Politics Of Kleptocracy, Hypocrisy,Bitterness, Vengeance, Obliteration And Lawlessness: Where Will They Take Mother Zambia?

When many countries in Africa attained flag independence, the freedom heroes of our continent were highly decorated and revered as unique species under the sun. The 1960s were notable for the wind of change which swept away the colonial dictators who mistreated the indigenous folks and reduced them to lowest levels of supine, sheepish, malleable and gullible levels of eternally dim citizens who were predestined by divine creation to serve the white people who felt they were closer to God than blacks. White colonial rule was liquidated but left vestiges of inferiority complex and self-indignities in the souls, minds and spirits of the people perjoratively called negroes or niggers by those who grabbed their God-given land who, in many respects, used their missionaries as kith and kin to entrench white supremacy and perpetual black inferiority. Chiefs of many ethnic groups were reduced to pliable servants of the white district commissioners and colonial governors. Arable and mineral-rich land was grabbed viciously and mercilessly from the so-called natives and entrusted in the hands of the untrusted white colonial brutes. It looked practically impossible in the eyes of worshipers of the white people that one day the black nation-states and those of Arabs in North Africa would attain majority rule at the surrender of the formidable colonial forces.

Ghana became the first country in black Africa to attain independence on 6th March 1957 though some other black peoples in Sudan with Arab blood preceded Ghana when Africa’s most populous country had a democratically elected Prime Minister Ismail al-Azhari of the National Unionist Party in 1954 until 1956 when Abdallah Khalil of the Umma Party replaced him in a democratic election closer to being fair, credible and free. Sudan a land of 597 tribes speaking over 400 languages and dialects has had a huge share of religious and ethnic antagonism reducing a vastly populated country with largest geographical expanse in Africa to a rag tag country engulfed in war with bloodletting almost endless. The wealth of Sudan is in flames as people are dying daily with the two hostile generals one leading a paramilitary faction pitied against the main military strongman holding instruments of power. Greed and propensity for perpetual power at the expense of flow of blood have cost Sudan immeasurable and incalculable natural and human resources unprecedented in its modern national history. The East African Community does not seem to have readily available solutions to cease the fire- guns are still squeaking and squealing with multiple and severe loss of human lives. Humans are dying like insects sprayed with deadly insecticide. Statistics of casualties are underplayed by both sides creating a false impression to the African Union. It is not my intention to dwell on Sudan though we have lessons to learn from that country what happens when greed for power and absolute manipulation of millions of docile citizens who hero worship mortal men takes precedence over electoral sanity and sanctity driven by acceptable constitutionalism and rule of law other than mortal and greedy men.

West African states attained political freedom earlier than the southern and eastern parts of the continent. New leaders in West Africa of the 1960s such as Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Gilchrist Olympio of Togo, Abubaker Tafawa Balewa of Nigeria were swept out in military coups and soldiers who supplanted them backed by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States threw into dustbins constitutions which favoured nationalism and pan Africanism which the imperialist forces never wanted closer to their lackeys in military uniforms who introduced a new brandy of black colonialism powered by the Western capitalist states as allies of the United States. Black colonialists in military garbs suppressed opposition and heaped unsubstantiated accusations on the ousted civilian leaders whom they labelled corrupt and irrelevant to their countries. Consider what Joseph Arthur-Ankrah and his successors such as Ignatius Kutu Acheompong, and Fred Akuffo did to Ghanian money in the treasury upon the overthrow of Nkrumah. Take time to read the excess plunder and squander of state coffers which impoverished millions of Ghanaians as generals lived and reveled in squandermania. Flight-Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings and his fellow junior military officers discovered the absolute abuse of national resources meant for development which ended in the pockets of generals. All the three generals who had a party to rule Ghana after Nkrumah were executed by the firing squads in open places. When Hilla Limann got elected in 1979 he too led a very corrupt government which had to be kicked out on New Year Eve of 1983. Rawlings bounced back to power and thousands of Ghanians acclaimed and affirmed his comeback. Corruption was again the centre of the military coup by JJ Rawlings. Sanity got restored and the Ghanian economy blossomed under Rawlings which persuaded the people to support him as a civilian candidate to rule Ghana with financial discipline and in a corrupt-free nation.

Military kleptocracy had been liquidated and sanity restored in Ghana notwithstanding loss of lives. The corrupt are very brutal and can kill all who stand in their way. Where people repel a government of thieves whether in military uniforms or civilian attire development is assured and the law falls on the nape of the neck of criminals like a mighty axe. It is in African nature to eulogise civilian lawbreakers running political parties when they throw banknotes like confetti to sympathizers deeply embedded in poverty and ready to cast a vote in favour of the long-fingered Minister who steals public funds to appease supporters who are illiterate and unable to see the wood for the tree.

Alhaji Shehu Shagari who took the presidency of Nigeria after General Olesogun Obasanjo handed over the instruments of power to a civilian government on 10th October 1979 was portrayed as a man of transparent honesty and profound integrity by the media of Nigeria and he was truly seen as an intellectual urbane with a philanthropic disposition. He was as humble as a sheep in his mannerisms but the folks he gave glamorous cabinet portfolios were rotten to the core. Corruption under Alhaji Shagari grew in leaps and bounds and dimunitised the corruption during the military interregnum. In 1983 Shehu Shagari was re-elected to serve his second term as President of Nigeria but his term of office was cut short when the military staged a coup and General Mohammadu Buhari took over as head of state. The military took advantage of the corruption which had reached sky heights and subverted the civilian government led by the amiable and polite Shehu Shagari. Nigeria was locked into another sadistic and brutal dictatorship for some years and corruption transcended the limits of insanity. The Second Republic inaugurated by General Olesegun Obasanjo in October 1979 came to an abrupt end. The Shagari regime had a crisis of credibility as a number of leaders reveled on corruption and squandermania. Oil prices had plummeted in 1982 and precipitated a serious foreign exchange crisis, financial panic and a consequent foreign reluctance to invest in Nigeria whose economy was on the verge of collapse. A religious fundamentalist and populist preacher Alhaji Mohammad Marwa Maitatsine preached radical sermons which incited riots in the north between 1982 and 1983 and resulted in many deaths. Maitatsine advocated an Islamic-based system of justice premised on Sharia law. He was averse of Western-oriented corruption and found a number of ardent followers with a fundamentalist disposition.

The riots were brutally quelled and Maitatsine was killed. Buhari as coup leader could not resolve the insurrection notwithstanding the proscription of the sect in November 1982. The levels of corruption grew incessantly and Nigeria had lost its prominent standing in West Africa. Buhari had taken over power on New Year Eve of 1984. Shagari was a man deeply loved by millions of Nigerians across the key regions and upon his ouster he was considered by civilians as a very honest and innocent man who never used the presidency to amass personal wealth. He was released from detention in 1986 though banned for life in politics. Buhari in power spent much time on vilifying the Shagari regime of the National Party of Nigeria. In Zambia, a country ruled by seven fortunate political leaders namely Kenneth David Kaunda (1964-1991), Frederick Titus J. Chiluba (1991-20001), Levy Patrick Mwanaasa SC (2001-2008), Rupiah Bwezani Banda (2008-2011), Michael Chilufya Sata (2011-2014), Edgar Chagwa Lungu (2015-2021) and Hakainde Hichilema (2021-).

Each of the seven mentioned leaders had his own merits and demerits and posterity would judge one who stood as a transparent and honesty person who never dipped his fingers into state coffers or mischannel state funds to serve their political parties interests. It goes without saying that one regime may qualify to have affinity for Kleptocracy as disgusting kleptomaniacs had striven harder at creaming off the wealth of the country to enrich their families and political associates, needless to hazard a guess. Your guess may be right or wrong. The continent of Africa is not short of Kleptocrats in military uniforms or in civilian attire. They are rife and have reeled their economies backwards and downwards. Few have the driving force to move their nation-states forward and upward. Many of the prospective politicians in Africa enter politics to line their pockets with ill-gotten money and the anti-corruption commissions do not seem to be independent of the politicians who intimidate the commissioners and board members and pummel them to sheepish subservience and arrant cowardice. A corrupt leader at the helm of any national leadership cannot combat or fight to wipe out corruption.

There are defensive mechanisms generated by diehard supporters of thieving politicians in government not short of handy excuses bordering on persecution of their corrupt heroes other than prosecution for conviction of the inveterate criminals. Some prominent journalists had written investigative reports in their newspapers which exposed some greedy and corrupt leaders during the reign of President Frederick Chiluba but toned down on their fight against corruption upon forming political parties. What they condemned during the reign of the erstwhile trade unionist FTJ Chiluba is seemingly being embraced by the very pioneers of press freedom who championed the fight against corruption through the print and electronic media. Rank hypocrisy as late Robert Mugabe would call it! Jezebel alliances have become characteristic of our national politics as well as regional politics. There are traditional rulers who protect their subjects who are taken to courts for heinous crimes they committed and got convicted. Some senior chiefs as prime beneficiaries of the loot or the violence instigated by natural gangsters seem to be unhappy and lament volubly and loudly like an aged parent seeing a habitual criminal son being incarcerated for stealing public funds.

Frederick Titus Chiluba then Chairman-General of the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) in an interview he had with Times of Zambia staffer Terence Masuku in 1980 said “double standards are very good in modern philosophy”. He was dead right. Today we see men and women who stood tall against corruption during the reign of Levy Mwanaasa turning round 360 degrees throwing their weight behind the corrupt and dwarfing themselves into sycophancy and cheap selfish gains. It is galling to the extreme to see once honourable and gallant warriors against corruption jumping into a sinking titanic captained by seasoned corrupt political giants. In Liberia, Master Sergeant Samuel Kanyon Doe killed President William Tolbert on 12 April 1980. Tolbert, a descendant of the Americo Liberians, a group of African Americans dispatched to create a country of ex-slaves, was brutally murdered and hundreds of his kith and kin killed or thrown into prisons. Shortage of rice and increase in its price as staple food compelled food riots and Tolbert was toppled and killed. Tolbert and his True Whig Party leaders were accused of presiding over a corrupt and inept government by Samuel Doe and his tandem of hypocritical indigenous Liberian allies.

Within three years of military rule, Doe became the most corrupt leader in the whole country and amassed tremendous wealth which ballooned the once skinny master sergeant who pelted bullets on Tolbert into the size of an overgrown giant with a pot belly and round face. Doe looted Liberia and eliminated political opponents within his government and outside. In less than six years Doe and his lackeys had $300 million. The tyrant Doe, amazingly and amusingly, received enormous financial support from the United States government, “a leading country in democracy”. The United States thought by backing Doe, they were to persuade him to restore democracy . He was trained in America from the Green Berets. Doe had to cling to power by hook and crook. He ran down the economy and ruled Liberia with terror, vengeance, suspicion and superstition. Tyranny has its own consequences which can be dire. He eliminated opponents and made frantic attempts to overstay in power. He met his fate. On 9th September 1990, left the safety of his Executive Mansion to visit the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG). headquarters. His archenemy Prince Yommie Johnson’s rebel group launched a deadly raid and had both legs wouned by gunshots. He was captured alive and taken to a bungalow where Prince Yommie Johnson was staying in a mining compound in the suburb of Caldwell. He had his ears cut off and his body was later displayed to people gathered to watch it on a wheelbarrow. Hypocrisy and insatiable lust for power cost the life of Samuel Doe. His stolen money and charms from Krahn tribemates surrounding him never helped to keep him in power. He had deceived himself that he would outlive the government of the True Whig Party he had subverted with maximum brutality and wholesale executions of multiple Americo Liberians and their allies.

The tragedy of Africa is that most of its leaders are full of bitterness. Bitterness has robbed Africa of greatness and scintillating beauty as a continent. The leaders who get into power become very vindictive when obsessed with bitterness. They practice politics of vengeance and obliteration which isolate political opponents and throw them into dungeons. Dissent in politics is liquidated and greedy political leaders enjoying the trappings and trimmings of power and the luxury of ornate offices and plushy mansions with free expensive foods feeding their families at the expense of taxpayers money, leaders in government bury their heads in the sand and brook no opposition. They supress the political opponents and muzzle the press. Free and independent media houses are closed down by gun-toting unsmiling and vicious police officers collaborating with swarms of brutal cadres aligned with the powers that be. Rule of law is seized and held hostage by greedy politicians who use state funds to organize violent hoodlums with sole purpose to beat and batter political opponents whom they label permanent enemies.

There is never permanence in dictatorship across the world. There were tyrants in world history like Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Augusto Pinochet, General Franco, Idi Amin Dada, Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Mulopwe Wazabanga, Jean Bedel-Bokassa, and Ferdinand Marcos Snr but they are all gone leaving a legacy of deaths, torture, prostitution, plunder of national wealth and bankrupt economies.

Abundant examples abound in Africa where the most powerful tyrants marked their own downfall by compromising their constitution through embodiment of undemocratic clauses which were meant to crucify their opponents and terminate them. Extermination of opponents has robbed Africa of great potential leaders who should have transformed the continent into a a have of peace and a bastion of food security other than military arms.

Zambia will never fall short of great leaders and strategic planners and thinkers. The Alebwelelapo Syndrome is commonplace in Africa and encourages hero worship and deification of mortal men. Some leaders who want leadership in perpetuity are merely selfish and self-centered. They immortalize and cannonise themselves as unique species closer to the Throne of the Almighty God. No political party falls short of praise singers of political clowns and self-anointed apostles who are simply clowns playing to the gallery and eager for cheap publicity and popularity which speak lies to bleary-eyed followers who crown clowns as sacred untouchable anointed God-chosen servants of the broad majority.
It is a pity that Zambian political parties still want to hang on to some “special” leaders who are God-sent in the figment of their imagination. Every human is imperfect . Democracy grows in leaps and bounds in nations which uphold the rule of law and independence of the Judiciary. One perfect political giant once threatened Constitutional Court judges not to emulate the Kenyan judges of the Supreme Court who had nullified the election of Uhuru Kenyatta. His threats were explicit and scared the Lordships and Ladyships of the Concourt.

No president has the moral or constitutional right to intimidate judges of any court to rule in their favour. Freedom and independence of the Judiciary is paramount. The three organs of Government – the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary must be independent of each other though they have to cross-pollinate vital information intended to help sustain good governance and rule of law.Zambia is greater than any individual. Money in bags or trunks a person possesses should not be used as a yardstick to measure their levels of competence, eminence and excellence of purpose in the discharge of duties and responsibilities.

Author: Shaddon Chanda, Luanshya based Historian and Academician