Showing posts with label President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Show all posts

Sunday, November 19, 2017

Robert Mugabe Agrees To Resign

Reports from Zimbabwe say that the 93-year old Zimbabwean President, Mr. Robert Mugabe, has agreed to step down as president.
This is coming a few hours after the ruling party, Zanu-PF, announced his sack as the leader of the party.

*Robert and Grace Mugabe (pix:pressfrom)

His wife, Grace Mugabe, was removed as leader of the Zanu-PF women  league. Reports say she has also been expelled from the party. 

Mugabe has been under house arrest since Wednesday November 15 following his unceremonious removal from office and takeover of the running of the country by the armed forces led by Gen Constantino Chiwenga.
London Telegraph reports that the ruling party “had given the 93-year-old less than 24 hours to quit as head of state or face impeachment, an attempt to secure a peaceful end to his tenure after a de facto coup.”

Thursday, August 10, 2017

Getting President Buhari Out Of Their Lives!

By Paul Onomuakpokpo  
A spectre of more protests against the continued stay of President Muhammadu Buhari in office hangs over the nation as the façade over his health status comes crashing down. In February this year, the government through its coercive security apparatuses was able to stop famous singer Innocent Idibia popularly known as Tuface from leading a protest against the poor governance that has blighted the citizens’ existence under the current government. Just as the government failed to stop the protest which took place without Tuface then, the prospect now of easily squelching the citizens’ expressions of their disenchantment with it is non-existent.
*President Buhari 
The citizens who are increasingly becoming disillusioned with the government of Buhari have refused to accept all governmental platitudes and intimidation. They have again taken to the streets to protest against Buhari. They are unequivocal about their grouse: Buhari should come back from London and effectively assume the reins of office or simply resign.
The citizens might have delayed these protests while hoping that governance and developments around the health of the president would take a turn for the better. But government officials have kept tantalising the citizens with the return of Buhari. But shortly after the excitement over the assurance of his return fizzles out, there is despondency as the citizens realise that they have been swindled again.

Thursday, April 6, 2017

President Mugabe Receives Wheelchair From Cabinet Ministers As Belated 93rd Birthday Gift


The President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe on Monday received a gift from his cabinet ministers and it was a wheelchair.
The belated birthday gift according to the ministers is to enable their boss who is 93 move around his office and home with ease.
News24 reported that the mobile chair was presented to the long-term Zanu-PF leader at a ceremony in his office.
Mr. Mugabe is quoted to have thanked the ministers for the gesture.
“I thank all of you for putting your heads together to come up with this gift,” he said as he took delivery of the special mobile chair which insiders claimed was bought in China” he said.

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Grace Mugabe: Zimbabwe’s Next President?

By David Smith
During a state banquet in Pretoria, South Africa, in April 2015, I had a brief encounter with Grace Mugabe, the first lady of Zimbabwe. I was asking her husband, Robert Mugabe, about the question of her succeeding him as president. “She doesn’t have those ambitions,” began Mugabe, the spectacles perched on his nose reminiscent of an elderly librarian, a narrow moustache clinging to his upper lip like a caterpillar.
 
*Grace Mugabe 
Suddenly he interrupted himself with mock alarm: “Careful, there she comes!” The frail 91-year-old, who increasingly resembles a hanger for his well-tailored suits, remained seated. I rose and turned to behold his 49-year-old wife, with her cropped hair and long black dress, lace hanging daintily at the wrist. Grace, who had been the subject of persistent gossip about a serious illness, was returning from an interlude on the dancefloor that delighted dinner guests.
“Hello, David Smith of the Guardian. We were just talking about you.”
“I just wanted to ask you if it’s true you might like to be president one day,” I asked.
Her hard features, which can resemble a mask with striking dark eyes and sculpted cheekbones, dissolved into a laugh. She did not deny it. “I don’t know, I don’t know.”
Just then a band struck up and I beat a retreat, past the glares of South African protocol mandarins, one of whom ordered me to leave, snarling: “I hope we never see you again.”
Few women in Africa provoke such fascination, or such loathing, as Grace Mugabe. Loyalists describe her as “Amai” (Mother), “The Lady of the Revelation” or, predictably, “Amazing Grace”, while detractors prefer “DisGrace”, “Gucci Grace” or “First Shopper”. There are reports that the couple have substantial foreign properties and multiple offshore bank accounts, Grace’s overseas shopping expeditions are legendary: she was widely reported to have spent £75,000 on luxury goods in one day in Paris in 2003, and to have taken 15 trolley-loads of purchases into the first-class lounge of Singapore airport. She has been forced to deny rumours that she has been unfaithful to the president and defends herself against accusations that she is pampered and lazy.

The four-decade age difference between her and her husband has invited urgent questions about what will happen to her after his death. She stands to lose the presidential credit card and possibly the luxurious mansion in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare. She has grown up in a country where proximity to power is no guarantee of survival, and knows how quickly loyalties can turn. Mugabe’s long years of cunning divide and conquer have left the ruling Zanu-PFparty and the country without an obvious successor, creating an atmosphere among the ruling elite that seethes with mutual suspicion and treachery, and bitter factional divisions.
Grace had always appeared acquiescent, an adornment, mother of the president’s children. No one, until now, considered that she might have political ambitions. But late last year, the world met a new Grace Mugabe. Suddenly, without warning, she transformed from smiling president’s wife to political player in her own right. In early December, she was elevated to a senior role in Zanu-PF and confirmed as the new head of its women’s league. She then embarked on a national promotional trip, nicknamed the “Graceland tour”, flying across the country to attend a series of rallies, where she delivered tirades against her husband’s perceived enemies. At one of the rallies, Grace made her agenda clear. She declared: “They say I want to be president. Why not? Am I not a Zimbabwean?”
The political establishment was rocked back on its heels. Ibbo Mandaza, a former civil servant who has known the president and his wife for years, said: “Grace was always sedate, sitting in the background looking beautiful. Then suddenly this woman is someone else you can’t recognise. She was uncouth, unbecoming.”

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Why Some Zimbabweans STILL Love Mugabe

President Mugabe 
It's not just loyal Zimbabwean state media that will enthusiastically wish President Robert Mugabe a happy 93rd birthday on Tuesday.
There are still Zimbabweans - and not just in the rural areas - who support and idolise Mugabe (though there's little doubt a bit of vote-rigging always helps win an election).
As one Zimbabwean tweeted this weekend: "There are many people who vote for Zanu WILLINGLY. Please deal."
So why, after years of economic hardship and international isolation, do some still love the man that critics accuse of turning the southern African country into a basket-case?
Here are some suggestions:
Powerful legacy
Like him or hate him, Mugabe played a key role in freeing Zimbabwe from colonial power in 1980. It's a victory he often likes to remind locals often ("Zimbabwe will never be a colony again" etc etc). His story resonates well beyond Zimbabwe's borders, which is why he also gets a lot of support when he travels on the continent.
Stressing the I-freed-the-country line is "chapter 1 in How to be a Dictator", Jeffrey Smith of @VanguardAfrica told News24. There are some signs that the younger generation in Zimbabwe is becoming increasingly disillusioned with the "debt" Mugabe and other war vets claim they're still owed nearly 40 years after the war for independence (As @BuildZimbabwe urged on Monday: "Don't let your loyalty become slavery. Reject the status quo"). On the other hand, legacies win elections. Higher education minister @profjnmoyo argued along these lines at the weekend.

Monday, February 20, 2017

Give Donald Trump A Chance, Says Robert Mugabe

President Donald Trump should be given a chance to prove himself, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe says.
*Trump 
He went on to express his support for Mr Trump's America-first policy, saying "America for Americans" and "Zimbabwe for Zimbabweans".
It is unusual for the veteran head of state to publicly back any US president.
The US imposed sanctions such as travel bans and an assets freeze on Mr Mugabe and his allies in 2001.
The sanctions were imposed over allegations of human rights abuses and election rigging.
Zimbabwe's government says they caused the country's economic collapse.
Most experts however blame Mr Mugabe's seizure of white-owned farms, which used to be Zimbabwe's economic backbone.
With Mr Trump's reputation for being unconventional, Mr Mugabe is hoping his administration might decide to lift the sanctions.
"Give him time," Zimbabwe's leader said of Mr Trump in an interview aired ahead of his 93rd birthday on Tuesday.

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Even Mugabe's Corpse Will Win Elections In Zimbabwe – Grace Mugabe

The wife of Zimbabwe's 92-year-old President, Robert Mugabe, has said that he is so popular that if he died, he could run as a corpse in next year's election and still win votes.
*President Mugabe and wife, Grace 
Grace Mugabe, 51, was addressing a rally of the governing Zanu-PF party.
Mr Mugabe has governed Zimbabwe since the end of white-majority rule in 1980 following a bitterly fought war.
His wife, who has often professed her undying loyalty to her husband, has assumed an increasingly high profile.
"One day when God decides that Mugabe dies, we will have his corpse appear as a candidate on the ballot paper," Mrs Mugabe told the rally in Buhera, south-east of the capital Harare.
"You will see people voting for Mugabe as a corpse. I am seriously telling you - just to show people how people love their president."
President Mugabe has been backed by his party to stand again in next year's election, but recently cut back on his public engagements.
Grace Mugabe has warned contemporaries of Mr Mugabe from the guerrilla war era that they are not in a position to replace him because they likewise would be too old.
"Anyone who was with Mugabe in 1980 has no right to tell him he is old. If you want Mugabe to go, then you leave together. You also have to leave. Then we take over because we were not there in 1980," she said, gesticulating towards herself.
Last September, the president was rumoured to have died after he reportedly cut short his attendance of an AU summit to fly to Dubai for a health check.
– BBC

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Mugabe Son Lives In 10-Bed $42,000/Month Mansion In Dubai

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s son Robert Junior is living in a 10-bedrom villa located in an exclusive and pricey Dubai neighbourhood at a cost of $42,000 per month in rentals, it has emerged.

The revelation was made by Lebanese businessman, Jamal Ahmed, who is at war with Mugabe’s wife, Grace, over a botched deal to buy a million-dollar diamond ring supposedly intended as the President’s wedding anniversary present to the First Lady.
Grace, the Lebanese claims, has ordered the seizure of his properties in Harare, apparently to force the return of about $1.4m she paid for the ring through her account with CBZ bank in Harare.
Ahmed claims Grace surprisingly rejected the ring when it was delivered Dubai and demanded the return of her money. She reportedly insisted that the money be paid into a Dubai bank account.
The Lebanese argued that full refund was not possible since costs had been incurred in procuring and polishing the precious stone. He also objected to paying the money in Dubai saying this would be illegal under Zimbabwe’s laws.
In the ongoing court battle over the saga, the First Lady denied demanding payment in Dubai, saying she did not have a bank account there.
However, in response Ahmed said the Mugabes rent an expensive villa in Dubai which is used by son Robert Junior who is based there.
“Whether or not the second respondent has accounts outside Zimbabwe does not mean she did not ask for a refund in Dubai,” Ahmed argued.

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Robert Mugabe Death Prophecy: Zimbabwe Pastor Arrested

*President Mugabe
Zimbabwean pastor, Patrick Mugadza, announced last week that the 92-year-old Zimbabwean head of state, Robert Mugabe, would die on 17 October this year.
His lawyer, Gift Mtisi, told the BBC that he was relaying a "message from God. Police would have to prove that God didn't say it".
Mr. Mugabe mocks frequent rumours of his death, saying he has been resurrected more often than Jesus Christ, a claim widely regarded as blasphemous.
Mr. Mtisi said his client had initially been charged with undermining the authority of the president, then "criminal nuisance" and finally "insulting people of a certain race or religion".
He said Mr Mugadza was laughing about the charges and would plead not guilty.
"I'm still at pains to find the criminal part of it," Mr. Mtisi told the BBC.
He added the pastor had no regrets about making the prophesy:

"He's admitting to the facts. He says he didn't lie - that's a message from God. Police will have to prove God didn't say it."

Saturday, January 7, 2017

Grace Mugabe 'Grabs More Houses' In $1.3m Diamond Ring Dispute

Frank Chikowore
Zimbabwean First Lady Grace Mugabe has allegedly grabbed two more properties from a Lebanese businessman, despite the court ordering her to vacate the three houses that she initially seized in a botched $1.3m diamond ring deal. Harare High Court judge Clement Phiri on December 21 ruled against President Robert Mugabe's controversial wife after she forcefully took ownership of three properties belonging Lebanese tycoon Jamal Ahmed, and gave her 24 hours to pack her bags and allow Ahmed's employees to return to the seized houses.
*Mrs Grace Mugabe
New court papers showed that the First Lady had taken ownership and control of two more houses belonging to Ahmed, who told the court recently that he now feared to return to Zimbabwe after being threatened with harm by Grace's son Russell Goreraza, her son-in-law Simba Chikore and Kennedy Fero. The three were part of Grace's her security personnel.
One of Ahmed's employees, Talent Kasiya, deposed an affidavit at the High Court on January 3, claiming that two more houses belonging to his employer had again been seized. 
"On Sunday December 18 I attended Dungarvan House, Wilson Avenue in Borrowdale, where I saw two men whom I recognised as having been part of the group that had initially come to the Cambridge Road premises. I noticed that the lock at the back entrance of Dungarvan House had in fact been broken and, as there was noone manning the gate, I was able to enter," read part of the affividavit.
Second eviction order 
Ahmed's attorney, Beatrice Mtetwa, confirmed the latest development.

Friday, January 6, 2017

President Mugabe Trips Gulp US$36m

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s globetrotting has seen him splurge US$36 million on foreign and domestic travel in the first 10 months of 2016, piling pressure on a cash-strapped government that is failing to buy painkillers for public hospitals, the Zimbabwe Independent can reveal.
By Taurai Mangudhla
 
*President Mugabe and wife, Grace 
While recurrent expenditure, mostly civil service wages, gobbled 97% of the US$4 billion 2016 National Budget as of September, the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) spent US$34,4 million on foreign trips that have yielded no tangible results for Zimbabweans. OPC spent US$1,2 million on domestic travel, according to figures obtained from the 2017 National Budget.
Mugabe’s trips outweighed expenditure by ministries such as Macro-economic Planning and Investment Promotion, Energy and Power Development, Transport and Infrastructure Development and Industry and Commerce as well as the Parliament of Zimbabwe.
The expenditure came at a time Zimbabwe failed to honour the Abuja Declaration, which states that governments should allocate 15% of the budget to health. Instead, only 9,7% (US$330 million) of the 2016 National Budget was reserved for the sector.
A huge infrastructure gap estimated at US$20 billion has also resulted in poor service delivery.
Former finance minister Tendai Biti criticised Mugabe for piling pressure on Treasury at a time the economy is floundering.
“What kind of a President spends two months outside the country on a holiday when his economy is in a fragile fiscal position?” Biti asked, adding “it’s an indication he is not fit to govern.”
Biti said Mugabe, who now prioritises his trips, was always kept in check by the opposition during the Government of National Unity (GNU) era.
“Post the GNU it is like a dog has been released from a leash,” Biti said.

Thursday, January 5, 2017

The Last Days Robert Mugabe

Zimbabwe is engulfed, and not only by a political crisis. While its leaders fight, its economy is in meltdown.

BY MARTIN FLETCHER

*President Mugabe 

With considerable trepidation, I took the lift to the sixth floor of the ministry of justice in central Harare to interview the minister. It wasn’t just that I lacked the accreditation foreign journalists must obtain to work in Zimbabwe – the interview had been arranged through unofficial back channels. The minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa, also happens to be the vice-president, Robert Mugabe’s notoriously brutal chief enforcer for the past 36 years, and the most feared man in the country. “They don’t call him ‘The Crocodile’ for nothing,” said a Zimbabwean businessman who knows him well. “He never says a word but suddenly he bites. He’s very dangerous.”

But Mnangagwa, still powerfully built at 74, proved courteous enough as we sat in deep leather armchairs in his bright and spacious office. It was not in his interest to be hostile – not at this time. He is determined to succeed Mugabe and he will need Western support to rebuild his shattered country if he does, which is presumably why he gave me an almost unprecedented interview.
Aged 92 and the world’s oldest head of state, Robert Mugabe is fading. He falls asleep in meetings, suffers memory lapses and stumbles on steps.

He delivered the wrong speech at the opening of parliament in September last year and had to deliver the right one to a specially convened session the following day. As long ago as 2008 a WikiLeaks cable from the US ambassador reported that he had terminal prostate cancer, and he frequently flies to Singapore for unspecified medical treatment – blood transfusions, perhaps, or steroid injections. A diplomatic source talked of Mugabe’s “dramatic deterioration in the last two years”, and said: “He could go at any point.”
Mnangagwa did not admit he wants to be president, of course. Given Mugabe’s paranoia, that would have been political suicide. 

On the contrary, he was studiously loyal. When I asked which politician he most admired he immediately replied: “The president.” He refused to discuss the possibility of Mugabe dying. “Under British constitutional law you don’t conceive or desire the demise of Your Majesty. Why would you want to conceive or desire the demise of my president?” he asked. He even denied that he would seek Mugabe’s job when, to borrow the euphemism with which some Zimbabweans refer to the coming cataclysm, “the portrait falls off the wall”.

“I don’t see myself doing that,” he said. Of the decades he had worked with Mugabe, he said, “I was not serving to be president. I was serving my country.”
Nobody will believe Mnangagwa’s denial – certainly not close allies such as Christopher Mutsvangwa, a former Zimbabwean ambassador to China and the leader of the “war veterans” who seized the country’s white-owned farms in the 2000s.
I had met Mutsvangwa a few days earlier in the unlikely setting of a coffee shop in the affluent Harare suburb of Mount Pleasant. It was another encounter between a senior regime figure and a Western journalist of a sort that is becoming increasingly possible in the turbulence of Mugabe’s twilight days. Mutsvangwa told me he was “100 per cent” sure that Mnangagwa would be Zimbabwe’s next president. Indeed, he and other allies of the vice-president are already locked in a vicious struggle over the succession with Mnangagwa’s potential rivals in the ruling Zanu-PF party.

Grace Mugabe, 51, the president’s intensely ambitious and avaricious wife, set things going in late 2014 after her husband made her the head of Zanu-PF’s Women’s League and a member of the party’s Politburo. She persuaded Mugabe to expel the previous vice-president, Joice Mujuru, and her supporters from the party for allegedly plotting against the president. Mujuru – who as a teenage guerrilla during Zimbabwe’s war of independence in the 1970s gave birth in the bush, shot down a helicopter with a rifle and earned the nom de guerre Teurai Ropa (“Spill Blood”) – has now set up an opposition party, Zimbabwe People First (ZPF).

Having disposed of Mujuru, Grace and a group of “Young Turks” known as Generation 40, or G40, then turned their attention to Mnangagwa, seeking to oust him as vice-president and purge his supporters from critical posts in Zanu-PF. Grace made no secret of her ambitions, flying round the country in the presidential helicopter to address “meet the people” rallies. “They say I want to be president. Why not? Am I not Zimbabwean?” she asked. To give herself gravitas, she acquired a PhD from the University of Zimbabwe in three months; the degree was presented to her by the chancellor – her husband.
But Mnangagwa has his own cabal of older party members who fought in the liberation war and despise the G40 “upstarts”, who did not – Mutsvangwa calls them “power-grabbers” and “village head boys”. His so-called Lacoste faction (the clothing company’s emblem is a crocodile) has hit back hard, using Mnangagwa’s control of Zimbabwe’s Anti-Corruption Commission to launch high-profile criminal investigations against G40 leaders. For good measure, Mutsvangwa’s war vets have turned on Mugabe himself. In July they issued a communiqué condemning his “dictatorial tendencies . . . which have slowly devoured the values of the liberation struggle”. In November they sacked him as their patron.

A secret Zanu-PF document passed to me by a reliable source shows how sulphurous the infighting has become. Emanating from Mnangagwa’s camp, it accuses G40 of plotting “political euthanasia” against the party’s founding generation and of “coercing the First Lady into a spirited campaign against VP Mnangagwa”.

The document suggests Mugabe himself created G40 because, behind his “feigned love” for his deputy, he “has always felt threatened by VP Mnangagwa and the prospect of his presidency being outshined by that of his protégé”.
The nine-page document then sets out a detailed plan to destroy G40’s leaders through “brutal character assassination”, fomenting “fights and chaos” within the group, and sowing “seeds of distrust” between G40 and Grace Mugabe.
In short, the party that has governed Zimbabwe since 1980 is sundered as never before. Beneath the bright-blue jacaranda and orange flamboyant trees that shade Harare’s broad avenues, vendors hawk newspapers that gleefully proclaim “Crunch Time For Zanu-PF Factions”, “Zanu-PF Implodes” and “Blood On The Floor”

“They’re at each other’s throats and it’s not unlikely it will end in a violent confrontation,” Ibbo Mandaza, a political analyst in Harare, told me.

But Zimbabwe is engulfed, and not only by a political crisis: while its leaders fight, its economy is in meltdown.

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

President Mugabe Hospitalised, Rumours Start


The usual rumours that President Robert Mugabe has either been hospitalised or died in the East where he is on annual leave holiday have started making rounds as the 92 year old leader took his annual leave on December and left the country to the Far East.
A Facebook post that has gone viral claim the president fell sick on January 1 2017 and got hospitalised in the Far East.

"Reports coming from the far east is that the president of the republic of Zimbabwe was hospitalized on new year's eve evening after falling on his head and suffering a concussion in the hotel bathroom," reads the post. 

"Sources from the secret service have confirmed it by saying HE is serious but stable in hospital. Their worry is that his mouth has shifted to the side and now it is almost under his ear lob which could be a sign of a severe stroke since he has lost his speech too. Wishing Gushungo a speedy recovery."

Each time Mugabe goes for his annual leave in the East, rumours have been made that he has died. After several of such speculative reports that turned out to be false, the Western now exercises caution before jumping on such a story.

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

How Not To End Recession In Nigeria

By Fred Nwaozor
The last time I checked, people had abruptly become fond of attributing silly jokes, even the ones cracked by a day-old child, to Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president. Currently, a day won’t pass without experiencing a certain comic utterance trending on the social media, and when one scrolls down, he would observe the comment is credited to no other person than the man who has ruled Zimbabwe for 36 years.
*Buhari 
This can be related to what is making the rounds in Nigeria at the moment. Right now, any misfortune in the country, be it personal or corporate, is wholly attributed to the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government owing to the obvious minuses the administration is characterised by.
It is needless to reiterate that Nigeria is at present undergoing recession. I’m afraid, if the needful is not done as quickly as possible, depression might set in soonest. Hence, sound thinkers cannot fold their arms as the painful and pathetic situation lingers. It is their duty to proffer the needed remedy as well as tender constructive criticism when and where necessary to ensure that the embattled giant of Africa regains its strength.
The Federal Government (FG) has promised that the 2017 budget, estimated at N7.298 trillion, would pull Nigeria out of recession. This pledge does not augur well for the country since the implementation of the 2016 budget of N6.08 trillion is still ongoing, and indeed, over 60 per cent of the budget is yet to be implemented.
Besides, do not forget in haste that Nigerians were equally promised a while ago that 2016 budget would end the recession. Intriguingly, the focus has suddenly been shifted to the yet-to-come 2017 budget. This confliction of promises significantly indicates that the actual disease ravaging the country’s economy is yet to be discovered by those entrusted with the task. I would say the 2016 budget can end this monstrous era once and for all, if the appropriate things are done. The 2016 budget is conspicuously bedevilled by limited funds, hence, the prime problem is not its implementation but how to find the required funds. We need to concentrate on realistic issues rather than empty ones. This is the only way we can make progress.
If we fail to implement the 2016 budget as expected, we will arguably still encounter similar hurdles when the awaited 2017 budget is eventually approved by the National Assembly (NASS). Moreover, a deficit of N2.269 trillion in the 2017 appropriation bill is enough reason to worry. This implies that Nigeria would continue to live on mere promises whilst thousands of Nigerians are dying with countless firms running out of business, on a daily basis. Since the NASS is yet to approve the Presidency’s request to borrow $29.9 billion externally, which is in line with the people’s wish, I suggest we look inwards toward sourcing for funds internally. Several citizens would be willing to lend, or even donate, to the government.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

On The Gambia, Africa Is Late

By Paul Onomuakpokpo
It is far from convincing that Yahya Jammeh changed his mind over the Gambian presidential poll in protest against a flawed electoral process with unresolved posers over some alleged missing votes. Even if some votes were really not accounted for, it is clear by now that Jammeh is only looking for an excuse not to hand over to the winner of the presidential election. Since the reason for Jammeh’s rejection of the poll’s result he earlier accepted cannot pass muster, he has given room to an exploration of the various possibilities that could have influenced his decision. 
*Jammeh and Obama
How about considering the possibility that it was a single call from Robert Mugabe, that veteran of sit-tightism of African politics, that made Jammeh to change his mind ? For Jammeh’s easily giving up would make Mugabe to feel that he is losing members of his league of crass tyrants. Again, consider this: Mugabe might have strongly rebuked Jammeh for not coming to him to rejuvenate his strategies of remaining in power. For it is clear that Jammeh’s strategies are outdated and that was why he lost the election to opposition candidate Adama Barrow.
Clearly, as long as sit-tight despots like Mugabe still hold sway in Africa, they would remain as sources of inspiration to other leaders who are tempted to manipulate elections to remain in power. This is the overarching challenge that African leaders must resolve to stabilise democracy on the continent. This goes far beyond the fatuous approach being adopted by African leaders now to persuade Jammeh to step down. African states must ensure stable institutions that would make democracy to flourish. The notion that some leaders have done so well and therefore they need more time to solidify their achievements must be discouraged. It is when African leaders want to pervert their state constitutions and prolong their stay in power that they use their stooges to emote about the sovereignty of their countries and the unimpeachable need of the West not dictating to them how to run their own governments. Yet, it is the same countries with perverted democratic systems that are bogged down by sit-tight leaders that would run to the West to seek help for the development of their countries.
It was this notion of incumbent African leaders’ indispensability to the survival of their nations that once seduced former President Olusegun Obasanjo into seeking a third term in office. He deployed financial resources and people to amend the constitution to accommodate his whimsical ambition. He was distracted from real governance to improve the lot of the citizens. And he would have had his way but for a wary citizenry and patriotic lawmakers who rebuffed him despite allegedly taking his humongous bribes. It is this notion that has also made Paul Kagame to seek another term to remain in power in Rwanda after already spending two terms of 17 years in office. He claimed that the people have allowed him through a referendum to continue in power. With this so-called endorsement by the people, Kagame would now begin a third term of seven years from 2017. After this he is entitled to another two five-year terms to remain in power till 2034 or probably for life as he wishes.

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

I'm Already President – Grace Mugabe

Harare – Zimbabwean First Lady Grace Mugabe has reportedly told the ruling Zanu-PF party women's league that she is already the president, as she "plans and does everything with President Robert Mugabe."
*Grace Mugabe

 According to NewsDay, Mashonaland West Zanu-PF women's league chairperson Angeline Muchemeyi said that Grace told them that there was no point for her fighting to be vice president, a lesser position, when she was already running State affairs.
Grace is currently the Zanu-PF women's league secretary, a position she has held since 2014.
"The First Lady said 'I'm the wife of the president, I'm the president already … I plan and do everything with the president, what more do I want, for now the position of the women boss is enough'," Muchemeyi was quoted as saying.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Threat To Mugabe’s Life: Two Cops Arraigned

NewsDay Zimbabwe
The two police officers who were on Monday taken to court for assaulting President Robert Mugabe’s motorcade outriders yesterday denied threatening the life of the 92-year-old leader in any way.
BY MARY TARUVINGA

Applying for bail through their lawyer only identified as Sithole, Munyaradzi Chivengwa and Lubelihle Nyathi argued that Mugabe was not the complainant in the case.
President Robert Mugabe 
“The State did not substantiate the threat that was posed to His Excellency (Mugabe). The complainant is here in his personal capacity, and not on behalf of the President. The two are still serving members and have been serving since 2005. If they were a threat, they could have been nabbed long ago,” the lawyer said.
Opposing bail, prosecutor Francisca Mukumbiri said the pair’s offence was of a serious nature.
She said the accused officers had no right to disturb the smooth flow of Mugabe’s motorcade.
Mukumbiri also said the two were likely to abscond if granted bail considering the nature of their charges.
The State further submitted that investigations were yet to be finalised.
Sithole, however, told court that both officers were Zimbabweans, adding chances were very high that they were not going to be convicted.

Friday, April 29, 2016

Who Could Replace Robert Mugabe In Zimbabwe? [VIDEO]

*President Mugabe and wife, Grace
At 92 years of age, Robert Mugabe is the oldest-serving head of state on the African continent, and one of the oldest in the world.
But as time goes on and the president’s health comes under scrutiny, the national conversation in Zimbabwe is increasingly dominated by calls for Mugabe to step down and debates about who could replace him.
Earlier in April, thousands of supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, took to the streets in the capital Harare in the biggest opposition demonstration seen in Zimbabwe for years. Despite calls from the influential veterans of Zimbabwe’s independence war—in which the president himself fought—to step aside, Mugabe remains resolute as ever, saying he will stay in the post until he is 100 and will only hand over the presidency when “God says ‘come.’”
Newsweek considers who might replace the country’s only post-independence leader when—and if—he steps down.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

The National Grazing Reserve Bill: The Greatest Evil Of All

By Femi Fani-Kayode


On April 18th 2016, Mr. Okonkwo Afamefuna wrote the following on his Facebook wall:
“I decided to read a copy of the National Grazing Reserve Bill and I was surprised at what I saw. The Bill creates a council to be chaired by a chairman to be appointed by the president. The council shall have the power to take your land anywhere the land is located in the country and then pay you compensation. Your land, when taken, shall be assigned to herdsmen who shall use your land for grazing purposes. They shall bring cows to the land and you shall lose the land permanently to those Fulani cattlemen”. This is the Sudan downloading right here in Nigeria.”
*Fani-Kayode 
On April 18th, Mr. Gabriel Ogbonnaya wrote the following on his Facebook wall:
“I decided to read a copy of the National Grazing Reserve Bill and I was surprised at what I saw. The Bill creates a commission to be chaired by a Chairman to be appointed by the president, to be confirmed by the senate. The commission shall have the power to take your land anywhere the land is located in the country and then pay you compensation. Your land, when taken, shall be assigned to herdsmen who shall use your land for grazing purposes. They shall bring cows to the land and you shall lose the land permanently to those cattlemen. If you feel that the commission was not right to take your land, you can go to court but before you go to court, you must first of all notify the federal attorney general of your intention to sue the commission. Apart from notifying, you must get the consent and authority of the federal attorney general before you can sue. So that means that if the attorney general refuses to give his consent to the suit, you have lost your land forever to the herdsmen. And this law, when passed, shall apply to the whole country so it means that your land in the village or anywhere is not safe. The National Grazing Reserve Commission would have the power to take away your land from you anytime they want and pay you whatever they want as compensation (even when you don’t want to sell, and remember that for you to get compensation, you must have documents showing or proving ownership). So I think that we all in the South-West, South-South and South-East must rise up and reject this Bill. We must do all things to force our national Assembly members from passing that Bill into law. That Bill is a deliberate attempt to take our lands and hand the land over to the Fulani cattlemen since it is only the Fulanis that rear cattle in Nigeria. That law, when passed, shall fulfill the directive of Uthman Dan Fodio and other northern leaders to take over other parts of Nigeria. I implore you to use all available means to implore your senator and Reps not to pass that law. That law will destroy Nigeria. All over the world, ranches are established and used to rear cattle. The farmers buy land and put their cattle there. There is no country where the land of the citizens are compulsorily acquired and given to others.
This is evil, and designed to favour the Fulanis, the stock the president comes from. We must resist the passage of that Bill into law to save Nigeria, and to protect our future generations.” This is Yugoslavia and Rwanda unfolding right here in Nigeria.
On April 18th 2016, Mr. Duru Collins wrote the following on his Facebook wall:
“This National Grazing Reserve Bill if passed into law will just mark the beginning of apartheid in our country. When the government of Zimbabwe collected land from the white people who naturalised there the whole world worked against President Robert Mugabe. Sanctions were stiffened against his regime even though the whites in Zimbabwe were not African by origin. In our country today there are people that are not Nigerians by origin and these people are making laws to take over our inheritance. This nation will burn once this law is passed.” This is Lebanon and Zimbabwe downloading right here in Nigeria.”