GIVE IT UP SIR MUGABE

by Farouk Martins Aresa

There are times to fight and there is a time to quit. Mugabe this is the time to quit sir. You were one hell of a remarkable guerrilla fighter but transition to civilian President has been too long and almost as bloody. From the power struggle between you and Joshua Nkomo to the recent fight against cholera, enough is enough. This is the time to rest your tired bones and let the next generation see where you belong to in history.

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There is no doubt about your courage to fight your enemies and enemies of Africa but today’s fight require more than brute force and obsession to keep everyone one in line. The fact is you are now aged and weary. Let your children and grandchildren continue the fight. It has now got to a point where we can no longer define your enemies, if they are those at home or abroad.

We know and we understand your struggle but this is no more your fight. The people you are supposed to be fighting for are hungry and angry. It may not be your fault but they are now suffering partly because of you. There comes a time you must step aside for the good of all, not necessarily for your own good. You have exhausted your entire prowess and power beyond your usefulness in the fight ahead. The war of perception has been lost.

You have been gratefully compensated for all the years you spent in the bush fighting against injustice to your people, land and resources. It has been a long and protracted fight. You are now seen as the obstruction for progress in the Nation, which ironically, was what you were ready to die for. There is hunger in the land, bread basket has turned into the worst inflation basket case and still little to grow or buy to feed and clothe the poor who prefer dumped food to cash.

When your people say it is enough, go and rest, they honor you. If they have to overthrow you, you have disgraced yourself and belittle everything you fought for. There are many fighters who never saw the mountain top. Moses never did, Albert Luthuli never did, Nkrumah never did and Martin Luther King never did. The fight is not about each of these; it is about the people they fought for. Your people are suffering and they want younger and new strategy for salvation.

The best you can do now is to let the new generation of leaders move Zimbabwe forward. If you are still around, as we pray that it happens in your lifetime, let us see how much those you see as enemies will offer. They claim that you are the stumbling block to assistance. It has got to the point where your neighbors who share your views and understand your point can no longer vouch for you. They cannot defend you in the face of deadly realities.

It is with great sadness to hear you declare that cholera was over. You only confirm what your distractors have been saying that you are out of touch. They have worn you down. No one can wish cholera away. It takes clean water, good food and separation of sewage from man to prevent. Please do not close your eyes to the sick poor people who are dying because at this point you are helpless. There is not very much you can do about it.

If you remember Abiola of Nigeria, his people say once your head is used to break coconut, you do not partake in its offering. There are better days ahead, it does not have to be in your reign. It is enough to realize that the people of Zimbabwe can move forward without you. Whether you like it or not, they must. Another leader as fistful as you but younger can come out of Zimbabwe.

Many times your neighbors have tried to ease you out with dignity and respect due to an elder statesman but you have refused to appreciate their love or welcomed their trust. There is nothing else to prove. Rightly or wrongly, you have won many reelections and no rule says you have to die in power. Zimbabwe cannot smugly look up to Rwanda, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea or Congo.

African leaders have to know when to leave when the ovation is still loud. In many cases, they waited until they have outlived their usefulness. An African reign is not forever, it has a start and an end. Nobody is born into power anymore, not even kings and queens. Mandela is a neighbor and an African like you who was involved in the struggle but decided to leave it to the younger people, it is not too much to ask you to do the same. Nigerians rejected Obasanjo’s Third Term.

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When the whole western world condemned you, Mandela condemned the misery in Zimbabwe but carefully left you out for a reason. Please honor him. Like you, he knows the insurmountable task you faced and still survived. Many said Mandela did not go far enough in his condemnation and praised clerics who have called for your removal by force.

Africans have a reason to be suspicious of biological warfare but since we often denounce guilt by association, we must be careful to point to which individual, which agency and which groups we accuse of introducing anthrax or cholera. There are good and bad people everywhere in the world and we must work with people of goodwill in Europe and America to defeat racist policies.

Our African leaders are just as guilty in the use of military in our villages and cities. Some of us even argue that we will rather take the brunt from colonialists who we can assign responsibility and blame because it is less painful than that of their neo-colonialist subcontractors who share our skin. Ask Nigerians: a hungry, angry, dead man is a hungry, angry or dead man by any way.

Africans need not wait for assistance to cure and prevent cholera. Nigerians with all their money have little to show for enough drinkable water from their governments, yet they survive by looking inward for wells, boreholes; self treated, boil or distilled water. If they had to wait for chemicals from Europe, all Nigerians would be dead from cholera by now. That is the advantage of local communities Primary Health Care in the use of oral rehydration by appropriate amount of salt, sugar and clean water; bush tea or coconut water. Especially, when children are victims.

Africans, we put too much of our responsibilities on others. Why ask others for what you can do yourselves? Free and fair election is becoming rare in Africa but today, we can be proud of a peaceful election in Ghana. There are many more to come. But we must not fool ourselves that once we have free and fair elections, our problem will be over in Zimbabwe as in Palestine. The solution to Zimbabwe must come from Africa, not outside of. Those who created our problem in the first place, will not solve it.

The solution in Zimbabwe must start from one man. That is you Sir Mugabe it is time to bow out.