The strategy by the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) was clear and simple; to undermine the BNF leader’s credibility and with that cut short and ultimately collapse the swelling public support for the alliance that he leads.
It was a plan seemingly hatched in heaven, until it hit execution snags that have now raised fresher and more pointed questions on the integrity of the highest office in the land.
BDP activists conversant with their party master plan to get even with Boko for making inflammatory assassination allegations now blame the man mandated to lead the strategy, Secretary General, Mpho Balopi for wretched delivery.
They accuse Balopi of fumbling and failing to stay on the message.
It is a gaffe the BDP inner circle is beginning to regret.
“Boko has a very big ego. And on a good day he can be very sharp intellectually. To overcome him you need maturity and levelheadedness. The mistake we made as a party has been to send someone who is equally egocentric to tackle him. Now Boko is calling the shots,” said a BDP member who sits on one of the party’s sub-committees.
It is not altogether an outlandish exaggeration.
To Boko it is clear that Balopi does not have true information of what happened inside the meetings.
At any rate Boko has such a low regard of Balopi that he would still not accept the BDP Secretary’s version of events, much less acknowledge the BDP Secretary as worthy of engaging.
A dyed-in-the-wool attention seeker, Boko likes talking big the same way that enjoys occupying the centre stage.
He relishes public glare and nothing exhilarates him more than when he is himself the subject of a debate as he currently is.
His shiftless strategy is to be large on hyperbole, excessive on criticism while staying thin on policy and detail.
He likes postponing solutions to problems with the hope that left unattended long enough, problems have a habit of resolving themselves.
It is a strategy fraught with difficulties.
This mindset, coupled with a holier-than-thou disposition which is made worse by an acerbic contempt for those he perceives as intellectually challenged has seen him lose no less than three Members of Parliament, including a party deputy leader.
Boko’s admirers however like to point out that his ruthless determination to forge together a united opposition has been so
successful it is beginning to attract even the attention of those on the opposite sides.
It all started one innocuous Saturday afternoon in Gabane, a dusty village a few kilometers outside Gaborone when as the United Democratic Change leader, Boko arrived at the launch of a party parliamentary candidate, Major General Pius Mokgware and announced that there is an ongoing plot on his life. It was the beginning of a fireball that has refused to be doused off.
If Boko’s announcement was a big enough shocker, it was General Mokgware’s subsequent allegation of the existence of a hit-list that got everyone to start paying attention.
By the time an announcement was made that a leading trade unionist, Johnson Motshwarakgole would not be making an appearance afterall because he had been attacked while on his way to the rally, everything had started to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
For the media and conspiracy theorists alike, it was the beginning of a fiery punch line that is now approaching its second month.
All of it was given potency by the fact that Mokgware is a former General, who retains unwavering loyalty among a large swathe of serving army officers who in the mist of many service related difficulties they are going through still perceive him as a leader they never had.
He was sacked after an investigation accused him of inciting junior officers. His sacking only served to endear him more to the soldiers who had come to look up to them as a rare breed of general who was fighting from their corner.
From their response as typified by Balopi’s vehemence, the Government and indeed the ruling party have not taken Boko’s allegations kindly.
They have singled him out for the taking. And so far there is n o sign of a letup.
In a rare interview, senior private secretary to the president George Tlhalerwa has been quoted in the media making a case that the meetings that President Khama had with Boko were not benign events.
Tlhalerwa’s interview was made to dovetail with earlier assertions by Balopi that Boko had sought to join the BDP, until president Khama advised him to re-think his ambition.
An impression has also been created that the meetings were convened at Boko’s instance.
In the meantime, Tlhalerwa has threatened to release footages of those meetings.
Boko has however remained defiant.
Sensing that he is for now winning the public relations sparring match that was started by the BDP against him, he has challenged the Office of the President to swiftly release images of his meetings with President Ian Khama so that the public can be the judge on who is telling the truth.
Emphatically he says he attended the two meetings with Khama, but denies ever asking to join the BDP, much less asking a position or any amount of money.
With BDP done, bigger and more portent landmines however still lurk ahead.
Can he be trusted? Does he have credibility issues? Has been entirely honest in his public assertions?
There is a lot of convincing to do within his BNF and indeed within other UDC partners.
And therein may lie a life and death political battle more threatening than allegations on his life that started the political hailstorm that currently grips the nation.
