In 2009, a year after ascending to the presidency of the Republic of Botswana and having served as the Vice president for a whopping 10 years, Ian Khama was quoted by The Financial Times saying ‘first of all you should understand that it was not my choice to enter politics’, because it is dirty game and ‘had no attraction for me’.
The then President Dr Khama was further quoted saying ‘first of all you should understand that it was not my choice to enter politics’. At the time, Dr Khama said he asks himself everyday ‘why am I still in politics?’ However, Ian Khama would go on to complete two 5-year terms as the president.
Going by his apprehension about politics, one would have expected Dr Khama to seize the golden opportunity presented by retirement from the presidency and get far away from this monkey business called party politics upon completion of his two terms.
Instead of opting for a quiet private life at his posh palace in Mosu, Dr Khama decided to march further into the political combat zone going as far as forming an opposition party, the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) that is relentlessly and passionately challenging for state power.
In 2015, flamboyant politician and business magnate Samson Guma Moyo then Tati East MP, a former Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Chairman and former Assistant Minister announced that he was quitting politics in order to live a private life.
In keeping with the pull power of party politics, the flamboyant politician-cum business mogul has since resurfaced as a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the BPF ostensibly to reinforce the party in its crusade to grab state power.
In the build up to the 2019 general election, the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) president who is also the president of the Botswana National Front (BNF), Advocate Duma Boko declared that he would step aside and pass the baton onto someone else if the UDC failed to wrestle state power from the ruling BDP.
However, after the UDC failed to win state power, Advocate Boko revolted against his own promise. In a telling turn of events, Advocate Boko is believed to have used the presidential decree accorded by the party’s constitution to stymie any plans for an elective congress for the election of a new leadership for the UDC.
As a result, the UDC elective congress has been held in abeyance until after the 2024 general election, an intervention that ensured that Boko remains UDC’s uninterrupted emperor, by fair means or foul, whether desired on not.
Many other politicians have also publicly expressed their revulsion at the dirty game of politics but have found it pretty hard to divorce their lives from party politics.
While some unconditionally retired after decades in either the trenches as foot soldiers or in political office as representatives during which they had accomplished what they originally defined as their goals, some still sought to rescind their decisions and force their way back for one more bite, if necessary with the aid of a walking stick or in a wheelchair.
Thus, in spite of it being a dirty, thuggish and heart-wrenching enterprise, many people continue to risk everything imaginable to dive into politics and those already in this dishonorable adventure called politics are always scheming so that they may stick around much longer.
Many people have risked their childhood friendships for party politics while some have chosen partisan politics over marriages, families and professional careers. We have seen some people, especially those who entered politics with a shallow war chest, cleaning their life-time savings and rendering their families destitute and/or turning to loan sharks to finance their political ambitions.
Politics is a game that has seen many people regret their moves but that has never really deterred multitudes from deciding to run for political office. Politics, in particularly a commitment to a political career that often culminates with one formally entering the race for political office is a very exhausting and expensive affair- emotionally, materially and socially.
It is noted that while politics is generally taken as such a low prestige profession with no order and decorum, it remains very attractive to many people including those who seems to be having almost everything for a life of luxuries.
It is further observed that even in good old days when people were not in a rush to join politics because it was thought to be more suited to crooks seeking to change their fortunes overnight, politics nevertheless remained a very attractive venture to many decent people.
Many people have quit their plum jobs to take up political office fully aware of the widespread negative attitudes about politicians, also fully cognizant that they were going to need to soil their hands for survival, and of course fully aware that political office was not financially rewarding.
Without making any claim that people go into politics and ultimately run for political office for identical reasons, this discussion intends to offer insights into the reasons why most people are motivated to seek a career in politics; why they often find it difficult to leave the scene and why at times some do make threats to use assault rifles to eliminate their competitors if that would guarantee longevity in the game.
Except for the UDC with its associated defilement of known democratic norms and values, Botswana’s main political parties are set to have their elective congresses in 2022 to elect new office bearers in readiness for primary elections in 2023 and the 2024 general election.
Party congresses and primary elections offer party members an opportunity to stake a claim for political office and they are never short of surprises as people stampede to move up the status scale.
In effect, all sort of characters are positioning themselves for political office, motivated by what they say is a desire to serve the people. Essentially, the political season is ready to roll full steam and this is an opportunity for those thirsty and itching for political office to step forward.
Some will be quitting very prestigious, top end jobs that offer lucrative cheques and a catalogue of fringe benefits that are out of this world, while others will be quitting the ministry for a dirty game, risking loss of prestige and a host of unmatched privileges and entitlements all for the political office that comes with incessant public shaming.
The rat race to politics has commenced and political are ready for the final act of taking the mafia oath spiced with a touch of criminality to hasten the stroll into cutthroat, cloak and dagger world of politics that depends on one having vast manipulative skills and an intelligence that is just above average.
To thrive, one has to believe in take-no-prisoners politicking and be at ease with what the Americans call ratfucking.
Whereas politicians claim to run for political office on a public service motive, it is a basic principle that people would most likely decide to get into a dirty game if the probability of benefits outweighed the emotional, social and monetary costs.
By all accounts, the rat race to political office with all its short and long term risks must be motivated by some expected succulent returns. It is only when the anticipated returns from holding political office are attractive that people could choose to quit their top end jobs for a career in politics with its concomitant uglies.
In the book titled ‘The Motivation of Politicians’, James Pyane and Olive Woshinsky offer persuasive perspectives into this paradox, arguing observing, ‘politics is an attractive terrain, for scarcely any other undertaking offers abundant status rewards. Politicians’ names fill our newspapers and our history books. Their faces dominate our television screens. Onlookers struggle with each other to touch the hand of the passing president; …’
And it is much more than just the need for status – a majority of politicians see politics as an avenue for quick, guaranteed wealth.
Thus, our proclivity to run for political office is more than motivated by a desire to serve the people. While there may be those who genuinely enter politics to serve the people, a good number of people see political office as a means of social and/or financial advancement, notwithstanding that on its own, politics is less financially rewarding.
While a political career may not directly mean a move up the money scale, the accompanying political power and influence represents the greatest opportunities for third stream income and money laundering. Essentially, politics may not pay but the power inherent in politics does the trick.
Assuming the validity of this submission, a compelling conclusion drawn here from is that a majority of people seek political office to gain the power needed to access, by any means, the safe and take that which is in it for personal use, even though some politicians do use their powers for the good of the people.
