It goes without saying that the reason why the BDP has been able to stay for so long in power is also partly on account of the many weaknesses on the part of opposition.
But because the opposition is perceived as too weak to be criticised, opinion makers have often shied away from scrutinizing it, except when they shower them with praise and all sorts of undeserved sympathies.
In that scheme of things, the opposition is always right and the BDP is always on the wrong, very much like in the Orwellian Animal Farm where Snowball adopted a little but effective dictum of “four legs good, two legs bad.”
Opposition parties in Botswana have done a splendid job of psychologically abusing the electorate.
And while there have been commendable efforts at unity, it does not look like some of the worst characteristics have been abandoned.
The Letlhakeng West by-election provides a good case study of opposition failures.
Their inability to stay on the message has been unpardonable.
At Letlhakeng their sales and marketing skills have proved horrible, their staying power deeply suspect and their attention span terribly deplorable.
It’s impossible to have missed their widespread laziness, especially among national leaders.
These are the weaknesses that they will have to work on in the future if they want people to take them seriously.
The reason why the Botswana National Front has for years failed to transform its goodwill into electoral gains has a lot to with the fact that the party has often been led by lazy people who have been exceedingly good at talking and intellectualizing but very weak at putting into practice their theoretical ideas.
The current BNF leader, Duma Boko, is still to prove that he can put into practice his big ideas we often hear him talk about on radio. Incidentally, Boko is also the UDC leader.
At the moment, the UDC should work hard to ensure that as a new outfit, they do not become prisoners of the BNF past, notwithstanding the fact that BNF is by far the biggest of the components that make up the total sum.
 
If UDC cannot coordinate a campaign effort focusing on just a single Letlhakeng west constituency, how on earth can they be a match for the BDP next year when the theatre will be national, with the ruling party shamelessly throwing state resources around to reach every corner of the country?
UDC campaign effort in Letlhakeng West has been sloppy ÔÇô not so much for lack of resources but rather for lack of organizational skills, lack of passion and a failure to focus on key issues by the national leadership.
While BDP clearly abused national resources, employed underhand tactics, including deployment of intelligence operatives to do ruling party work, the UDC could easily have countered all these by harnessing the infinite goodwill that was clearly enjoyed by their candidate, Filbert Nagafela, the moment he was declared candidate for the Umbrella.
It is this sloppiness on the part of opposition that the nation has for the last three months been forced into an existence of unnecessary political anxiety as the BDP worked its way up from the dead to becoming a real contender with even the most optimistic opposition sympathizers privately conceding that the by-election could go either way.
The fact that many of these weaknesses are glossed over or not pointed at all is a clear sign on the part of the public that UDC deserves a chance, that BDP has had its run, and its time somebody else raised their hand for a bite at the cherry.
For now, the public may have some tolerance, even patience with UDC, but it will not remain forever.
In the bigger scheme of things, public sympathy will count for nothing if UDC does not itself show what it really is made of.
If UDC does not get its act together, the current euphoria will soon disintegrate into irritation, then disillusionment before outright anger and resentment.
UDC has to show some level of urgency. Public expectations have been high not least because UDC has rightly branded itself as an alternative to the Botswana Democratic Party.
The big task now is to meet those expectations. But events from Letlhakeng West are not encouraging.
BDP has been behaving very strangely at Letlhakeng. What could not be missed are the rare signs of desperation on the side of the party.
Because desperation is often a sign of insecurity, this has prompted a groundswell of opinion that the BDP no longer feels as invincible as it once was; that unlike the years gone by, the party is no longer so sure of its remit.
That, while potentially good, can also spell dangerous moments ahead because it makes the ruling party inherently unpredictable.
 
Our governing party has done everything in its power to preach and recommend democracy everywhere in the world except here at home.
And that has been shown by their preparedness to employ state resources to the benefit of the ruling party.
Personally, I am often hurt to hear our politicians, including those from opposition, hurl the myth that Botswana does not have state funding of political parties.
Not only is this a myth, it also is patently untrue.
There is an elaborate apparatus of state funding happening before our very eyes.
That funding, it must be pointed out, is channelled just towards the ruling party.
And it has got nothing to do with advantages of incumbency.
The sooner we acknowledge this the better we all will be as a nation.
But still opposition could have done better at Letlhakeng West.
During these difficult economic times, the public is often too keen to hear what official opposition has to say on topical issues.
It is unpardonable that to this day, the Umbrella for Democratic Change leaders have seen no wisdom in addressing the economic impact of power outages on businesses, on families and on the national economy. Everything has been left to the private media to provide leadership.
In a political party that has raised expectations such as has been the case with UDC, that is truly worrisome.
In the backdrop of Letlhakeng west by-election, a failure by UDC to be at the forefront of public debates on bread and butter issues has been a misadventure that will prove irreparably damaging in a bigger context due next year.
When all is said and done, Letlhakeng West by-election has proved once and for all that the BDP will do everything ÔÇô by hook or crook – to stay in power. And the opposition better be warned.
