HOSNI MUBARAK’S FALL: A REMINDER TO ALL SIT-TIGHT AFRICAN LEADERS

Last year while going through my journalist role model, Femi Adesina’s column in the Nigerian Daily, Sun Newspapers, he made a quote while referring to a comparison between Argentine legend Diego Armando Maradona and Nigerian political legend Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, he said and I quote “if you don’t leave certain things they leave you, including power, thirst, lust and hunger of power. If you don’t purge yourself of the appetite, you get purged and flushed down the drain’’. I wrote the statement in my diary as a reminder just for personal use, but circumstances prevailing meant I had to fulfill its purpose of being in my diary. I hold Mr. Adesina in high regard because of his knack of telling the whole truth and stating it like an oracle, or should I say Biblical Ahitophel now I can conveniently call Mr. Adesina a prophet.

The essence of this article is to draw the line between service and overstay, you see sometimes the things we most cherish and treasure more often than not turns out to be our downfall, take Absalom for example he wanted to be king at all cost and lost his life in the process. To say Mr. Mubarak’s fall was a cataclysmic event, would be against the ‘Law of Gravity’, because what happened to him started a long time ago but I bet you he wasn’t aware of it, or was aware and disregarded it as a facade, as every elastic substance has its break point so also is dictatorship and autocracy.

 The problem I have with most African leaders is that they fail to realize when its time to throw in the towel and bow in peace, they suffer from probably an endemic situation, economists tell us “man’s needs are insatiable’’, but in Africa power is simply insatiable, and that fact probably explains the simple reason why the region remain the way it is. Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely, as can be seen in the lives of Olusegun Obasanjo, Robert Mugabe, Laurent Gbagbo, Mwai Kibaki, Ousted Tunisian president and the man of the hour Hosni Mubarak. When we stay in a position for a long time diminishing returns sets in and our services reduces , Mr. Mubarak took over immediately after the assassination of AnWar El Sadat over 3-decade ago and never looked back, why these leaders behave like this is what I can’t still fathom out, they just love to consolidate power and wealth. True and selfless service only prospers in a polity where accountability is of paramount importance, this can be achieved by checks and balances.

For a man who had ruled for over 3-decades and still clinging unto power, in spite of the animosity the polity feels against him, I beg to ask if someone can perform a CAT-scan on his brain, to see what goes on in there. The most celebrated African dead or alive is Mr. Nelson Mandela, there are two major reason why, first he fought against the apartheid regime of the South-Africans, suffered so much, imprisoned ,battered but still went on to achieve his goal, of seeing the demolition of the regime. Secondly and most importantly he was and remains the only African leader who was offered the presidential position on a platter of gold but refused and maintained his promise to rule for only a term, he expressed humility never seen before in any African, can someone tell me or show me a former Nigerian leader or African leader who would reject such offer, I bet no one can. You see if you ask Mr. Mandela the best decision he made in life he’ll tell you not accepting that irrepressible offer, Sir how did you do that? HIS ANSWER I knew the time to go was right and I needed to. Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo wanted to perpetuate himself in power by bribing law-makers to review the 1999 amended constitution, however he failed because of few good but questionable men who felt what he was doing was pretty wrong, Late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua, accepted his offer to be his political stooge, in spite of the risk his health posed to him, even when his health took over him he still wanted to hold on to power, clearly he was supposed to transfer power to the vice-president but he didn’t, not until law makers felt it necessary.

Oh! How easy it is to turn from a HERO to a VILLAIN, ask Robert Mugabe, to whom much is given much is required says the Bible, but in economic terms to whom much is given little should be expected from in the long run, and that’s what happened in his case and that of Mubarak’s, Mr. Mugabe represented Hope to the commoners of Zimbabwe, and he, simply put delivered the goods, however in the long run, he disappointed them, making them pay for crimes they didn’t commit, the last election showed that the people are filled with hatred for him, but does it really matter to him, after-all he has power, and he flexed it, Nigerians would tell you ‘’one day monkey go go market he no go come back’’, my advice to Mugabe, watch closely. Former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor now standing charges at the International Criminal Court(ICC) in the Hague Netherlands did the same thing, making the same mistakes, now he’s paying for the crimes he’s committed against humanity, all those who’ve tried have failed and their fall was similar to the fall of a ripe carica papaya.

I thought people learnt from the experiences of others, boom! I was totally wrong and grossly mistaken, alas I realized that humans love to have personal experience, personal experiences even to their own detriment, you see people change, people you feel are your friends today can turn out to be the architect of your misfortune and downfall, I bet you Mubarak thought Egyptians wouldn’t want him out of power but he was grossly mistaken, even his own very military turned their backs on him and supported his assumed enemies, Olusegun Obasanjo tried it and it got him nowhere, infact it made him the most vilified president Nigeria ever had, insomuch that Nigerians would prefer to vote the evil genius IBB if both were to contest for an election. Former Tunisian president also saw his subjects turn against him, and sent him on a personal compulsory self-exile, Mubarak saw that, but felt that was Tunisia’s own problem not his, but the Bible say ‘a wise man forseeth evil and fleeth’, he should have noticed that he was sitting on a keg of gun powder whose only reason for waiting is the lighter, however he got what he’s always sought for, ordinary Tunisians by their actions proved to be the catalyst for his downfall, which signaled the beginning of the end for Mubarak and a fall from grace to grass.

The people mobilized one another using social media, and other forms, they staged a protest in Tahir square and their reason for choosing that location was due to general belief that he who controls Tahir square controls Cairo, and so controls Egypt. It only took close to 3-weeks to upstage a man who had been in power for 30yrs, funny feeling I got, I termed it a bloodless coup organized not by the army but by the people. The period spanning 25th January – 11th of February 2011 would forever remain indelible in the hearts of those who say the fall of the 4th and longest Egyptian president Mr. Hosni Mubarak. A story that would be told and retold to new and upcoming generations, a classical Biblical tale of liberation of the Israelites from bondage in ironically Egypt, but theirs was freedom from a man they perceived was a tyrant.

Chatting with my friend recently, I was trying to explain Mubarak’s performance since he took over in 1981, and the sudden dissent for him by his own subjects, my friend asked me if they were just realizing that he had overstayed his welcome, I couldn’t give him an answer, I asked him to ask Egyptians.

18.02hr local time, location Egypt, day 11th February 2011 the large screen in Tahir square was on, then came the Vice-president Omar Suleiman announcing to the people that Mr. Mubarak has decided to step down from the office of the President with immediate effect.

The news was described by opposition leader Mr. Mohammed El Baradei, "as the best day of his life", while President Barak Obama whose name happens to rhyme with Mubarak’s said in a televised address “the people have spoken, their voices have been heard” and he climaxed with the statement “Egypt would never remain the same”. International news media CNN and BBC had our tv screens blazing with the words, 18 days of protest, brings to an end of 30yrs of rule.

The country presently is governed by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, alongside the Vice-President, the council is headed by Defence Minister General Tantawi, who’s known to be a close ally of President Hosni, and is totally against the idea of change and reforms. By siding with the commoners during the protest in which over 350 people lost their lives, the military demonstrated maturity, but would it demonstrate it knack of keeping its own side of is promise(transition of power to a democratically elected government within 6-months) it remains to be seen. You see I doubt the sincerity of the African military personnel when it comes to power; I base my fears on past events.

The White-House saw to the resignation of Mr. Mubarak, however I hope they were looking at the bigger picture and not just playing the international mediator or hypocrites, it shouldn’t be    news that the United States government provides military support in the excess of a billion dollars to the Egyptian government of Mubarak’s regime, the support in quote ‘to fight terrorist and terror elements’, hope the White-House realized that the removal of Hosni would create a void in the number of allies they have, pending who takes over as a democrat, sure they do. Mr. Mubarak gave his reason for not wanting to resign,fearing a development of chaos, that excuse was too cheap to be bought, he’s since lost his sense of escape, now that he’s left has there been a chaotic situation, he knows better, I fear for Egypt in the long-run, the post-Mubarak era, because he stabilized Egypt no doubt, but he overstayed his welcome, and I realised what the ‘power of people’s will’ can do. So, Nigerians and other Africans please take a leaf from ordinary Tunisians and Egyptians, they decided that enough is enough and fought for liberation even though it cost certain people their lives, in their grave they would know that they didn’t die in vain, but Nigerians in particular prefer to live in utter bondage instead of taking the bull by its horns, hope we can learn from them.

 To other leaders, African, Asian, from the Middle-East, Arabians, Europeans, Americans, who feel invincible or untouchable, you can feel as cool as Mubarak felt, serve the people with all selflessness and diligence, they would shower you with love but treat them as if they are lower animals then they’ll show you what animals do when they are displeased. African leaders in particular should realize that governance is a call to service, a mission, not a vocation or an occupation, the essence of having an occupation is to make money, governance isn’t. It is not a do or die affair like my politicians in Africa’s largest and Nigeria ruling party the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) would put it.

Governance is described as the whole of the public as well as private interactions aimed at solving societal problems and in turn creating societal opportunities, an exemption of one of the two interactors creates a void in which the weaker would feel exploited by the stronger, that was what happened in Mubarak’s case and we know what happened to him, he forgot to step-down when the time was right and paid the price for OVER-ADDICTION TO POWER(OAP).

I end this article still reiterating the fact I started with, “if we don’t leave certain things, they leave us, including power, thirst and hunger for it. If we don’t purge ourselves of the appetite, we get purged and flushed down the drain”.