Munini K Mulera
Dear Tingasiga:
Namibia is at it again. A very peaceful transfer of power. A new president sworn in on Friday past, without much drama. Nangolo Mbumba, the president who held the fort after the last elected president died in office on February 4, 2024, has fulfilled his promise to his people.
"I am not going to be around for the elections so don't panic," Mbumba told his people. "My aim was to be a school principal, which I achieved and now I have to thank the Namibian people for the honour they have bestowed on me to be their president, for a short period."
It was very easy to believe Mbumba when he said those words at his swearing-in ceremony. His predecessors had set precedents that had cemented a reputation for credibility of Namibian leaders. No attempts to mess with the people’s Constitution. No engineered crises.
Just straight talk and business-like politics.President Mbumba has now stepped into the shadows, with his head high, his legacy left to be watered by time, and by his people. Honoured at home, respected abroad. A free man, not afraid of his own people Credibility. The core attribute that matters most. Ignored by many politicians who lie about their intentions. They lie to their people because they despise them. They lie to themselves because they are insecure. Yet their deception is consequential. Often triggers popular discontent, and disaster for the abused country.Credibility. A word deleted from the vocabulary of Uganda’s rulers since 1962.
Milton Obote, our second prime minister, took an oath of office, followed by a speech on October 9, 1962, in which he said: “My government will seek to maintain stability, by the strict maintenance of law and order, by retaining the confidence of the voters, and by upholding the freedom of the individual.”
A little over three years later, Obote dismantled the democratic experiment, threw constitutionalism out the window, and formed a suicidal civilian military partnership that started a cascade of disastrous events that are still playing in the Ugandan theatre. We note, in passing, that Obote, who ruled Uganda twice for a total of 12 years, never enabled a national general election.
While his armies overthrew him before scheduled elections in 1971 and 1985, he deliberately skipped the mandatory election that should have been held on or before April 25, 1967. His successor, Maj Gen Idi Amin Dada, promised Ugandans that his would be “caretaker government,” and elections would be held once the situation had stabilised. He continued the tradition of rule by lies until the Tanzania People’s Defence Force helped him to leave power on April 11, 1979.Amin’s successor, Yusufu Kironde Lule, who was sworn into office on April 12, 1979, after his surprise election at the Moshi Conference, promptly ignored the agreement he had made with those who put him power. He declared that he was exercising power under the 1967 Constitution.
At Moshi, Lule had categorically rejected the same 1967 Constitution as one that provided a framework for dictatorship, instability, war, and poverty. Paulo Wangoola, a member of the National Consultative Council (NCC), moved a vote of no confidence in the president, and Lule was helped to leave power in the wee hours of Friday June 20,1979.
Paulo Muwanga, and Milton Obote, in his second effort, and Tito Okello Lutwa, took oaths to serve and to protect the people of Uganda. Then they unleashed terror and supervised lawlessness that pushed the country towards an abyss.Their successor, Yoweri Tibuhaburwa Museveni, who famously offered a causal diagnosis of Africa’s and Uganda’s problem as “leaders who want to overstay in power” is following the tradition of his predecessors. He made that statement in 1986. Thirty-nine years later, Museveni is campaigning for “re-election” to a job that he will retain regardless of how people “vote.” He is only 81 years old.President Godfrey Lukongwa Binaisa may well have been the only Ugandan president who did not break major promises.
I gladly stand to be corrected. To my people in Botswana, Cape Verde, Ghana, Mauritius, Seychelles, and South Africa, where democracy has taken root, and peaceful transfer of power is routine, what has happened in Namibia may not be a big deal.
It is a big deal for Ugandans of my generation who last witnessed a relatively free general election that was held in our country on staggered days in March 1961, and last saw peaceful transfer of power in our homeland on October 9, 1962.
The new leader of Namibia, President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, a woman of substance, is now at the wheel, steering her country’s ship forward. We are confident that she will follow nationally agreed rules and procedures, on behalf of her fellow citizens, not serving herself and her family alone.Most delightful news of all, Dr Nandi-Ndaitwah has appointed a female vice-president.
A quick look at the biography of Vice President Lucia Witbooi, a 61-year-old former schoolteacher, is very pleasing. She is not just a placeholder, but a formidable potential successor to the presidency, should the need arise. Has any other country ever had two women occupying the top executive posts in their land? None comes to mind now. Namibia is Africa’s first.
To have a competent vice president is an absolute necessity for one simple reason. Human mortality, always lurking in the shadows of our swagger, our heart rhythm, our blood vessels in the brain, even at our dining tables as we swallow water and food, can mess with our best laid dreams and plans. We saw this happen to Tanzania’s John Pombe Magufuli.
However, his death did not create a leadership vacuum or national panic. Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan stepped in with grace and firmness, with focus and confidence, and with calmness and reassurance, because she was very qualified to do the job. And from a distance, it seems to me that President Suluhu has acquitted herself very well.
The Namibian leader has added sweet icing on the cake. She has reduced the number of cabinet ministers from 21 to 14, and deputy ministers from 21 to 7. Furthermore, 8 of the 14 ministers are women. The president explained her reasons for shrinking her cabinet: “To eradicate duplications, cut down on expenditure, ensure smooth and effective implementation of the government programmes.” That is called common sense. Love of country, not personal power. Efficiency, not politics. Business-like governance, not patronage in pursuit of power. It is a great start.
Muniini K. Mulera
Letter to a Kampala Friend
