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Deliver Now, Mr President – The Namibian


SO, PRESIDENT Hage Geingob is promising to leave a lasting legacy of prosperity for all Namibians?

With less than two and a half years left of his 10 years as head of state, the president this week pledged “to leave hope at the end of the tunnel” underwritten by oil discoveries and the search for green hydrogen.

“This is a time where we take action to address the problems,” Geingob said during a visit to the government-owned Namib Desert Diamonds.

“The government is going to take action now. In the remainder of my time, I want to do it and leave a legacy behind.”

Someone needs to remind the president that Namibians have been living his legacy for more than 30 years since he and his Swapo colleagues set the Constitution and have governed the country.

Swapo started with great promise and high hopes in 1990 led by Sam Nujoma as president and Geingob as prime minister.

Alas, most promises evaporated as successive Swapo-led governments turned most of Namibia’s resources into stardust, with politicians siphoning public money for themselves and their cronies.

Forgive the cynicism when politicians make promises of the prosperity to come after they have left office.

Through Vision 2030, Nujoma in the 1990s promised Namibia would be an industrialised nation. With less than a decade to the year 2030, anyone with half a brain can see that Namibia has instead gone backwards.

Namibia’s second president, Hifikepunye Pohamba, banked his legacy on so-called mass housing, promising the poorest of Namibians would no longer live in shacks or on the streets.

Instead, Pohamba couldn’t wait to leave the government and enjoy life thereafter with a state-sponsored N$50 million spanking new hill-top house in Windhoek, as well as multiple commercial and communal farms.

The mass housing legacy project was nothing but a get-rich-quick scheme for comrades and family.

Geingob took over, promising prosperity for all. Nowadays, as more Namibians join the ranks of the unemployed and go to bed without food, Geingob blames “external factors”.

He’s even become coy about delivering on his promise to update the public on his assets. No doubt, the president’s wealth will have ballooned for someone who spends zero on his upkeep but is paid a tax-free salary of nearly N$2 million a year.

If Geingob genuinely wants to leave a positive and lasting legacy, he should not bank on the oil discoveries and the green hydrogen. They depend on ‘external factors’ which he often complains he has no control over.

Geingob should dismantle the legacy set by Swapo that has made Namibia a swindler’s paradise.

It is no accident that SME Bank (which he was instrumental in setting up) lost more than N$200 million.

The ongoing Fishrot corruption scandal, which has spanned all three presidencies, is not an aberration.

The latest reports about mining licences being dished out to ministry officials, families and bribe payers are commonplace.

As is the allocation of state farm land to top politicians and relatives.

Legalised looting of public resources and money has become the Namibian way of life for the connected few and those who can access them.

In short, Namibia is a ghomcha-led nation.

Is there any reason the access to information bill has not been signed into law? Why are whistleblower and other corruption-busting measures not being strengthened, including appointing competent people?

Will the president give up costly unnecessary retirement perks like the housing one through which he can pocket N$80 million simply because it’s a legal entitlement rather than a need?

Fix what can be done while in office, such as resetting the nation’s moral compass and promoting civic duty.

That will be a far more lasting legacy than leaving ‘hope at the end of the tunnel’ if and when the promises of oil and green hydrogen work out.

Mr President, you can reset your current legacy by dismantling systemic corruption and instituting a culture of accountability, scrapping corruption-enabling laws, improving transparency, and inculcating selfless service to the masses – the people most vulnerable to external factors.





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