Tag: Friends

Zimbabwe’s nonagenarian president, Robert Mugabe, stands out in many respects that are not too flattering. He is arguably the world’s oldest head of state, and has been the only ruler of his country since independence from Britain in 1980. Not that there haven’t been several elections in the country, but Mugabe always returned as winner in very disputable circumstances characterised by allegations of vote-rigging, human rights abuses and mass emigration amidst sharp economic decline. His current term of office was renewed in 2013. And even though he attained a ripe age of 92 this year, his appetite for political power is not at all diminished. Actually, he has already secured his party’s nomination to contest the next presidential election in 2018. And he could well return again as president unless Providence intervenes. You can’t foreclose that because the southern African country is a one-dominant-party state: the dominant party being the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), while the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is the main opposition party.

Pa Mugabe marked his 92nd birthday penultimate weekend with a $1.1million feast hosted by the ruling Zanu-PF. The lavish celebration featured the cutting of a huge birthday cake in drought-ravished Masvingo province, where 75 percent of the staple maize crop failed due to parched conditions. The agrarian province is hardest-hit in the worst drought experienced by Zimbabwe since the early 1990s, which leaves some 3million Zimbabweans presently in danger of starvation and has compelled Harare to declare a state of disaster in most rural areas. The government has also appealed for about $2.2billion in international aid to pay for grain and other food items to succour its citizens. But that didn’t stop Zanu-PF from treating Mugabe to the birthday party that was held in a large tent at the ‘Great Zimbabwe’ ruins – a UNESCO world heritage site built in the 13th Century. The nonagenarian ruler, accompanied by wife and children, cut the giant cake that was symbolically made to look like the ancient ruins, and he released 92 festal balloons amidst poetry readings, praise songs and chants hailing him as an African icon and visionary.

Mugabe’s tastes at his lavish birthday parties, which are a yearly national event in Zimbabwe, have never been subdued. In 2015, he reportedly had wild animals, including a young elephant, slaughtered and served to guests, infuriating wildlife conservationists. Other delicacies at that party included two buffaloes, two sables and five impalas donated by a local landowner, besides a stuffed lion and crocodile thrown in as extra gifts for the old man. Local media reported that Zanu-PF activists compelled teachers and villagers in Masvingo districts to make cash donations to their fundraiser to pay for this year’s celebrations. Critics were swift to condemn the festivity as an affront to penurious Zimbabweans, with opposition MDC saying the money spent should have been used to import maize and avert impending starvation in Masvingo province and other parts of the country. But Pa Mugabe dismissed the fear of starvation and, to the bargain, called the potential bluff of likely aid donors. “If aid, as I understand, is to be given on the basis that we accept the principle of gay marriages, then let that aid stay where it is. We don’t want it. It is rotten aid, filthy aid, and we won’t have anything to do with it,” he said during an hour-long speech at the birthday party penultimate Saturday.

I align fully with the moral of Pa Mugabe’s protestation against foreign aid with depraved terms, but the whole idea of outlandish birthday feasts in droughty seasons is another matter. Talk about Emperor Nero fiddling away when Rome is burning! When political leaders cocoon themselves in illusions of grandeur, they lose touch with reality and the urgency of the public mood and would most likely set store, outlandishly, by things that the public consider of least or, at best, fringe importance. This mindset, which is a species of what the late Chinua Achebe describes as ‘cargo cult mentality’ in his incisive literary midget, The Trouble With Nigeria, is present with us in the country today. It is apparently what is behind the controversial resolve of the Nigerian Senate to procure some 120 luxury vehicles for its functionaries and operations.

We must hasten to note that there have been modest attempts within the present administration to shun this diseased mindset, but there have also been spot manifestations of it at different maturity stages in other areas. For instance, President Muhammadu Buhari is reported to have rejected, among other things, a proposal for procurement of new vehicles for the Presidency as part of 2016 budgetary expenditure, owing obviously to the shambolic state of the Nigerian economy presently. Some discerning citizens have, nonetheless, observed a few outstanding budget heads that are affrontingly luxurious in the country’s present circumstance or out of touch with the immediate needs of most Nigerians, like culinary provisions and certain furniture items for Aso Rock. Nigeria is notoriously in economic dire straits at the moment, with shrinking national revenue in the face of global oil price losses, and with our currency value headed steeply southwards – leaving the bulk of the citizenry largely impoverished and contending with life-threatening inflationary pressures. In effect, basic survival is the concern of many citizens for now, and this is widely expected to be the goal of governance, at least in the short term.

Now, that is why the Senate’s seeming determination to carry through with its planned procurement of a fleet of luxury vehicles – at a cost in excess of 4billion naira – rankles. The prevailing narrative is that some of the vehicles are for the Senate President’s convoy, while the others are to be ‘pool vehicles’ for Senate committees to conduct their legislative oversight functions. By the ordinary notion of ‘pool vehicles,’ the 120 units of four-wheel drives that the Senate plans to procure is curious to most sensible people, as there are more than enough vehicles in that expenditure bill to go round all 109 members of the chamber without being pooled! Many have argued – not the least of them, former President Olusegun Obasanjo – that should Senate committees genuinely require service vehicles, a handful of pool buses that can be shared by committee members should do, rather than the fleet the chamber is working on acquiring. The Senate, to my knowledge, has not adduced any countervailing argument to justify its preference.

Truth be told: it is downright insensitive that the Senate seems determined to pull through with its vehicle procurement binge. It is bad enough that the legislative chamber recently took delivery of new vehicles for Senate President Bukola Saraki’s convoy, it is worse and mindless that it is pressing ahead with the acquisition of the remaining vehicles in defiance of public protestation. An attempted justification of the Senate President’s new acquisition by his spokesman recently didn’t wash. It is well understood as the spokesman argued, for instance, that the vehicles inherited by Dr. Saraki were old and malfunctioning. What is not understood is why brands so exotic and foreign must be acquired in replacement, at such a time as Nigeria is in at the moment. If the naira fares so badly against the dollar and other world’s convertible currencies, and the touted remedy is for Nigerians to as much as possible patronise Nigerian-made items, why would the Senate President not set a good example by ordering a Nigeria-assembled vehicle brand like Innoson, just like ‘Common Sense’ advocate and another member of the Senate, Ben Murray-Bruce, claims to have done in private capacity?

Leaders become undertakers when they drain out the residual life serum in their countries to indulge their fancies.