During his long public life, Mobutu Sese Seko rose from being a lowly colonial police informer, journalist and army sergeant to become chief of staff of his country’s armed forces, military dictator and ultimately president of Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo.
After seizing power in a 1965 coup, Mobutu formed one of the continent’s archetypal one-party states, tolerating no dissent and encouraging a strong personality cult. The chosen symbols of his power became a trademark leopard-skin cap and wooden walking stick, carved with the figure of an eagle at the top.
Having held Zaire together for 31 years, Mobutu was chased out of office in May 1997, after a seven-month rebellion led by a lifelong opponent, Laurent Desire Kabila. Throughout his rule, Mobutu swore that he would never be known as a former president, but only as the late president. In another characteristic boast, he often said that before him there was no Zaire, and that his country would not survive him either.
Mobutu’s panicked flight into exile was merely the beginning of a humiliating end for a man whose almost constant presence at the front and centre of the Africa’s political stage had turned him into one of the world’s most vainglorious leaders. France, Mobutu’s close ally until the bitter end refused to give him asylum. Similarly, Togo, a West African state ruled by another longtime dictator, Gnassingbe Eyadema, asked Mobutu and his large entourage of family and aides to leave the country just days after the exiled leader landed there.
Finally, Morocco, another ally, took Mobutu in. For most of his four months there, the longtime dictator’s failing health kept him confined to hospitals. He died on September 7, 1997.
The story of Mobutu and many others of his kind is a lesson to all politicians that power is transient, and the “will” of the people ultimately prevails.
My ultimate respect for President Goodluck Jonathan stems from his realisation that once his party started losing the election, he, willingly, did not embark on derailing the electoral process that was going to oust him from office. This is what pragmatic politicians should embrace.
I am always surprised when I see the level of displayed hypocrisy on our political stage: political godsons betraying their political godfathers, and the saga goes on and on.
When Ahmed Makarfi, the former governor of Kaduna State disarmed every potential candidate in the state and endorsed Namadi Sambo as his successor, it would have been rational for Sambo to reciprocate the good gesture someday; but he vehemently refused to acknowledge Makarfi’s magnanimity. The slot for the Vice President’s position was thrown to Kaduna State, Sambo, the then active governor at the time would have simply supported Ahmed Makarfi for the job. But no, he, Sambo wanted it. He relinquished his governorship office, became the Vice President, and by May 29, 2015, both Sambo and Makarfi will be out of office. Time, the ultimate decider of our fate, would have cleared the fog from Sambo’s eyes now, after this gigantic loss.
Governor Suswan of Benue State was George Akume’s hand bag at one time. He rode on Akume’s back to power, and got caught in the illusion of power. As of today, he has lost that power because on 29th of May he will become an ordinary citizen like everyone, and then what?
Femi Fani-Kayode, the loud-mouth of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), should have learnt a lesson in this election that the masses, henceforth, should decide the outcome of every election in Nigeria, not rhetoric nor defamation of a candidate’s character. No matter how much party leaders engage in rigging, voters are the ultimate deciders.
Nigeria’s politicians take politics as a profession; some have dubbed it the greatest industry in the country, where profit exceeds investment. We have made governance extremely attractive that, with impunity, public office holders virtually claim ownership of Nigeria’s resources. It is quite interesting that under Jonathan’s administration, not a single individual has been sentenced to jail for stealing public funds, despite the intense perpetration of this heinous crime against the society. Corruption has blinded politicians from seeing that life, itself, is ephemeral, and that it pays to remain sane in this time of great lust for vanity.
General Buhari won this election purely on his merit as a clean person; although the majority of those around him or in his party are far from being called “saints.” He has the moral duty to induce them to change or weed them out of his government.
Social credit, which calls for an economy at the service of all consumers, also calls for a political system at the service of people. Social creditors fight monopolies in politics as well as in economics.
Monopoly in politics is the exploitation of people through party politics. As one orator pointed out in his regular political discourse, the organised and liberally financed politicians are clever at manipulating the amorphous crowd to get votes and achieve power, which is their only goal, from which position they totally forget the people’s interests, and take care of their own and that of the party which supported them.
Any political organisation which does not begin by enlightening and organising people so that they can keep an eye on their representatives, is a political monopoly, the monopoly of crowd manipulation at election time. It is a monopoly all the more perfidious, as it carries the appearance of a democracy, whereas it is actually pure tyranny.
To those who understand the philosophy of Social Credit, it is clear that this kind of politics can never survive for long.
Parties, old and new alike, can continue to make their policies revolve upon voting, upon the manipulation of the crowd to get this vote.
For those who believe that they should forever remain in power in Nigeria, it’s time to accept the great awakening of political enlightenment in our society. Kano, Bauchi, Sokoto and a few other states have clearly shown that time for mediocrity is over. In the near future, the electorate will decide who will rule or not rule them. This is a lesson for every active, or would-be politician.
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