The ruling BDP likes to carry and flaunt a romanticised image as ordained to rule this country until Christ comes back.
That is, of course, a fantasy – probably made in heaven.
Reality is that if it does not reform and reinvent itself, the ruling party will die a natural death.
At the pace at which things are going, such a moment of death may actually not be too far down the road.
The sooner the party’s Gods come to terms with this uncomfortable reality, the likelier they will prevail on the current leadership to shift into a fresh mode of resilience and self-preservation.
As we have repeatedly pointed out, the BDP’s strength has always been an unremitting ability by its leaders to manage their differences.
A scorched earth policy, a favourite among the opposition parties, has never been a route for the BDP.
Yet, as we see it play before our very eyes, the main cause, or should we say the root source of all the BDP’s current problems, is its top leadership.
The BDP has always outmaneuvered opposition, I would humbly suggest, not because they have the most brilliant leaders, but simply because those leaders always knew when to make compromises and concessions to each other even as they hated and, in some worse instances, openly despised one another.
A shocking disability to overcome personal differences has, to the utter dismay of many Batswana of goodwill, always damned our opposition.
It, therefore, comes as a matter of deep sadness that, of late, the BDP seems to be fast adopting this ill gotten behaviour notoriously associated with the BNF.
For some strange reasons, and all of a sudden, accommodating and deferring to one another even as they differed and hated each other seems to be eluding the BDP current leadership.
While on one hand the followers down below are desperately itching for a ceasefire among their belligerent leaders at the top, that same leadership is on the other hand going for broke ÔÇô exploiting exactly the same tactics that have kept the opposition BNF away from state power.
I may be wrong, but while I look around for a possible solution, all I see is darkness, a spate of hate and chaos.
There is absolutely no room for reconciliation between Khama and the new Central Committee under Daniel Kwelagobe.
The two sides are likely to end up in High Court.
But then, again, a High Court is not only an acrimonious platform, it also is a limited platform in that it only provides abstract and mechanical solutions that are by nature legal and detached.
Far from law, the BDP problems are, from beginning to the end, political.
What the BDP therefore needs are political solutions, couched, of course, with an element of emotional touch on top.
There is little doubt that gossip, rumour mongering, conspiracy theories, insecurity and paranoia are responsible for the mess currently consuming the BDP. Those are the demons that have to be addressed. And, as we can see, there is nothing legal in those demons.
Not only is BDP of today run by a confrontational lot, the party is also a victim of a crowd that is consumed by strange streaks of self-importance, arrogance and outright contempt for one another.
It is a given that unless there is compromise at the top, the current leaders seem determined to drag the party with themselves to their political obscurities.
What a sad way to end that would be for a once proud and resilient party that fancied itself ruling until the end of time!
The party leaders may get the best legal brains they want but that will not take them anywhere.
BDP problems are not legal, they are political. There is a lot of uncontrolled anger.
There is no way law can restore relations that have so irretrievably collapsed between the different belligerents.
In case there has been doubt, the only thing that continues to hold these belligerents together is power and their love of it.
Were their party to lose state power tomorrow, I bet each and every one of the warriors would simply walk away to their homes and try in different ways to run their small businesses.
At the rate at which things are going, I would not be surprised if President Khama were to be tempted to take disciplinary action against some members of the Central Committee.
Secretary General Gomolemo Motswaledi, who by virtue of his position, has quickly become the public face of all resistance against Khama is the most obvious candidate for such disciplinary action.
Expelling any of the Central Committee members will be a real bad mistake of judgment on the part of the President, second perhaps only to the way he publicly vilified Daniel Kwelagobe in the buildup to the Kanye Congress.
While we address the question of just who is in control of the BDP these days, it is perhaps important to also pause and ask ourselves just how this once great party ended up in this scary mess!
My guess is that it all started the day President Khama tried to separate the Central Committee from cabinet.
His suggestion may have been made in good faith, but he sure will live to rue that day.
Anything else, including the use and abuse of state media, especially Botswana Television and Daily News has become collateral damage.
