Pohamba’s Silent Revolution
SINCE taking office in 2005, Pohamba’s presidency has been characterised by numerous calls for more decisive, swift and radical leadership based-actions.
Certainly, the nation was not at fault in demanding this, for that was the political weather it got used to and the only political regime it knew post-independence, under the Founding President Sam Nujoma. Generally, the Founding Father is regarded as a decisive, radical and drastic political model in his decision-making approaches.
Admittedly, owing to the life-threatening moments when Nujoma was at the helm of leadership of Swapo during the liberation struggle and ultimately when he took charge of the presidency on the 21st March 1990, one can only reasonably conceive and convert to the fact that such leadership style was the most appropriate and relevant at the time.
Reasoning along the above lines, one can comfortably submit that President Pohamba’s leadership is an opposite to that of his predecessor. Organically, there are variances in terms of their personalities in lieu of the obviousness that they are two individuals, each with a distinctive character and identity of his own, hence their different leadership styles.
Over a period of seven years, President Pohamba has been perceived by his critics as being passive, indecisive, and irresolute and too consultative. It is this ill-informed public perception that gave some individuals in the government and/or in Swapo the self-formed courage and conviction to think that the president is not in charge of the state affairs. With time, the non-violent reactions by Pohamba gave some people a licence to ridicule him publicly and launch disrespect in his direction.
Quite frankly, the exposition of Pohamba’s leadership during the first years of his presidency can be clearly explained with consideration for numerous factors. Undeniably, Pohamba took over the presidency of the country at the moment when the Swapo was seeing the climax of potential division, mistrust, great suspicion, blackmail, back-stabbing and extortion among people who belong to one political family and who have historically shared all political smiles and jokes.
Thus, Swapo’s collapse would have meant the breakdown of the Namibian society. On this note in his term of presidency, Pohamba’s central focus was on the consolidation of unity within Swapo, restoration of trust and confidence among comrades as well as the re-direction of a collective destiny.
Evidently, as the president has successfully restored unity and the national character of Swapo through his consistent calls for unity and inclusivity and his backing for the re-election of Hage Geingob as the vice-president of Swapo, Pohamba has now started stamping his signature of power and authority.
He could not spare a moment in proving to every Namibian that he is in charge of state affairs and he is the number one custodian of the national interest. President Pohamba exercised his signature of power and authority through a silent revolution that surprised everyone when he reshuffled his cabinet on Tuesday.
Pohamba has proven himself as a leader who bases his success not on ego and force of character but on calculated thoughts and actions. He is neither a bully nor unkind and he often persuades people through rational and logical advocacy as a foundation of his statesmanship.
He has warned against cosmetic revolution, that which manifested from coffee/tea tables. No doubt his leadership style will place Namibia on the map of responsible global leadership.
Fillemon Wise Immanuel
By email