Mugabe in the mix

On the dawn of Wednesday, November 15, 2017, the news about the coup d’etat in Zimbabwe on BBC sounded confusing in my sleepy stupor.

With the bad habit of sleeping with my radio on, I struggled to make sense of the news item, wondering if it was one of those either or scenarios being employed in the introduction of a news programme.

I brushed it off and tried to catch more sleep in the wee hours of the day when sleep was most engaging.

It was not until morning that I realised that the news flash I had discarded at dawn was a reality.

The Zimbabwean Army had staged a coup!

As amazing as it was, I have since Wednesday been smiling and smiling at the fluid turn of events daily, with the chants and peaceful demonstration of Zimbabweans for their leader to cede power and the announcement by the Army Generals that they had toppled Mugabe, but it was not a coup d’etat.

Smiling, smiling

I have also followed the trolling on social media, and it has been just hilarious.

There was one on the Mugabe Challenge, where a video of Mugabe stumbling to the podium to deliver a speech was mimicked by a young guy who rather stumbled towards a restaurant seat to pick up a bottle of beer.

Then, there have been the Mugabe quotes, with the veteran alleged to be cynically saying: “Cowards are those who could not beat me when I was young, but have decided to do so when I am 93 years.”

But the show-stopper was one on Thursday, November 16, saying the army had handed power back to Mugabe, and the power in question was a power bank.

Then there have been the lessons from a post about Mugabe’s wife, Grace Mugabe, that foisted on all generalisations about the “treacherousness of women” and their “evil”.

Stunning, stunning

But for me, what is stunning is the deference of the Zimbabwe Army at the audacious swindling by Mugabe yesterday, when the much-touted broadcast for him to announce his resignation turned into a placatory cryptic speech to right the dissatisfactions of his governance.

Stunning because Mugabe, already under house arrest, could not be made to resign, or the live telecast yesterday truncated for the right resignation speech to be made!
How strong is a 93-year-old politician? Could he not have been bundled away in the middle of his speech with an excuse notice of a technical hitch to viewers?

It is also surprising the way some of the members of Mugabe’s party, the ZANU-PF, are also now backtracking after sacking him; they now talk about meetings in a month’s time at the party’s congress to confirm actions taken, congress that Robert Mugabe himself announced yesterday that he would preside over.

Return to Ghana?

Robert Mugabe, most say is a shrewd politician.

To stay in office and ward off all challenge for 37 years is surely a lesson to be picked by all statesmen and women.

I am wondering how all this is going to end, even as I smile my way to a mundane start of the week in Ghana.

What is the army’s next move? What will be Mugabe’s? And what will be the ZANU-PF’s?

Will Robert Mugabe resign in peace or show more dexterity in dribbling his country, compatriots, party and Zimbabweans, who are all so eager to see the back of his head?

And when he does resign, would he choose Ghana for exile? After all, it seems the man had some roots in Ghana with his first marriage to a Ghanaian.

Mugabe’s Zimbabwe defies all transitional processes, it will be a test case for the Centre for Democratic Transitions (CDT-Ghana), inaugurated last Tuesday for advocacy, capacity building and knowledge dissemination on transitions in Africa.

I will be smiling my way through the week as events unfold to a spectating world.

Writer’s email: caroline.boateng@graphic.com.gh