By Igbotako Nowinta
Mugabe, son of a carpenter, former Marxist- Leninist, former class room teacher, who was very bitter in the 1970s that his country (known formerly as Southern Rhodesia) was a colony of the then British Empire, rose from the ashes of political obscurity to dominate the political destiny of his country close to four decades. His ouster in November, 2017 by his comrades- in-arms within the military marked the end of unnecessary tensions, brutal, nauseating election rigging, merciless land invasions, reckless beatings of political opponents and decadent leadership. How did this caricature of despotism lose control tragically in Zimbabwe? In the midst of colonial dungeon, fire and sword, Mugabe, who was born on February 21, 1924, acquired a university degree in a most unpleasant manner, struggled to make himself relevant in the political storms that gathered in his country by leading the Zimbabwe Africa Liberation Army (ZALA).
Out of African Presidents cum leaders, who recklessly graduated from the path of honor and responsibility to grandiose dictators and turncoats till date, none enjoyed a fabulous treatment like Comrade Robert Gabriel Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who was humbled by the cold hands of death on Friday 6th of September, 2019, in a Singaporean hospital.
Until death at the ripe age of 95, Robert Mugabe enjoyed a special package from the Zimbabwean authorities, a rare development for a character who was a darling of his country before he squandered it on the altar of nepotism, corruption and egocentrism.
The toga of special immunity that was placed on him was never given to those African leaders in his rank like Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Jean Bedel Bokasa of the then Central African Republic, Kamuzu Banda of Malawi, Muamar Gadaffi etc.
Robert Mugabe was indeed very lucky in November 2017 when the supreme political power had eluded him. Enveloped by illusion and surrounded by intimidating military power, like a badly cornered criminal, he agreed to step down after 37 years in the saddle.
Kwame Nkrumah, in spite of his extraordinary political success in Ghana was overthrown, disgraced and forced to live in exile in Sekou Toure’s Guinea, where he died.
Muamar Gaddafi of Libya, also in spite of his marvelous contribution to the development of his country, was hunted by both external and internal foes in desperate league with the imperialist forces, before he got the most humiliating passage out of this world. One can go on and on.
Mugabe, son of a carpenter, former Marxist- Leninist, former class room teacher, who was very bitter in the 1970s that his country (known formerly as Southern Rhodesia) was a colony of the then British Empire, rose from the ashes of political obscurity to dominate the political destiny of his country close to four decades.
His ouster in November, 2017 by his comrades- in-arms within the military marked the end of unnecessary tensions, brutal, nauseating election rigging, merciless land invasions, reckless beatings of political opponents and decadent leadership.
How did this caricature of despotism lose control tragically in Zimbabwe? In the midst of colonial dungeon, fire and sword, Mugabe, who was born on February 21, 1924, acquired a university degree in a most unpleasant manner, struggled to make himself relevant in the political storms that gathered in his country by leading the Zimbabwe Africa Liberation Army (ZALA).
He aligned himself with a storming petrel of Zimbabwe’s political struggle in the person of Joshua Nkomo and succeeded in forming a super alliance with Nkomo’s Patriotic Front (PF) using his Zimbabwe Africa National Union (ZANU).
In 1980, after he had suffered multiple imprisonments and harassment in the hands of colonial power, led by lan Smith, he was swept to power as prime minister.
Mugabe was prime minister for seven years before he grabbed the presidency of Zimbabwe from 1987 until he was booted out of power in 2017, when his staunch political and military supporters moved against him.
His revolutionary experience, as a guerilla fighter served him well as soon he assumed political power. He made education a corner stone of his priority; schools were built and a chunk of Zimbabweans acquired university education; the health sector was given utmost attention, mechanized farming soared; before long Comrade Mugabe became a leader in indeed.
Mugabe soon began to fumble, his staunch friend (Britain), turned against him, probably because he surrendered to the wish of war veterans, (as he couldn’t pay their pensions), who wanted to grab the lands once cultivated by the whites.
As the land redistribution program led to one tussle after another, Zimbabwe that used to be the food basket of Southern Africa became unable to perform; mechanized farming hit the rocks while the economy went into the gutter.
As a result of grandiose conspiracy hatched by displaced white farmers, business gurus and black traitors, Comrade Mugabe’s iron fisted regime did not have alternative agenda to rescue and push his country to the road of recovery and dynamism.
Therefore, a country that was only second to the Republic of South Africa in the early 1980s had to crash to pieces.
Instead of taxing his intellectual capacity to the fullest, to better the lots of his countrymen, Mugabe turned his ZANU-PF into an instrument of internal repression. He overturned and effectively smothered any opposition.
Mugabe’s personal ruthlessness played a major part in the utter madness the party unleashed on real or perceived enemies. ZANU-PF like a political version of the Mafia, with its leader and its own well defined internal rules committed unprecedented atrocities, many had to die including political rivals like Morgan Tsvangira (former prime minister).
Like the legendary pan-Africanist, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, he failed when he ought to redirect his strategies to better the commoners; he consistently improvised Zimbabweans. Mugabe raped the beauty of his people.
For a man who was delivered from the jaw of colonialist’s annihilation to become a terrible tyrant, a turncoat, indeed stained his earlier achievements with the mud of cant and caprice.
Also, his brutal manipulations to have his wife, Grace Mugabe to succeed him in office led negatively, to qualify him as a candidate for the den of Africa’s evil spirits (despotic dictators).
The lesson here is for his successor, former Vice-President, veteran warrior, Emerson Mnangagwa and other progressive leaders in Africa today, never to fumble or derail from the cause of the people, never to be a turncoat like Comrade Robert Mugabe.
Nowinta wrote: Where We Are – a call for democratic revolution in Nigeria.
