RECENTLY the economically disabled nation of Zimbabwe continued on her usual path of making history by offering a demanding job to an 89-year-old man.
Opinion By Masola Wa Dabudabu
In any language, this is an unprecedented achievement for a man who is overly endowed with so many years in his life.
There are some people who will feel duty-bound to honour President Robert Mugabe for this rare milestone with some already variously or endearingly calling him the great-grand leader.
In contrast to the sweetness of this historic victory, congratulatory messages for this perennial vanquisher are an octave lower than the voices of recrimination and reproach.
Those who lost the race are obviously unimpressed and are calling for some form of redress and serious retribution against Mugabe for grand theft of votes from the people. Judging from the loudness of the noises, the unhappy ones seem to outnumber the happy ones.
This monumental complaint sounds like grand theft votes; a distant cousin of grand theft auto!
Political pundits and commentators with a sympathetic view towards the losing parties were quick to attribute the overwhelming loss to wholesale rigging by Mugabe’s well-oiled machine.
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The pervading claim was that Mugabe had manufactured ghost voters who went on to spook the chances of the progressive forces.
It is a bit mischievous to give credit to that line of thought. Ghost voters alone cannot be solely responsible for the results that prevailed. The majority of the electorate who voted just decided to choose Mugabe over the other candidates.
Mugabe may not be totally blameworthy in this complex issue, but it is the electorate that should accept the largest portion of the blame. All Zimbabweans are guilty of trusting their future to a man of the past who holds little or no regard for their future.
We as Zimbabweans have our hands dripping with the blood of the future generations. We are accomplices in the murder of innocent people.
If Mugabe had to face trial for this debacle, he would be perfectly in his right to claim that he was the main victim of the cruelty of Zimbabwean voters. He would counter-claim that Zimbabweans were hell bent on killing him softly by subjecting him to the demands of running a ruined country from a budget of a few uncut diamonds that are baked in Chiadzwa.
Every Zimbabwean is criminally culpable for perpetuating the monotonously evil reign of the elderly leader. The younger population has to take most of the blame for failing to relieve the country from its parasitic relationship with Mugabe.
According to Zimbabwe’s population distribution, the age group from 18 to 40 constitutes almost 50% of the population. This age group is by far the largest catchment of potential voters.
In their great numbers, these voters or potential voters could make a lasting and uncontested impression on the way politics is run in Zimbabwe. Depending on their understanding of national issues, they could be instrumental in either shaping democratic aspirations or in frustrating them.
The 18 to 40-year-olds appear to have been somehow insulted with the term “bornfree” — an overused misnomer for that matter. It was these so-called “bornfrees” who cost the progressive parties the election.
It is undeniable that voters born just before, and after 1980 were mainly responsible for the re-election of an old and tired candidate who lacks the natural zest, motivation and stamina to captain a crippled ship out of rough waters.
For some reason, this population group is so intoxicated by the gratitude of being the so-called bornfrees to an extent they fear exploring alternative possibilities. They revel in the comfort of their ignorance of unfettered freedom.
They reason that people who have never seen or tasted caviar have no reason to yearn for it. What Mugabe sells to them as freedom they willingly buy!
A majority of the under 40s who constitute the bulk of Zimbabwe’s eligible voters are in a perpetual state of extreme inebriation with the assumed holiness of the one and only everlasting one.
The North Korean-style indoctrination they have been subjected to in the form of free education is telling on their faces as much as it is disabling the nation.
Right from their time at kindergarten, those born just before independence and onwards were taught that there was one God for us all, one father for each, one Chief Chirau for the village and one Mugabe for all of them.
They were not told taught that paternity was a permanent feature even at death while bearers of political office were disposable and dispensable should they falter.
No-one told them that politicians were the servants of the people. The free education did not inform the learners that politicians can be treated with the same respect accorded to under-garments which are discarded when they develop holes or when they get irretrievably soiled due to uncontrollable sphincter muscle unexpected malfunction.
The education system poisoned them with hero-worshipping to an extent some impressionable ones believed that their oxygen intake depended on His Excellence’s pleasure.
It is the education system that has created monstrosities instead of discerning voters. The education system was devilishly crafted to avoid enlightening the poor souls about politicians being accountable to the people.
The school syllabi never mentioned that politicians were human and that they could ordinarily succumb to human tragedies such as illness, insanity, death and selfishness. The bornfrees went to school and learnt that the capital letter “M” stood for Mugabe only and that all other names could be spelt with a small “m”.
This is how zombies are made. This is how Zimbabwe was destroyed. It will take years of hard work to redeem the population from Mugabe’s destructive education.
-Masola wa Dabudabu is a social commentator
