorial Guinea after sustained pressure by the African Union (AU),
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and UN.
Idriss Deby of Chad (1990 – till date) and his Patriotic Salvation
Movement (PSM), an insurgent group, backed by Libya and Sudan, sacked
the incumbent government, and Déby became the President of Chad. Deby
has used oil proceeds and funds that could have been used to develop
Chad to purchase weapons and strengthen his Army. Forbes named Chad the
world’s most corrupt nation in 2006.
Obiang Mbasogo (1979 – till date) has been President of Equatorial
Guinea since 1979 when he ousted his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema, in a
bloody military coup and sentenced him to death by firing squad.
President Obiang is one of the oldest and longest serving dictators in
Africa. The state radio declared President Obiang “the country’s god”
with “all power over men and things,” and thereby he “can decide to kill
without anyone calling him to account and without going to hell.”
Unlawful killings, government-sanctioned kidnappings; torture of
prisoners by security forces, and even accusations of cannibalism have
trailed President Obiang’s regime. He has used an oil boom to enrich his
family at the expense of the citizens of Equatorial Guinea.
Paul Biya of Cameroon (1982 till date) consolidated power in a
1983–1984 power struggle with his predecessor and he remains a
powerhouse in Africa and the president of Cameroon till date. Cameroon
has enjoyed peace and stability for the past 30 years. Biya’s regime has
also overseen one of the strongest diplomatic relations in Africa. Biya
perpetrated himself in power by organising sham elections and paying
international observers to certify them free of irregularities.
Jose Eduardo Dos Santos of Angola (1979 – till date). The father of
Africa’s richest woman, Isabel Dos Santos, is Africa’s second
longest-serving Head of State. Recently, he announced that he would
finally step down and end his dictatorship over Angola. The Angolan
economy has grown to become the third-largest economy in sub-Saharan
Africa, after South Africa and Nigeria. But the allegations of
corruption, misuse, and diversion of public funds for personal gain,
human rights abuses, and political oppression.
Francisco Macías Nguema of Equatorial Guinea (1968 -1979) was the
first President of Equatorial Guinea. He ruled Equatorial Guinea before
his nephew in 1979 overthrew him and sentenced him to death by firing
squad for genocide and other crimes he committed. He was brutal. During
his regime, he granted himself “all direct powers of Government and
Institutions.” He ordered the death of entire families and villages; he
executed members of his family, One-third of the population fled the
country, he ordered every boat in the nation sold or destroyed and
banned all citizens from the shoreline to prevent more people from
escaping his terror.
Hissene Habre of Chad (1982-1990) seized power in 1982 from
Goukouni Oueddei, who had just been elected President. He lost power to
his former military commander, Idriss Deby, in December 1990. Habre fled
to Senegal when Deby’s Libya backed insurgents marched into the
capital, N’Djaména. In May 2016, he was convicted of crimes against
humanity. Habre’s government carried out a frightening 40,000
politically motivated murders, and there are documented cases of at
least 200,000 tortures.
Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan (1989 – till date) took power in a military
coup. Al-Bashir is one of the most brutal dictators in Africa and
despite ICC’s warrant against him; he remains the president of Sudan.
The International Criminal Court wants Omar al-Bashir for genocide, war
crimes, murder, rape, torture, and other crimes against humanity for his
crimes in Darfur.
Sekou Toure (1958-1984) was elected as the first President of
Guinea in 1958, a position he held until to his death in 1984. Toure,
like many other dictators in Africa, survived several assignation
attempts and coups while he was in power. He died of heart failure in
1984.
Toure banned all opposition parties and declared his party the only
legal party in the country. He was accused of several cases of human
right abuse and extrajudicial killings.
Gen. Sani Abacha (1993-1998) became the military Head of State of
Nigeria in 1993 after he sacked the head of the Interim National
Government (ING), Chief Ernest Shonekan, who was appointed after the
annulment of the 1993 elections won by the late Chief Moshood Abiola of
the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP). The exact details of the
dictator’s death in the presidential palace ON June 8, 1998 remains
unclear till date.
According to international economic experts, Abacha’s regime was a
massive economic success for Nigeria. Foreign exchange reserves rose
from $494 million in 1993 to $9.6 billion by the middle of 1997.
External debt was reduced from $36 billion in 1993 to $27 billion by
1997; inflation rate went down from the 54 per cent he inherited to 8.5
per cent between 1993 and 1998, and global oil price was priced at an
average of $15 per barrel.’ But, the regime was characterised by massive
looting and human right abuses such as the public hanging of political
activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and jailing several political opponents.
Col. Muammar Gaddafi (1969-2011) seized power in a bloodless
military coup in 1969. The charismatic leader of Libya met his waterloo
during the Libyan revolution in 2011 after rebels in Sirte, his city of
birth, killed him. Under Gaddafi, Libya became the first developing
country to own a majority share of the revenues from its oil production.
Gaddafi provided access to free health care, safe houses, food and
clean drinking water, free education to university level which led to
the dramatic rise in literacy rates. Gaddafi led oil-rich Libya as an
absolute dictator, for close to 42 years, he quashed anyone that opposed
him, and was responsible for the death of thousands of his people.
Idi Amin Dada (1971-1979) seized power in the military coup of
January 1971, sacking Milton Obote. He fled Uganda in the heat of the
Uganda-Tanzania war and went into exile in Libya and later Saudi Arabia
where he lived until his death on August 16, 2003. His rule was
characterised by rumors of cannibalism, frightening human rights’
abuses, political repression, extrajudicial killings, corruption and
gross economic mismanagement.
***
Via The Nation
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
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