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| Wynegood G. Malunga |
I was just thinking.
Democratic Republic of
Congo President Joseph Kabila’s time in office is up and he must respect the
law of his country. For some time now,
he has been scheming of ways and means that will keep him in power but I
believe that no matter how great you are as a leader, no matter how popular you
are or think you are, if the constitution of the land sets term limits, the
honorable thing to do is say, “My time is up, goodbye”. Africa cannot have
every other leader adjusting their time in office as they please. Why don’t
these people ever want to let go? What is wrong with these dictators? Even when
they lose an election, they still want to hang on to power.
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| Trouble in Gambia |
Yahya Jammeh of Gambia has just lost an election but now refuses to relinquish power. Others like Paul Biya of Cameroon, Idriss Deby of
Chad, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Jose dos Santos of Angola, Denis Sassou Nguesso
of Congo Brazaville, Omar al Bashir of Sudan, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of Somalia,
Tran Dai Quang of Vietnam, Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge in Cambodia Bashir al Assad of Syria, Ilham Aliyev of
Azerbaijan, Kin Jon-un of North Korea, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, even the
military leaders of Myanmar and others, put repressive laws in place to kill
all opposition movements and entrench themselves while they were in power and some still are. The evil Jean
Bedel-Bokassa made himself emperor while Romania’s Nicolae Ceausescu
slaughtered thousands of his people. Some countries today which present to the
world a semblance of democracy have
leaders who manipulate the law of the land to their own satisfaction and have
State institutions and surrogates eating off their hands.
Namibia, Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa,
although not perfect, are some of a few examples of African countries with
political parties that respect the electoral process and presidential term
limits. You do not hear the incumbent Presidents, party cadres or government
controlled media being used as praise and worship teams to perpetuate power for
certain individuals in these countries.
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| Only Jammeh has rights? |
As I write this,
the defeated Gambian President Yahya Jammeh is acting in a very stubborn manner and refuses
to vacate office.
In Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama has conceded defeat and graciously
congratulated the winning opposition party leader in that country’s election.
Elsewhere, we have political parties in power which will
impose anything from the Department of Dirty Tricks to suppress the rule of law.
They hang on to power and when the writing is on the wall that their time is
up, they refuse to accept in order to remain comfortable in their corrupt
comfort.
In the Bible, we read in Chapter 5 of the Book of Daniel about
Belshazzar the king of Babylon holding a feast in the palace for a lot of
people, boozing, munching, praising the gods of their gold and silver. A hand
of a man appears on the wall and starts writing, “MENE, MENE, TEKEL URPHASIN”. Belshazzar is frightened and calls in all his
prophets, sangomas and astrologers to try and get an answer but no one has any
idea what this all means.
Someone remembers a young Hebrew named Daniel and he is
called to come and explain. He tells the king that there is serious jelly
coming his way. “MENE, MENE” means God
has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; “TEKEL”: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; “URPHASIN”: Your kingdom has been
divided, and given to the Medes and Persians. That very night Belshazzar
is taken out.
There are some leaders illegally and corruptly hanging on to
power whom God has numbered their days and given power to someone else but they
refuse to read the writing on the wall.
Fast forward to Luke 19:41-44. The Lord Jesus has left
Jericho and as He draws near Jerusalem, He sees the city and weeps over it
saying, "If you had known, even you,
especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they
are hidden from your eyes. For days will
come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround
you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within
you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another,
because you did not know the time of your visitation."
Now parallel this with the events surrounding the dictatorships
of some world leaders. “MENE, MENE TEKEL URPHASIN” was on the wall
but in trying to justify they hold to power, they listened to “prophets” who
told them what they wanted to hear and some, like Ethiopia’s Mengistu Haile
Mariam and Idi Amin fled into exile while others ended up with bullets in their
heads. They refused to discern the time.
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| Bashir faces arrest |
You would think those who are still hanging around would,
like Belshazzar, at least ask for a Prophet Daniel to find out what the writing
on the wall is saying but no, no, no, they think they’ve got some kind of
heat-shield, but hey, when people get mad nowadays because of injustice, they
become like human heat-seeking missiles.
They know you are heading for the farthest tunnel in your home town. Big mistake,
because as sure as the night turns to day, a trigger happy soldier is going to
put a bullet in your head and you will be in
another tunnel heading for a different destination. The coming year is going to be tumultuous for some countries
as long as leaders behave like elected kings.
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| Joseph Kabila |
In the last 24 hours about 20
people are dead in Congo DR because of Joseph Kabila’s refusal to
leave office. The blood of innocent people will be crying out for revenge from
the ground and yet there are Congolese citizens singing praises to Kabila,
Mugabe, Museveni and others. Remember King Herod enjoyed the praise of people
so much that when he spoke, it was like the voice of God.
21 So on a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and
gave an oration to them. 22 And the people kept
shouting, "The voice of a god and not of a man!" 23 Then immediately an angel of the
Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by
worms and died. - Acts 12:21-24 NKJV
The Bible does not contain the word of God; IT IS the word of
God and His word never returns without accomplishing what He sends it for.
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| Yoweri Museveni |
The people of Africa must stand up for their rights and refuse
to be intimidated by young leaders whose lust for power undermines good
governance. We need to stand up to octogenarian and nonagenarian leaders who crawl to the
platform but can no longer give a coherent speech but believe that they
are on the throne by Divine appointment.. We need to hold our leaders
accountable, even in the face of persecution. The honorable thing to do is to retire to your farm or dacha
before the chickens come home to roost. Discern the times, read and understand
the writing on the wall and don’t forget to thank me for the advice.
It’s just a thought.
