GOOD day, President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Your Excellency, as I see it, the ED 2030 campaign sloganeering lacks practicality. It is corrosive, divisive and erosive. It contradicts the time-honoured leadership succession ideals. It presages perpetual socio-economic meltdown.
It is my solemn submission that it is dictatorial. It is a retardation, thoroughly bereft of the ideals of democracy. My anticipation was that you would give the sloganeering a well-intentioned order to be stopped forthwith.
Yet, with all due respect, it never dawned on me that I would ever witness an era whereby authoritarianism would diminish the conscience of a leader to a stupor.
Your Excellency, a perceptive leader would have taken a stance against such sloganeering as it is fomenting disharmony and discomfort across the political divide. Amid your pretensions for a third term, I am of the conviction that it will not augur well for you if the Constitution were to be amended to enable you to stay put beyond the current term.
I reckon the ED 2030 campaign sloganeering consequences will be a blow-by-blow replication of the ejection the deposed late former President Robert Mugabe suffered.
Methinks it is imperative for you to isolate yourself from the irrational ED campaign sloganeering. It is in moments of solitude that nuggets of wisdom manifest.
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It will inevitably dawn on you that the responsibility for the consequences of the sloganeering lies in yourself, not with fate or fortune as stated in the play, Julius Caesar. "The fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings."
Verily, your presidency fast-tracked Zimbabwe to an underling. Methinks it was precisely for the reason that she is now a socio-economic lonesome underling that you whimpered about being forlorn during your meeting with your Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
My thinking is that it is worthwhile for you to ponder over the insights of the Italian philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli. His declaration, “The first method of estimating the intelligence of a leader is to look at the men he has around him,” is worthy of your contemplation.
From where I stand, those chanting the ED 2030 slogan must indeed be base and opportunistic.
Your Excellency, probity invites you to reflect on the wisdom of Machiavelli. It will reveal to you that history abounds with leaders, among them Mugabe and Julius Caesar, who succumbed not to the sword of the enemy, but to the betrayal of friends who surrounded them. Methinks you must introspect insead of being content with the ED 2030 campaign sloganeering.
Be that as it may, away from politics, the wisdom of avoiding to over stay one's welcome was showcased by the former Liverpool Football Club manager, Jurgen Klopp. He took the path of virtue and resigned while he still enjoyed the adoration of the club's fans worldwide, including me.
He was conscious that for him, resignation was bound to be a difficult decision. Given that his tenure had been an all-round success, his departure was inevitably emotional. Yet, difficult as the decision might have been, it was uppermost in his mind that it was the rightful action to take.
In his resignation statement, Klopp acknowledged that it was a difficult decision to make but one that he consciously considered to be necessary. He made the honest admission that he felt that he was running low on energy to continue with the managerial responsibilities.
“After the years we had been together and after all the time we spent together and after all the things we have been through together, the respect grew for you, the love grew for you and the least I owe you is the truth — and that is the truth,” stated Klopp.
It was the truth that he could not continue to manage the club again and again as he was running low on energy. Considering his positive impact evidenced by the phenomenal results that are attributable to his managerial prowess, he nonetheless recognised that he was exhausted.
Your Excellency, in view of your ripe age and that you were sanctioned by the United States (US) government in March under the Global Magnitsky restrictive measures for corruption and human rights violations, methinks you are humanly low on physical and mental energy.
Furthermore, you are notably the first sitting head of State to be designated under this clampdown thereby placing you in the same notoriety league as the infamous Gupta brothers and Isabel dos Santos, daughter of the late Angolan President Edwardo dos Santos.
It is plain truth that these sanctions are an inhibitor to your presidency. Consequently, it would be contemptuous to your fellow Zanu cadres and citizenry if your third term aspirations take precedence over the welfare of the nation.
Your Excellency, given that you are in your second childhood, the body of scientific knowledge confirms that some mental and physical functional redundancies are commonly wrought by longevity. It is, therefore, time you owned up to being tired and ready to retire.
Despite being a well-studied man, Mugabe committed the contributory negligence and stubbornness of defying scientific knowledge on ageing. His life voyage could have turned out differently had he heeded the counsel about the tide in the affairs of men by William Shakespeare.
"There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune, omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and miseries. On such a sea we are afloat and we must take the current when it serves, or else we lose our ventures," advised Shakespeare.
Your Excellency, diligence warrants you to take the current while it serves, or else you lose your ventures as did Mugabe. As I see it, you must initiate the succession discourse. Verily, the ED 2030 sloganeering lacks practicability.
- Cyprian Muketiwa Ndawana is a public-speaking coach, motivational speaker, speechwriter and newspaper columnist.