One of Botswana’s most capable and most experienced public servants is fighting a losing battle to become administrative head of the African Union.
Perhaps one must start by declaring upfront their personal fondness for Pelonomi Venson, as one of the very few politicians whose administrative capabilities are not only irrefutable but also beyond reproach.
In the end she might end up winning. But her path to that victory is by the day getting narrower.
Her path to victory, if it ever leads there didn’t need to be so fraught.
It’s all a result of Botswana’s attitude to the world’s fast developing geopolitical order.
As a country our current diplomatic posture is reclusive, isolationist, ham-fisted and blunder-strewn.
Our current attitude towards the world, most specifically to Africa is by and large a play of condescension, hubris and patronizing caprice.
It is a prime example of the extent to which our modesty and humility have deserted us over the years.
If we are to make a reset aimed at finding just where we went wrong as a nation, our foreign policy has to be the starting point.
For the most part we like to pretend that we are a beacon of democracy.
Democracy, by the way is fast becoming part of our history; we are like a country running on empty or reserve so to speak.
What little vestiges we still hold on to are hangovers from our glorious past. And we are not doing much to replenish and reinvent ourselves.
We do not like to admit that internally our grasp of democratic ideals have been sliding away from us.
The truth though is that since 2008 we have preached democracy and shouted it from rooftop to every corner of the world except back home.
Just over a week ago we listened to a radio interview where the Secretary General of the ruling party exhorted his party’s longevity in power.
Botsalo Ntuane was in his element. He was speaking in glowing terms. The only trouble is that his was blatant misdiagnosis of today’s realities.
His mind is shiftlessly still clinging to an era of the 1980s when Daniel Kwelagobe was Secretary General of the same party and Botswana was by every measure a bastion of exceptionalism.
That is now history.
And the longer it takes us to accept that the era has long gone, the longer it will take us to adjust to new realities.
Ntuane is not the only one to be trapped in this time warp.
In fact all of our public policy planners and indeed their political masters are such victims.
Having lost all the limelight and international glare that used to be showered on us to highlight the shortcomings of our neighbours in the sub-region, as a country we are still groping for a new role under the sun.
Which is why it was not only surprising but also patently disingenuous for President Ian Khama to call for Robert Mugabe’s retirement or resignation ÔÇô whatever the correct word might have been!
Back to Pelonomi Venson!
If Venson was a candidate to become Chairman of the African Union Commission say in 1992, the whole of Africa would easily be united behind her.
Our brazen diplomatic posture is behind all her difficulties to become Africa’s top most civil servant.
Increasingly African countries are returning the scorn with which we have treated them in the past with unbridled contempt at our efforts to try and occupy key positions as that one for which Venson is vying.
We should not feign surprise, much less play victims.
The fact that she could not cross the threshold a few months ago is by the way a glaring indictment not on her abilities, but on her country’s standing in the eyes of the continent.
Which is why we should be quick at using our international image as a microcosm of just what we need to do to get back to where we used to be.
Closing our eyes to this reality is hardly a sign of patriotism.
If anything it is an irresponsible attempt to hide our diminishing prestige on the international stage.
The next president of Botswana, whoever it might be will have a lot in their plate when it comes to restoring the country’s international image.
This will include a genuine mending and strengthening of relations with such traditional allies like Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe but also with those countries like Angola who have always had a dim, cold and detached view of us like Angola.
