In defence of the president (part 1)

PROFESSOR JOSEPH DIESCHOThanks go to The Villager’s Big Lips for his truthful assessment of President Geingob’s litany of annual governance themes and declarations, all of which produce zero positive results and plentiful negative results hitherto.In what appears to the astute observer of events in the last seven years to have been like a game of subterfuge, Hage Gottfried Geingob is consistent with his inability to connect what he says to what he does. He genuinely does not and cannot see anything wrong when what he says on countless platforms has no relation to what he does before or after. He has absolutely no sense of what people are experiencing in the country on his watch. Like any narcissist he is too preoccupied with what is good for him and not for the country. His personal interests come before those of the country, and when people point out what they do not like, he feels attacked and hated because ihapopi Oshiwambo, ndele ohatakuma. As a classic narcissist he sees himself as the victim of any criticism or questioning, and that it is other people’s problem not to see him as the greatest of leaders.This is what he has been trying to correct with the endless annual themes that have taken the country backwards instead of forward. This year with the so-called Reimaging Geingob wants to photoshop himself in history, and bamboozle the nation with propaganda images, most probably under the rubric of HPP3. In his head, it is the image that the country and the world have of him that is the problem here, not what he does or does not do, and woe unto those who dare to remind him of what he said.Before getting to the particular annual themes that have been driving the nation crazy over the past seven years, here is a brief description of the pattern of inconsistencies President Geingob should be known for:1. Remember when he said in broad daylight that he did not think that Sacky Shanghala and Bernard Esau were guilty, but seconds thereafter he was irritated with the young journalist who asked him if he said that. Angrily he yelled: “I didn’t say that, I didn’t say that!” And he was right, he did not say what he had just said. In his mind, the journalist had an agenda to hurt him by remembering what she heard. Period.2. Remember he still talks of the biggest scandal in Namibia as the “so-called Fishrot”. He believes it was made up by envious politicians, probably remnants of Team Swapo that are hell bent on discrediting him. He does not believe anything went wrong when people siphoned national resources to bankroll his campaign to become president. He believes he is entitled to such resources because of who he is. It is only the hungry ones and failed politicians who see corruption in Namibia. Geingob truly does not get it, and it is not his fault that he is obtuse.3. Remember his anger with the unsinging Central Committee, “You either sing or you don’t sing, or go to hell!” - and for him the results are just the same - a deep leadership encouragement to build a better Swapo.4. Remember earlier, his argument that the Commonwealth practice of calling ministerial accounting officers permanent secretaries had to be changed by calling them executive directors to stop them from thinking that they were permanent.5. Remember how Geingob dismantled what Swapo had planned earlier with the so-called zebra style of leadership in the party, such that if he were to follow what was planned , the vice president and the deputy prime minister would be of the other gender from the president and prime minister, respectively.6. Remember how in his commissioned 2004 PhD thesis he attacked the founding president for creating a dictatorial environment like Mobutu of Zaire and Kamuzu Banda of Malawi. Guess what, Geingob killed the Swapo culture of interparty democracy totally in less than three years. Swapo is now about singing “Hage egumbo lyoye or to hell you go!”7. Remember the smoke and mirrors about asking MPs for their CVs so that he would appoint the most competent people to cabinet! How come we ended up with what we have now?

In defence of the president (part 1)

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-13

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In defence of the president (part 1)

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-13

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