As the saying goes, for the Botswana National Front it never rains, it pours. It’s now a forgone conclusion that for the country’s official opposition, the year is ending just as it started – with no discernible seriousness on the part of their leadership.
News that the BNF’s two most senior personalities in parliament have failed to respond to President Mogae’s State of the Nation Address when given a chance to do so by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Patrick Balopi, should be a source of concern, especially to the party’s unthinking followers who, against all evidence, have been insisting that the BNF is a serious contender for state power, or to use their preferred phrase “government in waiting.”
It has since come to our attention that the leader of the Opposition in parliament, who is also the President of the BNF Otsweletse Moupo, will this year not be making an official response to the State of the Nation Address, as presented by State President Festus Mogae in the last two weeks.
The party’s Secretary General, Akanyang Magama, who is Member of Parliament for Gaborone South, will also not be responding to President Mogae’s State of the Nation Address.
No matter how hard one tries to give the two the benefit of the doubt, the reasons given are not plausible.
This is a serious indictment on the credibility of the BNF as a party.
It is also an indictment on the credibility of their leadership.
The importance of political opposition in a working multi party democracy does not have to be emphasized.
Sadly, the BNF, forty years into existence, are still to grasp this elementary fact.
The levels of irresponsibility and what amounts to a shocking casual attitude to national business displayed by the BNF leadership should not go unpunished.
Not only are Moupo and Magama the party’s two most senior leaders in parliament, they are also the embodiment of the Front’s vision.
As a result of their ineptitude, the BNF official position with regard to a number of very important issues raised by Mogae will never be known to the nation.
It may well be that Moupo and Magama agree in totality with what Mogae said, in which case the two would be better advised to join the BDP ranks.
The appalling lack of seriousness should be of concern not only to the multitudes who voted these two people into parliament but also to those who had pinned their hopes of better lives on a government led by the BNF.
Even more worrying is the fact that the BNF is fast degenerating into the shadow of itself.
The tragedy is that inevitably the party is dragging down with itself the country’s aspirations of a vibrant democracy.
The BNF has become a laughing stock.
The State of the Nation Address is the most important event in the government official calendar.
It gives the President an opportunity to take the nation by hand through his past programmes as well as outline the new targets and aspirations he wants to set himself in the coming year.
In short, it is a barometer through which the government and the ruling party can be measured. It is also a mirror through which the public can see through what to expect in the next twelve months from their government.
Those are important calls that require official response from the country’s opposition leaders.
This is particularly distressful, especially coming in the wake of calls by President Festus Mogae imploring the Members of Parliament to be more productive.
We want to remind the BNF that the country is currently struggling with an almost insurmountable task of changing Batswana’s attitude towards work.
Generally speaking, Batswana’s work ethic is despicable.
And the BNF leadership has just gone all the way to confirm that it will be a hard task turning around that kind of mindset.
In fact, the guys at the top of the BNF leadership have confirmed what many of us always suspected: that more decay is at the top than in the main body of the population.
One would have imagined that people like Moupo and Magama, who have pretensions of one day holding key positions in the affairs of the republic, could be exemplary.
The BNF cannot be taken serious if they continue to make such perilous mistakes.
They can also not be blaming the ruling party for every evil that befalls them.
It is disingenuous that the BNF wants to be taken seriously while they themselves are doing nothing to show seriousness on their part.
There is no need for us to belabour the readers with all the charades of a lack of honour and exemplary leadership on the part of the BNF as played over and over again through the year, starting with their bad behaviour at the opposition unity talks, their leader’s blunder-strewn life followed by shoddy attempts by some of them to unseat him and now this. Unless they rise to the challenge, history will be very unkind to the BNF.
