GOOD day President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Your Excellency, ancient wisdom has it that a guest sees in a minute what the host will have been blind to for a lifetime. Oftentimes, successive generations stumble, one after the other, on the same obstacle.
They succumb to a particular predicament. Yet, the solution will be conspicuous, hidden from their plain sight. As I see it, the ongoing socio-economic meltdown is a case in point. It is clear that corruption and oppression are your Achilles heel, as they were to your predecessor.
Although you promised to turn around the decades-old quagmire, my observation is that you are as blind to the remedy, as was the late deposed former President Robert Mugabe.
Since attainment of independence in 1980, citizenry has been in dire poverty, stricken by corruption, oppression and economic meltdown. Despite bountiful mineral and other resources, the populace is nonetheless impoverished. Even the born-frees are not free from deprivation.
Despite a number of economic recovery programmes, notably the hyped Economic Structural Adjustment Programme, the country has been in perpetual socio-economic meltdowns.
Meanwhile, international debt accumulated on the backdrop of corruption and misrule.
Evidence of the worsening of living conditions manifested in the immediate aftermath of the ecstatic celebrations for the military coup that toppled Mugabe in November 2017.
It was widely agreed that his fall was not the effectual redress of socio-economic problems.
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Life has become a grind for citizenry true to Seneca’s portent, “sometimes to live becomes an act of courage.” No one needed to be endowed with intelligence and wit to realise that an egotistic President, as egregious as the former one, had seized power.
Instead of committing to your inaugural vows, you grabbed the hatchet with wearisome intolerance.
Apparently, you systematically amended the Constitution as you consolidated power. Now, selective application of the law has eclipsed the age-old concept of equality before the law.
Your Excellency, added to that is your defiance to compensate victims of the military onslaught as directed by the Kgalema Motlanthe Commission of Inquiry into the August 1, 2018 shootings of innocent, unarmed protesters. Also, your promise to compensate displaced white former commercial farmers is crying out for fulfilment.
As I see it, citizenry owes Africa Development Bank president Akinwuni Adesina a debt of gratitude for his insights. His perspectives on Zimbabwe are pragmatic.
His analysis on debt resolution is credible. It is not flavoured with sweet nothings. It does not meander for want of substance. Methinks Adesina belongs to the unique league of wise statesmen, which Aristotle referred to as having the mark of an educated mind.
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it,” said Aristotle. True, Adesina was aware of the sanctions narrative. Yet, he did not entertain it.
Methinks he mentioned sanctions diplomatically to assuage your ego. “I wish to thank you, Your Excellency, President Mnangagwa for your determination to resolve well-known historical issues that led to the imposition of sanctions on Zimbabwe,” he said.
He knew that sanctions were a smokescreen for concealing repression, corruption, money laundering and mineral smuggling. Indeed, Adesina saw in a minute what his host, the Zanu PF government, had been blind to all along.
He correctly observed that the past was hurting the present and future of the country.
True, Zimbabwe has a hurtful past that includes the Gukurahundi atrocities, corruption, oppression and electoral chicanery, to mention but the main thorns in the flesh of civility and democracy.
It was inevitable that targeted sanctions would deservedly be imposed.
“I am very concerned about debt accumulation from arrears that do not have an end insight. Zimbabwe cannot run uphill of economic recovery carrying a backpack of debt on its back,” said Adesina. A pragmatic man not given to sly manoeuvres, his analysis was practical.
Your Excellency, his erudite observations are the hard home truths citizenry have longed to hear from you. They are wearied by the incredulous narrative of Zimbabwe being under sanctions from Britain and her Western allies, including the United States.
“It is time for comprehensive debt arrears clearance and debt resolution for Zimbabwe. But, getting there is not a walk in the park. We must address history to make history,” he said.
As Adesina pointed out, debt clearance processes require a progressive mindset.
It is my fervent plea that you do not harden your heart to his counsel. If his call to ensure credible, free and fair elections were to be heeded, it would be a eureka breakthrough for Zimbabwe, the region and far afield.
He noted that a revived Zimbabwe was good for Africa and beyond. Yet, in view of the credibility deficit of your Presidency, my submission is that the President Benjamin Franklin presage, “Life’s tragedy in that we get old too soon and wise too late,” is pertinent to you.
Your Excellency, as I see it, you are beyond conversion, in all facets of human faculties, to champion the revived Zimbabwe which Adesina envisages. It is my humble submission that you would secure lasting veneration if you were to retire now, without further ado.
