No other mainstream news outlet is reporting this. How true could it be?

History teaches us that dictators tend to rehearse the same tragic script: they indulge the delusion of their own hubris, overreach themselves, and make themselves vulnerable to a disastrous downfall.
Robert Mugabe has yet to acquiesce to his removal from office with a formal resignation. But for all practical purposes, Mugabe has bitten the dust. The oldest tyrant in the world has been shoved into an afterlife of ignominy.

His 37 years-long chokehold on Zimbabwe has ended. The people he ruled with an iron hand can now breathe. They are now free to imagine a better nation and a more dignified existence.

The low-key ‘’coup’’ of Wednesday was a most unforeseen development. Zimbabweans and the rest of the world had all but given up hope that the Southern Africa country would witness a leadership change in Mugabe’s lifetime. Power seemed to be the 93 year old’s elixir of life. The more he drank it, the more his longevity stretched.

Mugabe was a confirmed megalomaniac. He was so possessed of the lust of power that he was incapable of conceiving a normal life outside the realms of power. He was married to rulership. Only death appeared strong enough to separate him from the presidency.

Mugabe was a strongman made of the essence of his insecurities. He had grown very accustomed to the performance of power. He dreaded the outcome of the confrontation with the question of the meaning of his life in the absence of imperial appurtenances. He felt threatened by the fact he couldn’t function as a human being in a Zimbabwe he wasn’t actively micromanaging.

As a result, Robert Mugabe tarried in power long after his legitimacy had expired. He outlived his usefulness and transformed into the nagging, noxious curse of Zimbabwe.

Mugabe first made a name as the leader of the independence war. He was an articulate and bold firebrand. His charisma and conviction enlivened the pockets of nationalist agitators and put him at the head of the guerrilla force that weakened the authority of the white colonialists and bent them to surrender to the urgent demand for black indigenous rule.

At the dawn of independence, Mugabe emerged as the natural choice to lead the newly emancipated country. The revolutionary had won the confidence of the people with his heroic role in the Rhodesian Bush War. He was placed on a pedestal as a reward. At the time, he looked particularly suited to manage the affairs of the nation and deliver its rich promise.

His early days in power did not offer any ominous sign of a nascent sit-tight dictatorship. But after a modest beginning, Mugabe abandoned humility and shed the sense of stewardship. He redefined himself as the founding father whom the Zimbabwean nation owed everything.

Having cast aside the burden of accountability, Mugabe had no restraint to check his impulses. He allowed himself the liberty to conflate his significant contribution to Zimbabwean independence with a right of proprietorship of the country. And that warped paradigm of ownership predisposed him to impunity.

He started to administer the nation with jealous possessiveness. He criminalized dissent, institutionalized his parochial views as the fundamental principles of state policy, and turned the conduct of sham elections into an art form.

The immediate cause of Mugabe’s fall was his attempt to leverage his monopoly of power to institute a dynasty. He tried to purge the ruling ZANU-PF of his potential successors and create the room to transfer power to his wife. The plot failed close to the actualization of the endgame.

The surprise deus ex machina that blanked Harare with surreal quietness has been dubbed ‘’coup de-Grace.’’ In the literal sense, the putsch was a necessary blow on a government that was begged to die. On the other hand, the term memorialized the preemptive measure taken to block First Lady Grace Mugabe from succeeding her husband.

Mrs. Mugabe, 52, cleared her path to power by knocking her more experienced rivals out of the reckoning. She contrived the spurious allegation that former Vice President Joice Mujuru was planning to overthrow President Mugabe and forced her sack. She also told similar lie against Muguru’s replacement, Mr. Emmerson Mnangagwa and instigated his sack. She was set to step into the vacant vice presidency and assume duty like a proper regent when the military intervened.

The continuation of the Mugabe years by his wife would have meant the elongation of nearly four decades of one-man minority rule in Zimbabwe. And the relatively young Grace would have done no better than perpetuate a status quo that prospered the Mugabe clique and pauperized majority of Zimbabweans. She believed that she was most qualified to take over from Mugabe because she could be trusted to sustain his husband’s legacy.

The nearly successful spousal takeover was a tragedy averted. Mugabe’s legacy cries for reversal. A second Mugabe would have hastened the extinction of Zimbabwe as we know it.

Through a mix of policies–notably, the violent land redistribution –which precipitated harsh international sanctions, trickle-down pyramidal corruption, and the shrinking of government to a personality cult, Robert Mugabe crumbled Zimbabwe and made it the poignant post card of a banana republic.

Grace Mugabe would have aggravated the misery of that dystopian disaster zone. She is a despot wannabe. A wild-tempered thug. A profligate wastrel.

Grace is a cantankerous canker who would have managed to make Zimbabwe worse than a basket case.

The fall of Mugabe reiterates the lesson that a republic may endure the dictator for a while but not forever. He wanes as his years increases.
And he is doomed to provoke fatal disgrace by betting on his false reading of his strength.

If you dropped a pin on the map of Africa, it is likely to fall on one of the dozen countries under the yoke of a despot. Paul Biya’s Cameroon. Teodoro Obiang’s Equatorial Guinea. Dennis Sasson’s Congo. Omar al-Bashir’s Sudan. Yoweri Museveni’s Uganda. Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s Algeria. Pierre Nkurunziza’s Burundi. Idris Derby’s Chad. Isaias Afweki’s Eritrea.

Gambia’s Yaya Jammeh was recently thrust into oblivion. The head of the legendary Mugabe on a pike should be a more serious reality check to African dictators who fancy themselves invincible. If they are not past redemption, they would be pondering an exit strategy. They would be considering the possibility of creating a footnote that is different from Mugabe’s shameful fade-out. They would be thinking of meaningful gestures of penance, positive ways to atone for their abuse of power.

This teachable moment can also save the soul of the brilliant but budding tyrant of Rwanda, Paul Kageme. If he doesn’t waste the disgrace of Mugabe or interpret it as a warning to tighten his grip on power, he can change course. This third term he secured by rewriting the constitution is his last realistic chance to leave power with minimal damage. If he lingers beyond this tenure, the cosmic principle that drives the dictator to self-destruct will claim his scalp.

The failure of Mugabe’s dynastic dream should prompt the spoiled prince-dictators of Africa to abdicate. Democratic Republic of Congo’s Joseph Kabila, Gabon’s Ali Bongo, and Togo’s Faure Eyadema should all step aside. The countries their fathers ruled are no family estates.
Robert Mugabe betrayed his fortune. He lost what matters most because he was too weak to deny himself anything.

@EmmaUgwuTheMan

http://emmaugwu.com/the-grace-and-disgrace-of-robert-mugabe/

Dear Rochas,

My hatred for the Western media is a global secret. I have personally boycotted them for over two decades. I would have maintained my blissful presumption that their flagship cable television has long gone extinct, if it were not for a recent event that had to do with your person.

You may not know but I discovered ‘’fake news’’. I discerned the West’s practice of fact-bending journalism and outed them long before the internet emerged and popularized ‘’fake news’’. This is the real reason they portray me as a buffoon, the humanoid baboon that reduced Zimbabwe from a food basket to a banana republic.

Notwithstanding my aversion for the Western press, some of my aides insisted, even at the risk of their jobs, that I permit them to monitor the enemy channels so they can serve me more useful briefing papers. I demurred at first, but later indulged them: I reckoned them well-meaning, naïve youths who would have to grow up to appreciate that ‘’world news’’ are essentially the neocolonialists’ propaganda.

In hindsight, I think my staffers were right to suggest that good things can come from Western newswires sometimes.

Few days ago, those diligent aides highlighted a paragraph in my briefing papers in bright green. Not because my vision has dimmed. But because they said they wanted me to pay particular attention to some information in the colour-shaded part that was certain to interest me.

They were right. I had them read the paragraph to me. And I found it very important.

The paragraph summarized a CNN story of your aesthetic pageant in your state. You erected a 6-feet high, life-sized statue of Jacob Zuma, invited him to witness an elaborate ceremony for the unveiling and bestowed on him a chieftaincy title.

I am compelled to advise you that I should have been gifted the statue.

I am Jacob’s elder, in age and in power. I am 93 and in my 30th year in office as president. Jacob is only 75 and in his 8th year in office. You shouldn’t have passed me over to immortalize him with a statue.

In Africa, we allocate things according to the abundance of gray hairs. We prioritize the child when sharing trivial things like pieces of meat in the common soup. But in matters as weighty and lasting as erecting statues in the heart of the city, the elder comes first.

You must not construe my concern as a complaint motivated by jealousy. I am actually actuated by a sense of sagely responsibility. I am the most renowned elder statesman in Africa. It is my sacred duty to point out your inadvertent breach of cultural protocol and counsel you to take urgent steps to remedy it.

Part of the exclusive privilege of my ripe age is that I occasionally hear fragments of the discussions of our fathers in the spiritworld. I regret to inform you that those patron saints feel offended that you passed me by in favour of Jacob. They take it personally because I am just a mournful rite away from joining their society.

But I am willing to bend over backwards to accept the honour of a runner up.

My intimates compliment me on my uncommon humility. They often wish aloud that the rest of the world had the chance to encounter me in person. They swear that the meekness at the core of my being will move those pilgrims to tears.

So, don’t be amazed, my dear Rochas, that I propose to stoop to accept the honour of a statue after Jacob has had the first taste of the glory.

The honour will cause my shy and self-effacing self a lot of embarrassment. The Western press will give me wall-to-wall caricature coverage for, at least, one whole week. But I am prepared to make the sacrifice of absorbing the scorn. I am eager to fly over seven seas and seven forests to see my modest statue for the sake of redeeming the African elder’s right of first refusal in matters of monuments and memorials.

A part of me believes that you know about the preeminence of the elder in African culture and probably desired to give me my due. But I suspect that you may have been discouraged by the presumed protocol nightmare that my trip and ‘working visit’ would cause you.

Let me quickly relieve you of that treacherous fear: my senility and frailty are exaggerated. I am stronger than the Western press can ever admit.

I still walk unaided. And for caution, I travel with a personal assistant who carries my portable, special wheelchair. My virtuous wife, Grace (the most solicitous first lady on the continent) is always by my side. She will be available to push the wheelchair in case gravity pulls my legs.

I am told that some of your countrymen and South Africans insinuated that you built the statue for Jacob in acknowledgement of his fabled record as the African president with the longest list of corruption charges.

If capacity for corruption informed your choice of Jacob, I am a more deserving candidate for the honour of a statue. Jacob’s corruption cannot hold a candle to mine. I am associated with uncountable corruption charges compared to his 783 charges.

I have tarried in power for so long that my formidable aura, on its own, destroyed all the public institutions that would have investigated or kept count of my acts of corruption. I am a modest man. So, I will not exalt myself unduly by asking you to imagine how much corruption I have possibly packed in the 30 years of my one-man rulership of Zimbabwe if Jacob managed to cram his short 8 years tenure with 783 misdeeds.

My aides told me one state governor built a 20-feet statue for one of your country’s greatest leaders. But the followers of the late legend disavowed the figure and said the sculpture was an excrescence shaped by mistaken identity. The generous governor was rewarded with censure instead of praise.

I guarantee that my ever-loyal ZANU-PF supporters would not speak ill of the statue you shall make for me. They will not reward your benevolence with bitter criticism.

Whether you build me the statue of a seated Mugabe, a squatting Mugabe, or a prostrate Mugabe, I shall love it. Whether it bears the closest resemblance to my features or the farthest similitude to my evolutionary forebears, I shall celebrate it. Whether the statue is gold, silver or bronze, I shall delight myself in its sight for it shall validate my significance. The honour from a distant land will establish that I am a prophet of Biblical stature.

I am also told that Jacob’s xenophobic profile may have endeared him to you. I boast a more sterling record. I am a humane xenophobe. While his people kill Nigerians, I evicted only whites from my country.

I am a true African. I am guided by the spirit of black brotherhood. I am hospitable to my fellow black brethren.

I am glad that you told the taxpayers in your state that you cannot descend to apologize to them for building Jacob a statue at their expense. I am sure you will give them the same reply if they chide you for building an idol after my image and likeness.


Comrade Robert Mugabe
President of the Republic of Zimbabwe


immaugwu@gmail.com
@EmmaUgwuTheMan

Tanker

Look no further. I'm here.

Only a fool says there is no God.

Mickyboiz:
AbeG wu get Xperia to sell Z or Z1,it's urgent pls

I have X2.

Story!
We all know you're rather trying hard to shift focus from Banky so your relationship won't be in public domain.

Yes. We just finished shooting for the day.

It wont start march. He is shooting a TV series currently. We will shoot for 7 weeks, then have one month to rest.

Touching.

Happy married life to them.
The f*ck will only be missionary style.

I cannot imagine doing any of those things save for number 2

Inspiring.

Make I do go start 'Pappy' market.

Lol.



Your brain dey blocked before; no be Country cause am.

Joseph Yobo, the ex Nigerian footballer who almost had a good football career.

Happy wedding anniversary.

I studied Theatre And Film at UNN.

And I have no regret(s).

Who did this to you?

The poster below me will answer correctly.

Are you really sure he told her those things, or is the side chick just trying to spite her?

June 16th.

June 16

If you no get like me nko?


Ogbogboyoro.

Should be: 'The worst gay pool party'

Ogbogboyoro

Every man, woman and bobrisky should be confused looking at the picture.

I will check 'their' profile first.

Might be true.
But might have stolen more than that salary already.

I still a learner.
Guess this is not for me.

That guy has been secretly waiting/hoping for the break-up to happen so he would take his chance. I really hope for your sake that you are just what he wants.

But a guy man go still make face show amidst all these.

Cynthia must have graduated from my department(Theatre& Film Studies). She's really a good actress.

I can relate all of 'em. People even thought my Pastor- Dad was making a mistake when he allowed me study Theatre and Film.