News / National
Smooth power transfer, nightmare for Zim- Mutodi
27 Jan 2017 at 05:20hrs | Views
The Controversial Zanu PF youth member Energy Mutodi has said the smooth power transfer ideology is a serious nightmare for Zimbabwe amid concerns that Zanu PF would not allow any party which wins election to take over like it happened in 2008.
He said as the new US President Donald Trump was taking oath of office, Zimbabweans remained glued on their television sets; envying the Americans for their mature democracy and the willingness of leaders to transfer power from one leader to another every eight years.
"The Republican party's Donald Trump became America's 45th President and first to promise total control of government decisions by the people. To all those who watched the ceremony, the images were reminiscent of the heavenly paradise that is the ultimate goal for every living soul," said Mutodi.
"Trump saluted the Chief Justice and the former Presidents who graced the event among them Gorge Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama his immediate predecessor. Immediately after the ceremony, former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama left the White House in an Air force helicopter and went straight into a well deserved holiday as they joined the other former leaders of the great American nation."
He said while this was happening, President of the Republic of The Gambia Yahya Jammeh was refusing to transfer power to President-elect Adama Barrow despite losing in a December 1 election last year.
"Jammeh who had reportedly told Gambians he would rule for a billion years was still calling himself President despite the electoral loss after 22 years in power; prompting the regional block ECOWAS and the UN Security Council to authorize a military invasion to remove him by force. Realizing his predicament, the disgraced Jammeh then announced he would finally quit and go into exile in Guinea after last minute talks with Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz," Mutodi said.
"Jammeh reportedly looted state coffers and transferred his expensive fleet of cars into exile when he eventually left. While the Americans were displaying their impressive culture of democracy in Washington, Zimbabweans were left asking whether they would be liberated from the jaws of dictatorship under President Mugabe's rule. Mugabe is the world's oldest President in power since 1980 when the country gained independence fromBritain. He has presided over a comatose economy characterized by rampant corruption, mismanagement and poor policies."
He said himself a dictator of disproportionately high levels, Mugabe has maintained a poor human rights record as his critics disappear in broad daylight while elections, although conducted regularly are allegedly rigged in his favor with the opposition complaining of intimidation and even murder of its supporters.
"Mugabe is worshipped as the world's most educated President by his supporters and has dogmatized many of them to believe that he is the only one who can rule and unite the nation. He has not allowed democracy to be practiced even internally in his ruling Zanu PF party, manipulating the party structures to always endorse him as a presidential candidate each time congress is held. Unless a miracle happens between now and the expiry of his current term of office, Mugabe is sure to run again in elections due to be held by mid-year 2018, when he will be 94 years of age," said Mutodi.
"He has astonishingly refused to take heed to calls by his international counterparts and even senior members of his party to retire before then and hand over to his competent deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa or at least to allow the party to democratically elect his successor in an extra-ordinary congress.
Slowly and slowly, members of his ruling Zanu PF party, like the opposition have began to realize his selfishness and blatant lack of patriotism; considering that only his departure will be good enough to ignite the economy back to recovery.
Zimbabwe no longer has a currency of its own as its agricultural sector that used to be its biggest foreign currency earner was grounded by Mugabe's populist and chaotic land reform program."
He said most factories that used to rely on farms for raw materials have turned into ghost towns and private companies have closed in drips and droves since the year 2000, leading to unemployment and widespread poverty.
"More than 3 million Zimbabweans have fled to other countries mainly South Africa, seeking employment and better standards of living. Those who have remained continue to suffer from too many fronts, ranging from a dilapidated infrastructure, disease outbreaks, shortage of hospital medicines, high road carnage due to poor and unmaintained roads, heavy taxation, uncertain pay days for civil servants as the government revenue base has shrunk immensely due to company closures, unaffordable school fees for their children, under-development and an economic stand-still among other hardships," he said.
"Meanwhile, Mugabe and his corrupt ministers spend huge sums of money on overseas holidays with their families in addition to endless and worthless international travel that chew deeply into the fiscus. The government is clueless on how to revive the economy and Mugabe continues to recycle his bunch of deadwood in the cabinet while at the same time shielding the corrupt government officials from arrest as long as they support his unfettered grip to power. Mugabe's wife Grace has declared that she wants her husband to die in office and even go on to rule from the grave, with some proxies referring to Mugabe as a 'messiah' and others calling him 'Cremona', a premier tea creamer popular with Zimbabwean urbanites."
He said as they continue to hear the corrupt activities by government ministers with perpetrators hiding in factionalism and tribalism, Zimbabweans are now an angry lot, anxious to see Mugabe leave office by whatever means possible.
"Going into 2018, Zimbabweans are hopeful that a grand coalition of opposition parties could end Mugabe's long iron fist rule. Should the opposition win the election in the coming year, it will be hell on earth to the ruling party big cats who continue to feast mercilessly on the national cake while looting from parastatals and mines at the expense of the masses. Life could also take an ugly turn for Grace herself as speculation continues to reverberate through social media that she has amassed properties and stashed huge financial reserves in friendly Asian countries at the expense of long suffering Zimbabweans," he said.
"Recently she was in the media for buying a US 1.3 million dollar diamond ring when millions of Zimbabweans are wallowing in poverty; living on less than a dollar a day. When a Masvingo choir sang, "kumagumo kune nyaya" (there is trouble at the end), at last year's December conference, it was a warning to Mugabe of the difficult times that lie ahead should he fail to manage his succession properly. It is a sure case that he will lose the impending elections unless he takes steps to unite his party that is now heavily divided over his succession and at the very least announce his retirement so as to instill confidence and hope among his supporters."
He said as the new US President Donald Trump was taking oath of office, Zimbabweans remained glued on their television sets; envying the Americans for their mature democracy and the willingness of leaders to transfer power from one leader to another every eight years.
"The Republican party's Donald Trump became America's 45th President and first to promise total control of government decisions by the people. To all those who watched the ceremony, the images were reminiscent of the heavenly paradise that is the ultimate goal for every living soul," said Mutodi.
"Trump saluted the Chief Justice and the former Presidents who graced the event among them Gorge Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama his immediate predecessor. Immediately after the ceremony, former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama left the White House in an Air force helicopter and went straight into a well deserved holiday as they joined the other former leaders of the great American nation."
He said while this was happening, President of the Republic of The Gambia Yahya Jammeh was refusing to transfer power to President-elect Adama Barrow despite losing in a December 1 election last year.
"Jammeh who had reportedly told Gambians he would rule for a billion years was still calling himself President despite the electoral loss after 22 years in power; prompting the regional block ECOWAS and the UN Security Council to authorize a military invasion to remove him by force. Realizing his predicament, the disgraced Jammeh then announced he would finally quit and go into exile in Guinea after last minute talks with Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz," Mutodi said.
"Jammeh reportedly looted state coffers and transferred his expensive fleet of cars into exile when he eventually left. While the Americans were displaying their impressive culture of democracy in Washington, Zimbabweans were left asking whether they would be liberated from the jaws of dictatorship under President Mugabe's rule. Mugabe is the world's oldest President in power since 1980 when the country gained independence fromBritain. He has presided over a comatose economy characterized by rampant corruption, mismanagement and poor policies."
He said himself a dictator of disproportionately high levels, Mugabe has maintained a poor human rights record as his critics disappear in broad daylight while elections, although conducted regularly are allegedly rigged in his favor with the opposition complaining of intimidation and even murder of its supporters.
"He has astonishingly refused to take heed to calls by his international counterparts and even senior members of his party to retire before then and hand over to his competent deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa or at least to allow the party to democratically elect his successor in an extra-ordinary congress.
Slowly and slowly, members of his ruling Zanu PF party, like the opposition have began to realize his selfishness and blatant lack of patriotism; considering that only his departure will be good enough to ignite the economy back to recovery.
Zimbabwe no longer has a currency of its own as its agricultural sector that used to be its biggest foreign currency earner was grounded by Mugabe's populist and chaotic land reform program."
He said most factories that used to rely on farms for raw materials have turned into ghost towns and private companies have closed in drips and droves since the year 2000, leading to unemployment and widespread poverty.
"More than 3 million Zimbabweans have fled to other countries mainly South Africa, seeking employment and better standards of living. Those who have remained continue to suffer from too many fronts, ranging from a dilapidated infrastructure, disease outbreaks, shortage of hospital medicines, high road carnage due to poor and unmaintained roads, heavy taxation, uncertain pay days for civil servants as the government revenue base has shrunk immensely due to company closures, unaffordable school fees for their children, under-development and an economic stand-still among other hardships," he said.
"Meanwhile, Mugabe and his corrupt ministers spend huge sums of money on overseas holidays with their families in addition to endless and worthless international travel that chew deeply into the fiscus. The government is clueless on how to revive the economy and Mugabe continues to recycle his bunch of deadwood in the cabinet while at the same time shielding the corrupt government officials from arrest as long as they support his unfettered grip to power. Mugabe's wife Grace has declared that she wants her husband to die in office and even go on to rule from the grave, with some proxies referring to Mugabe as a 'messiah' and others calling him 'Cremona', a premier tea creamer popular with Zimbabwean urbanites."
He said as they continue to hear the corrupt activities by government ministers with perpetrators hiding in factionalism and tribalism, Zimbabweans are now an angry lot, anxious to see Mugabe leave office by whatever means possible.
"Going into 2018, Zimbabweans are hopeful that a grand coalition of opposition parties could end Mugabe's long iron fist rule. Should the opposition win the election in the coming year, it will be hell on earth to the ruling party big cats who continue to feast mercilessly on the national cake while looting from parastatals and mines at the expense of the masses. Life could also take an ugly turn for Grace herself as speculation continues to reverberate through social media that she has amassed properties and stashed huge financial reserves in friendly Asian countries at the expense of long suffering Zimbabweans," he said.
"Recently she was in the media for buying a US 1.3 million dollar diamond ring when millions of Zimbabweans are wallowing in poverty; living on less than a dollar a day. When a Masvingo choir sang, "kumagumo kune nyaya" (there is trouble at the end), at last year's December conference, it was a warning to Mugabe of the difficult times that lie ahead should he fail to manage his succession properly. It is a sure case that he will lose the impending elections unless he takes steps to unite his party that is now heavily divided over his succession and at the very least announce his retirement so as to instill confidence and hope among his supporters."
Source - Byo24News