Pohamba’s Crowning Is Swapo’s’Mopping-Up’ Moment

THE founding President’s choice of gifts for weddings (bows and arrows to Richard Kamwi to protect his family) is something that has always captured my imagination as a bit strange.

But Sam Nujoma is a political animal with sharp political reflexes all over the place. Harold Lasswell’s groundbreaking book ‘Psychopathology and Politics’ might be helpful here when he suggests that leaders are largely motivated by private, almost pathological conflicts, which are often rationalised in terms of actions taken in the public interest.James Barber advanced another widely discussed modern analysis of political leadership.Focusing on what he called ‘presidential character’, Barber would categorise US presidents according to two key variables; whether a leader is active or passive in terms of the energy they put into their jobs, and secondly, whether they were positive or negative in terms of how they felt about political office.On these, President Nujoma would score exceedingly well; he loved his job as President of Namibia, and he adored being President of Swapo.The first allowed him to drive his personal vision for the country, while the second liberated him from the constraints of the first by allowing him to speak freely as the top leader.Pohamba’s relationship to these two jobs has been or would be markedly different.President Pohamba inherited Namibia in good shape, even if by some unofficial accounts he never wanted to lead Namibia.In that sense, if we invoke Barber, we could assume that President Pohamba felt negative about entering office.But given those exceptional circumstances it was an easy task for him to step into State House.Also, whether he had a negative approach to power was largely inconsequential as he relied on President Nujoma to deal with a restive political party.Despite the ongoing fissures, we could safely assume that President Pohamba was more than impatient to put his levers on the second hub of political power; the party presidency.Certainly, it consolidates his standing (to be taken seriously within the Party) and ambition, if he wishes to go for a second term.However, the immediate question is whether Pohamba will tame and create a unified political party.Quite frankly, this moment is decisive because the more we are with Pohamba, the less we know what to expect from his leadership.Crucially, Pohamba has to deal with Swapo’s biggest test since its inception.First, it is ensuring a smooth change of hands at the top.Second, he must do so at a time when senior party leaders have left to form a new rival party.By default or design, Swapo is trying to preserve its unity by trying to purge as much as possible those suspected of links to the new kid on the block.Yet, I think that such focus is misplaced for it certainly clouds the bigger issues of political reform that should form the key discussion in the lead up to — and during the congress.To say that all is well in Swapo is certainly sticking one’s head in the sand.The probing question is to know whether it is enough to dismiss as “disgruntled” those senior figures who left the party.Or will Swapo cadres be honest enough to dismiss the arrogant language for a much more modernising and progressive agenda.What is curious however is that President Pohamba never engages in such talk, nor does a coterie of senior Swapo leaders.What this tells us is that the party must now internalise a new unifying vocabulary.I argued at some point that Swapo had to make the transition from analogue to digital.The key challenge facing Swapo now is the ability or inability of party cadres to realise that our country is becoming complex and more fragmented.In such circumstances, cadres may increasingly look to the personal vision of individual leaders to give coherence and meaning to their party.It is where Pohamba’s own vision should come into play.Even if he worryingly entered State House on a platform of continuity, through his uncontested nomination to head Swapo, the major lines of his Swapo presidency ought to be filtering through at this crucial time.However, the ongoing statements and comments from various corners of the party may alarmingly tell us that President Pohamba might have difficulty bringing these forces into toeing the line.Ideally, he should already advise cadres to tone down their rhetoric and get down to the serious business of being a ruling party.As a matter of fact, the careerist rhetoric has emptied Swapo much of its substance in recent years.Unfortunately, Pohamba inherits Swapo without bows and arrows to protect him or the party, nor can he rely on the steely-willed maximum leader, Sam Nujoma.And he is not faced with many options; either he starts mopping-up or he must get everybody to do so to drive Swapo’s long-overdue aggiornamento.* Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari is a PhD fellow in political science at the University of Paris- Panthéon Sorbonne, France.He is currently on a UN research internship at the UN Headquarters, New York.Harold Lasswell’s groundbreaking book ‘Psychopathology and Politics’ might be helpful here when he suggests that leaders are largely motivated by private, almost pathological conflicts, which are often rationalised in terms of actions taken in the public interest.James Barber advanced another widely discussed modern analysis of political leadership.Focusing on what he called ‘presidential character’, Barber would categorise US presidents according to two key variables; whether a leader is active or passive in terms of the energy they put into their jobs, and secondly, whether they were positive or negative in terms of how they felt about political office.On these, President Nujoma would score exceedingly well; he loved his job as President of Namibia, and he adored being President of Swapo.The first allowed him to drive his personal vision for the country, while the second liberated him from the constraints of the first by allowing him to speak freely as the top leader.Pohamba’s relationship to these two jobs has been or would be markedly different.President Pohamba inherited Namibia in good shape, even if by some unofficial accounts he never wanted to lead Namibia.In that sense, if we invoke Barber, we could assume that President Pohamba felt negative about entering office.But given those exceptional circumstances it was an easy task for him to step into State House.Also, whether he had a negative approach to power was largely inconsequential as he relied on President Nujoma to deal with a restive political party.Despite the ongoing fissures, we could safely assume that President Pohamba was more than impatient to put his levers on the second hub of political power; the party presidency.Certainly, it consolidates his standing (to be taken seriously within the Party) and ambition, if he wishes to go for a second term.However, the immediate question is whether Pohamba will tame and create a unified political party.Quite frankly, this moment is decisive because the more we are with Pohamba, the less we know what to expect from his leadership.Crucially, Pohamba has to deal with Swapo’s biggest test since its inception.First, it is ensuring a smooth change of hands at the top.Second, he must do so at a time when senior party leaders have left to form a new rival party.By default or design, Swapo is trying to preserve its unity by trying to purge as much as possible those suspected of links to the new kid on the block.Yet, I think that such focus is misplaced for it certainly clouds the bigger issues of political reform that should form the key discussion in the lead up to — and during the congress.To say that all is well in Swapo is certainly sticking one’s head in the sand.The probing question is to know whether it is enough to dismiss as “disgruntled” those senior figures who left the party.Or will Swapo cadres be honest enough to dismiss the arrogant language for a much more modernising and progressive agenda.What is curious however is that President Pohamba never engages in such talk, nor does a coterie of senior Swapo leaders.What this tells us is that the party must now internalise a new unifying vocabulary.I argued at some point that Swapo had to make the transition from analogue to digital.The key challenge facing Swapo now is the ability or inability of party cadres to realise that our country is becoming complex and more fragmented.In such circumstances, cadres may increasingly look to the personal vision of individual leaders to give coherence and meaning to their party.It is where Pohamba’s own vision should come into play.Even if he worryingly entered State House on a platform of continuity, through his uncontested nomination to head Swapo, the major lines of his Swapo presidency ought to be filtering through at this crucial time.However, the ongoing statements and comments from various corners of the party may alarmingly tell us that President Pohamba might have difficulty bringing these forces into toeing the line.Ideally, he should already advise cadres to tone down their rhetoric and get down to the serious business of being a ruling party.As a matter of fact, the careerist rhetoric has emptied Swapo much of its substance in recent years.Unfortunately, Pohamba inherits Swapo without bows and arrows to protect him or the party, nor can he rely on the steely-willed maximum leader, Sam Nujoma.And he is not faced with many options; either he starts mopping-up or he must get everybody to do so to drive Swapo’s long-overdue aggiornamento. * Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari is a PhD fellow in political science at the University of Paris- Panthéon Sorbonne, France.He is currently on a UN research internship at the UN Headquarters, New York.