Chamisa should check his ego for the sake of Zimbabwe's future

The Book of James says "God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble."

Perhaps Pastor Nelson Chamisa would do well to reread his Bible every now and again, because it is replete with opposition to those with too much pride and ego.

However, Chamisa has shown during his relatively short political career that his politics are all about himself. It is healthy to have self-belief, but it is ungodly to be a narcissist.

The MDC leader spends a lot of time talking about himself, his physical prowess and even his ability to "score" with women. This would all be relatively harmless, if amusing, if he didn't bring his narcissism into the electoral campaign arena and make his supporters believe that he can not fail to win the upcoming elections.

Chamisa yesterday declared that next month's general elections can only be adjudged as free and fair if he wins the presidential race against his rival President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Chamisa told party supporters at a rally held in Kadoma that only a miracle would save Zanu-PF party from defeat.

"I know that if I don't win then it's not a free and fair election," Chamisa told the cheering crowd.
It is not clear what evidence he has for this egocentrism.
Not a single neutral poll during the whole campaign shows Chamisa winning.

Unfortunately, what Chamisa is doing is playing a very dangerous game.

He is whipping his diehard supporters into a frenzy of expectation that if they do not win, they will assume that the elections have been rigged, regardless of what the international and other neutral observers say. He knows that their non-acceptance of the results will turn into instability and violence, all in the name of one man, Nelson Chamisa.

Not only will his ego be assuaged, but he knows that there are enough precedents around Africa that mass violence brings international pressure for power-sharing agreements.

This will be Chamisa's back door into power should he lose the elections, which polls indicate he will.

"If I make the call nobody will move until we get what we want," Chamisa admitted at the rally in reference to what he will do if he doesn't get his way.

This should be unacceptable, especially in our new Zimbabwe which transitioned from a dictatorship to a democracy peacefully and a president who has shown that he will use the ballot paper to stay in control and not the gun.

We should not allow Chamisa's ego to potentially descend our nation into chaos and bloodshed. We finally rejected one leader who used the rhetoric of violence and the ego of power in November, we can not replace him with another.

Perhaps this is why Chamisa and Mugabe seem to get along well and understand each other; they are both built with similar egos and narcissism.

Zimbabwe has come a long way in a short amount of time and the overwhelming majority of us are looking forward to the harmonised elections in a month. We will finally have our voices heard and our future in our hands, ably inspected by the international community.

Some of us will vote for Chamisa, some of us will vote for Mnangagwa, but we should all wait for the election results and respect them regardless of whether our candidate won.

Those who threaten to drag us through another cycle of violence in the cause of their own lust for power should be told to check their ego at the door.

This should be Zimbabwe's past and not its future.