When Dr Masisi ascended to the presidency of the Republic of Botswana, people’s hopes were reignited especially after the widely acknowledged failures of the charismatic Dr Khama who came into office promising prosperity and a commitment to cure society’s ills through his 4Ds roadmap.
For someone who took over at the time when lives have been turned upside down and people taken to hell and back by a brutal presidency, expectations were that President Dr Masisi would do things much differently.
The hard reality is that the presidency is not an easy job which is why no individual is ever adequately prepared for it even those who moved mountains to become first citizens. So when Dr Masisi assumed the presidency, Batswana gave him a grace period to learn how to do the job and understand that the Office of the President is not a party office.
For President Dr Masisi, expectations were always going to be lofty given that there was a general feeling that the immediate past president had used the presidency to satisfy his cravings. People had lost hope in the presidency, in government and in life generally.
Essentially, there was scepticism of the public toward the political leadership and state institutions. In this respect, President Dr Masisi’s biggest challenge upon taking the reins was always going to be the need to restore public confidence in government and its institutions.
He was expected to build bridges and find common ground with the citizenry including those on the other side of the political aisle in order that we pulled together to reconstruct a coherent and decent future for our nation.
When Dr Masisi, then Vice President let out a bellow of rage saying, ‘bo tautona jo kea a bo batla, ke bo batla go gaisa jaaka nkile ka bo batla…’ many saw in him a man willing to give Batswana something unique, an honorable and dependable government that placed people at the center of public service.
It was therefore fitting that Dr Masisi ascended to the presidency on a platform of change because a lot of things needed to be changed. Dr Masisi had to urgently re-create the presidency to make it relevant to our circumstances and restore its sanctity and reconstruct its image after someone turned it into a torture chamber.
President Dr Masisi also needed to mend fences with the international community and restore our standing in the world after someone ruined our relations with others and on matters of foreign affairs, President Dr Masisi had moved quickly and decisively.
For good reason, the most Batswana stood with him in his crusade because it was necessary to reclaim our place as a nation that can inspire others to overcome threats such as poverty and pandemics.
It is partly on account of his efforts to reconcile with the rest of Africa that Botswana managed to capture the much sought after position of Executive Secretary of SADC after it has eluded our nationals for the longest time.
However, under the guise of rebuilding our international image, President Dr Masisi has become a passionate journey man who seems not intending to slow down anytime soon. Perhaps emboldened by scripture (John 4: 44) that a prophet has no honor is his own country, President Dr Masisi may have found peace in being an absent president hence his affinity for external trips that give him time to be far away from an overly critical people.
It is generally agreed that these international trips serve a good purpose and should become an integral part of a president’s itinerary. However, we all know that back home, people are faced with full-blown problems that are making life miserable and proving too hard to conquer.
The nation has to contend with soaring unemployment especially graduate unemployment, ever rising cost of living, violent crime, ballooning levels of corruption and economic crime, growing inequalities and so many others that are rendering Botswana a very fragile nation hanging onto the edge of a cliff.
Left unattended, these challenges could potentially bring the entire economy crashing to a complete ruin. As a matter of fact, the domestic affairs is the arena that has to come in for special favor from the president; the sphere where President Dr Masisi should show interest in putting more efforts and use his awesome power of influence to make people believe that the government is doing its part to make life easier for an average citizen.
This does not require President Dr Masisi to be God of miracle money or a rainmaker of some sort. As a custodian of the national economy, President Dr Masisi is expected to show some interests in tackling domestic challenges as much as he has made a career dressing down former President Dr Khama for doing active opposition politics after retiring as President of the Republic of Botswana.
It is important to note that we never expected President Dr Masisi to be perfect or to instantly turn the economy around and return the country to its former glory. Yet, given that he wanted the presidency so badly that he dreamed, plotted and wedged himself at the State House before he was actually sworn in, we hoped that he had a vision for our republic and that for the sake of our dear people, President Dr Masisi would commit himself to giving Batswana a government that would place the honour of the nation above self-interests.
Above all, we hoped that President Dr Masisi would take his job seriously or at least do much better than his attention-seeking, macho posturing predecessor who was always busy but doing nothing.
It is also worth noting that for over a decade Batswana have had to stay awake day and night bitterly fighting a despot and his henchmen including the incumbent first citizen, from running down our country.
We have had to put aside our erstwhile unmatched good manners in order to match a determined autocrat and his hit men. From this fighting, Batswana have been hardened and have since learned to be vulgar and ruthless. While others we endearing themselves to a despot, some of us took real risks, rolled up our sleeves and sacrificed comfort to critique the emperor.
Our criticism kept the cold-blooded gang of skelms under check. We never got tired or intimidated even as our lives were on the lines for being honest patriots. Of this, we hoped that the then heir to the throne incumbent President Dr Masisi would draw valuable lessons to become a much better father of the nation.
As a matter of logic, we expected President Dr Masisi to be more public-minded and to create a style of governance deliberately designed to shape a new national character anchored on self-belief, dignity and respect for life, which is why we were less worried that he might have copied from the manual of dictatorship and bullying authored by his immediate past boss.
We accepted that no individual becomes president of the republic adequately prepared for its complex operations and so we assumed that he would, like other eminent leaders, grow into the job using public opinion about the former president.
We expected President Dr Masisi and his administration to initiate sweeping reforms to inspire economic growth and assure the security of the person and property and this is necessary before people get tired and loose value for life.
We expected him to create space time in his busy schedule to meet with industry captains, political leaders and others to find common ground in growing the economy and fighting crime. We never expected President Dr Masisi to act like an explorer lent to the presidency.
It was thought that the president would become a living symbol of this republic seen from the perspective of a Motswana born of too much struggle than privilege and who therefore understood the daily struggles of the ordinary citizen to be able to care about the life of a hustler.
There is substantial precedent for using national leaders to shape the behaviour of the nation. According to this claim, if national leaders believed in a prosperous nation and behaved in a manner attuned to a booming economy, people were likely to adopt that flamboyant tone and confidence necessary for a resilient society.
But it seems President Dr Masisi is not showing any interest in putting the amount of efforts, even at the barest minimum, needed to serve his people with distinction especially on the domestic front.
At the moment, the president is failing to inspire a good section of the population mainly because he behaves like someone who does not believe in himself, his own government, in everyone and everything else. He has become a shrinking figure who, besides having capitulated to his handlers, acts like a tomboy with inbuilt privileges and an entitlement conduct that impede him from ever taking anything seriously.
