Angela Merkel’s Parting Message to Germany: TRUST ONE ANOTHER

With a parade of torch-bearing soldiers and a 1970s hit from the Communist East, Germany’s Angela Merkel bid farewell as chancellor. She leaves office next week.

One week before she steps aside, outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel was treated to a traditional sendoff Thursday, involving a military ceremony with a brass band playing her choice of music - reported to include a 1970s punk song.

In a ceremonial military send-off to mark the end of her 16 years as chancellor, Angela Merkel left Germans with a final message on Thursday: Trust one another.

Less than a week before Ms. Merkel will officially hand over power to her successor, Olaf Scholz, she received her country’s highest military honors, featuring a traditional parade of torch-bearing soldiers and a marching band.

In a short address, just hours after she had presided over her last pandemic emergency meeting and announced a partial lockdown for those who refuse to get vaccinated, Ms. Merkel warned that trust was one of the most important ingredients in democracy.

“The last two years of this pandemic have shown how important the trust in politics, science and societal discourse is — but also how fragile it can be,” she told a small audience of masked and socially distanced guests. Democracy, she said, “depends on solidarity and trust, including the trust in facts.

Angela Merkel, arguably the world’s most powerful woman, is stepping down from the world stage.
Her successor will really need to be strong.

Lots of lessons for African countries here.

This lady has been a chancellor leading one of the most sophisticated economies in the world for 16 solid years.
This has been so because she has been very effective at her desk. It's also the case because it's constitutionally allowed in Germany for leaders to go to elections and stay on if they win the contests.
In developing countries, there is always a problem of term limits in elections. Foreign powers tend to use the volatile nature of periodic elections to impose their cronies, the way the British under David Cameron imposed one Muhammadu Buhari on Nigerians and the latter has been serving the British interests ever since.

At the same time, endless term limits for effective leaders in countries with not so sophisticated political systems can be abused by power hungry, sit tight politicians. In Africa, ethnic and religious sentiments play huge roles in creating the conducive environment in which such political abuses thrives. Yet, if an effective leader emerges, having the time and support to carry out his/her programs maybe the magic wand the society needs for urrgen transformation.

Finding the right balance here might be the secret. And that lies in having nation states. A country of one people will bother more about development than about the religion or ethnicity of the person in power. So if he's a good administrator, he stays but if he is bad, he gets kicked out. But once several strands of sentiments decide political choices for a people, the most important task becomes the need to make sure that the leader is of the same religion or ethnicity and not his performance.?

The Iron Lady is going hope the New Chancellor will be able to beat her records O!

That woman is not like the man up who does not actually know what he's doing

The next chancellor will have big shoes to fill.

Useless Woman!