It just doesn’t make sense to me. I listened to the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) President Duma Boko telling us how the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) President Ian Khama reached out to him after the general elections and showered him with messages of congratulations and assurances of team work. Boko seems to believe Khama’s charming gestures are sincere or could be sincere. He appears to be convinced Khama is for real. Awo shems! I feel sorry for Boko and anyone in the UDC who believes Khama has repented. Look, I have studied Khama for far too long and I am not in the league of those he can easily fool. Take it from me, Khama’s soothing advances to Boko are far detached from sincerity. Boko and his colleagues in the UDC must therefore be warned to tread with care in their polka dance with Khama.
Yes, Boko is right to say he was not surprised by Khama’s attitude towards him after the outcome of the general elections where the BDP performed badly. It was to be expected, from a calculative and manipulative character such as Seretse’s son. Look, the BDP’s performance in the just ended elections was the most appalling in the history of Botswana politics. Having attained only 47 percent of the popular vote, the BDP is basically ruling this country against the wishes of the majority of the voting population. That was enough to humble Khama. Losing 20 parliamentary seats to a polarized opposition was bound to whip Khama into line and bring him down from his high horse of arrogance and Godly stature.
A brilliant strategist that he is, Khama now realizes he won’t have it easy with the current crop of opposition MP’s who are youthful, educated and militant. It is solely out of that fear that he wants to soften their attitude towards him. I don’t understand how and why the UDC leadership got so excited that Khama reached out to Boko. It beats me how they failed to smell a rat in how Khama made his advances. We are told by Boko that Khama phoned him twice on the same day to assure and reassure him of his willingness to work with him and his parliamentarians. That Khama phoned twice to talk about the same subject was enough to raise eye brows.
Red flags even. How opposition leaders, in the era of Ian Khama, managed to believe there is room for sincerity really eludes me. For starters, Boko and his deputy Ndaba Gaolathe were addressing the media far away from parliamentary buildings where they should have been at that particular time and its all thanks to Khama’s insincerity. If Khama was a sincere leader, Boko would not have found time to address the media on that Wednesday because he would have been in parliament deliberating on national issues, but lo and behold, there is still no parliament business because Khama has brought everything to a halt with his insincere demands. Khama doesn’t trust his party MP’s and they don’t trust him too but he wants opposition leaders to trust him.
You know, I will tell you why Khama phoned Boko twice to talk about the same issue. He did it out of uncontrollable excitement. He couldn’t believe Boko had so easily bought his dummy. He phoned for the second time to confirm if he was only dreaming or indeed Boko believed him when he said he was being sincere. If Boko and his team want to know how insincere Khama is, they need not look far. Khama is very manipulative and gets a kick from using people for his personal gratification and thereafter dump them. His victims are in abundance at the BDP. Here is an ungrateful man who doesn’t trust the very MP’s who made it possible for him to be president and he wants us to believe he can have a trusting relationship with MP’s who nearly sent him packing to Serowe?
I have interacted with a lot of people who have fallen for Khama’s tactics. These are the people who all along knew how insincere Khama is but the moment Khama invited them individually to his office or reached them through the phone, they believed he was sincere and had the best interest of this nation at heart. It is always after being used and dumped that they realize how Khama was never sincere in his dealings with them. Khama doesn’t want Mma Nasha to retain her position as Speaker of the National Assembly only because she has proved to be independent minded and refuses to be a zombie. How then do you believe in the sincerity of someone who abhors principled, fair and fearless people such as Mma Nasha? As we speak, the parliamentary counsel has been sent packing just because more often he gave parliament advice that was guided by law and not as guided by Khama’s wishes.
Even Khama’s brother, Tshekedi raised his concerns over the insincerity of his brother’s led central committee. Now if his blood brother doesn’t trust him, what makes Boko to trust Khama? Really who needs to be lectured on Khama’s insincerity when he has made it the hallmark of his leadership since he joined politics? Look, I’m not against the idea of the ruling party working amicably with the opposition for the benefit if the nation. Actually that should happen without even anyone trying too hard to push for it. I am only worried that Khama may just be doing what he has always done during his tenure in office where he makes promises that are only kept and last for as long as he gets what he wants. Yes, Boko may never join the BDP like Botsalo Ntuane did after Khama used the same trick on him but he needs to be warned nonetheless. And the only thing that will stop Boko from joining the BDP will be his pride which he holds in such high regard. I don’t see Boko’s pride allowing him to cross the floor even if Khama allocates him a room at the State House or Mosu.
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