Why international military intervention in the Central African Republic is likely to fail.

Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou suggests why international military intervention in the Central African Republic is likely to fail. - Project Syndicate

A year of unfulfilled dreams and revitalized ambitions

The past few months have been quite challenging for me, particularly the last half of 2013. My resolutions for this year were largely to be achieved in the second half. I was met with frustration and disappointment right from the first month of the third quarter. The Job I had been counting on could not be given because apparently the status of the potential employer at the company had changed. That meant I had to postpone my entry into a career I had loved so much and dedicated almost half a decade of my life preparing for.

Nevertheless, I got an offer at a government ministry. I gladly took it up though it had little to do with my preferred career path, largely because I desperately needed something to do. Don’t get me wrong but I’m not the type that enjoys long spells of redundancy. I was happy to be making a small contribution to building my country especially in a sector that is seriously lagging behind compared to any standard worth its name.

In the meantime, I was busy browsing the internet and scrounging newspapers looking for any available opportunities. Having applied for one such opportunity in a large group of companies, I went through a month of interviews until the last one where I discovered someone had been groomed to take that position right from the first interview. I took that failure gracefully and moved on. A couple more applications later and absence of responses, I resigned myself to reapplying after graduation.

The experience at the Ministry has not been a rosy one. If you have worked in a place without a contract and living at the mercy of the boss hoping he will have some consideration for your plight, you may partly know what I mean. You won’t know all of it because my kind of boss actually doesn’t care. In fact, as I speak now, I’m leaving for Christmas without being paid because someone somewhere pocketed some money he wasn’t supposed to, so our package was used to refund it after accountability was demanded. So now you have an idea of what kind of year I have had. There is little I would have achieved on the part of my personal resolutions under the circumstances.

That is not to say that I am perfect. I have made a few mistakes along the way. Some people have tried to pull me down, maybe with good reason. There have been times I thought I was almost beyond saving. But I bounced back revitalized and reenergized. In the same vein, I have had triumphs and successes. I have grown and metamorphosed into a better writer, better reader, a commentator, a quantity surveyor, a friend and a Christian. Like the good people of God, i have found strength in adversity and picked wisdom from my failures. I have tried to learn forgiveness from my friends and to settle feuds without bitterness. I have learnt not to succumb to evil but to challenge it. I have learnt to trust and always appeal to a higher power in all situations. I have learnt to give thanks in all circumstances and live each day at a time. I have cofounded a savings and investment group with boundless opportunities. I have learnt to love with all my heart and laugh really heartily. I have dedicated my life to service for my country. I have written widely about the principles of good governance, constitutionalism and human rights. I have condemned poor governance and anti-democratic practices in the same forum.

Though i look at life, career and business as clear uphill battles in the coming years, these are battles I am ready to fight. I feel much revitalized and I have redirected my energies. Next year is a year of achievement coupled with even greater ambition. I will reach into my inner being and find whatever strength and motivation I need to succeed. I will also continue to appeal to a higher power and hold onto the Hope that His son brings as we receive him birthed unto us to clear our way of obstacles. And for those people who plan to pull me down, I have three little words: I am success. The one who made me has given me permission to spread my wings and fly, and not even you can stop me.

Pathias. A

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.




William Ernest Henley

Elitism and Lessons from Nelson Mandela

Many of us woke up in the morning of 6^th December, to the heartbreaking news of the departure of perhaps the greatest statesman to have ever lived in Africa and maybe the entire world. We all knew that Nelson Mandela’s time to part with us was coming sooner or later, but nevertheless, nothing seems to have prepared us for this profound loss. Mr. Mandela’s renowned and illustrious political struggle for equality, justice and human rights endeared him to the hearts of almost everyone who lived in his time and beyond. He championed reconciliation and forgiveness after enduring great suffering for a large part of his life at the hands of the apartheid regime. And to me, that will forever remain his beacon of excellence as someone who was larger than life itself. He is the hero for all freedom loving people and he will forever be remembered for giving the world human dignity.

I belong to the school of thought that believes people like Mandela should not be mourned but celebrated. My culture taught me that when a person has grown old and attained a certain age group, when they finally rest, we shouldn’t mourn their death but celebrate their achievements for the time we shared our lives with them. And indeed Mandela said he wanted to be remembered as a man who had lived his life and served his purpose on earth. He taught the continent to forgive and the world to be moral.

As tributes poured in from all corners of the globe to the great leadership icon, one could observe everyone trying to associate themselves with the man. Even those who caught a glimpse of him at an airport or a major rally at a state visit are struggling to compile a few paragraphs to describe the experience in his tribute. This kind of endearment to almost everyone is unprecedented. Unfortunately, we do not seem to have benefitted from his legacy. And like a local commentator said, either Mandela had very bad students or he was a bad teacher. Personally, I’m compelled to believe the former to be true. Albeit, I think it’s not too late.

The lessons he taught, emphasized and lived by seem to have remained stories for researchers and authors. Justice, reconciliation, political accommodation, sacrifice for what is good, rule of law, equality, et al. are ideals that we still struggle to find in today’s leaders in Africa and beyond. One may argue that Mandela found himself compelled to live up to the image that had been built around him while he was languishing in jail for almost three decades. My opinion however is that the choices he made and the ideals he upheld are what delivered him to that revered place in every one’s mind.

The elites in Uganda and indeed the world have run to Twitter and Facebook,  in this social media driven age, to write their favourite quotes of Mandela and to produce a semblance of inspiration they might have drawn from the leader. The truth however is that these same elites are not living these lessons but rather directly or indirectly perpetrating the new “apartheid” of poverty, inequality and injustice.  We the elites have failed to walk the talk. We rather have acquired talent but failed on ethics. We have skills that lack values and knowledge devoid of conscience. We applaud the disregard of the law as long as it serves our inherent strategic interests of advancing our position in society and getting us closer to the pot of gold. We knowingly abet government’s aggression of political dissent to appear favourable to the powers that be. In such times of political crisis when constitutionalism is on trial and laws are being skewed to reflect the wishes of the regimes or else risk being ignored, opportunism is on offer and the elites have on more than several occasions fallen short of the ‘Mandela principles’.

We cannot build a modern, democratic and transformed society if we the elite remain selfish, uncompromising and continuously fail to form a constructive debate and activism to deliver us there. We must rise up to the occasion where the powers at the centre have failed to hold. It seems like the best of us lack the conviction while the worst are full of passion and intensity.

We must stop protecting and excusing the corrupt because they ‘are part of us’ in terms of ethnicity, religion or political affiliation and yet we call on the rest to be sacrificed. These double standards will not help us build a world we can be proud of. We must not seek self-gratification but work as instruments of good and social transformation that we have been empowered to be. A life of service is the true mark of achievement. Mandela’s life doesn’t require a further example. The great scriptures are very clear in reference to elites that, “to those whom much is given, much will be required.”

Let us not just be proud of Mandela’s immense achievement but rather get inspired to dig out that small Mandela in each of us and bring him onto the stage to honour his legacy.

Fare thee well Madiba.