Finally, Robert Gabriel Mugabe is
out of power. The strongman is grief-striken. 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 MacÃas 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 MacÃas 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.
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