ROBERT MUGABE FORCED OUT: AFTER THE EUPHORIA, WHAT NEXT?

ICHEOKU says even the bravest general knows when the fight cannot be won and continuing the battle becomes mere foolhardy; and so it was that the man who has ruled Zimbabwe for close to four decades, Dr Robert Mugabe, saw that the treachery is deeper than he had imagined and decided to throw in the towel and resigned his office. Now let all those conspirators who ganged up to effectuate his ouster transform Zimbabwe into the little Eldorado Paradise they saw in their vision which led to their stab on the back of the now former president. Boy, was Julius Caesar right in calling out Brutus, Et tu Brute; that an army general who he appointed to the office as head the country's military ganged up with an ousted Vice President to stage a palace coup which barreled down to the present state of a Zimbabwe without President Robert Mugabe. ICHEOKU says trust is definitely in short supply within the Zimbabwean military establishment and the country's general political environment, including the ZANU-PF.

ICHEOKU says it will take a while for it to sink in for those Zimbabweans that President Robert Mugabe is no longer in power and controlling their affairs. Hopefully they have not invited the conflagration which will ultimately consume them, with the disrespectful forced exit of a man who put so much to bring them pride and respect, as full human beings, freed from colonialist British. ICHEOKU will miss President Bobby Mugabe, especially his grandiloquence and vast repertoire of parables and metaphorical speaking. That he is a well read man is also a fact and therefore he earned the bragging right to say that he is very knowledgeable in what he is always talking about. But the conspiracies of Britain and America started the 2009 targeted economic sanction which forced the tiny country of 14 million people into a beggarly nation, with over 90% unemployment rate and a currency which is as worthless as the sands in the Sahara desert and it damaged his presidency so much that he couldn't and never recovered from it. 

But he gave it his all and he fought till the very end; tried but in vain to starve off his traducers. He was simply overpowered by circumstances beyond his control and at his very ripe old age of 93, his sinews no longer have the strength in them which they use to have to wage a fight and he signed the dotted lines of a prepared resignation letter, possibly with a pistol pointed at his cranium by the same gangster military that forced the issue to come to a head. But as with every war, after the war, comes the battle and winning the battle of a post Mugabe Zimbabwe will be the toughest challenge facing Zimbabweans down the road. Nothing really changed and therefore all the hopes raised by his ouster which led to the unwarranted jubilation of Zimbabweans might soon be dashed as wishful. 

The man who will succeed Mugabe, former Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, is part of the old order that has ruled Zimbabwe since its independence in 1980. He was once the Minister of Internal Security and his ruthless put down of the Ndebele Matabeleland revolt in 1983-84 when over 20,000 Zimbabweans were brutally massacred and which actually earned him closer ties to the president, tells everything anyone needs to know about the bloody content of his character. He was subsequently appointed Vice President. But unbeknownst to Bobby Mugabe, such a snake could not be trusted and it led to the president's downfall. How this ruthless mass murderer will govern Zimbabwe is but anybody's guess. But ICHEOKU foresees the Biblical 1King 12:11 type King Rehoboam come to life that if President Robert Mugabe chastised Zimbabweans with a stick, this incoming killer will trade sticks for scorpions. Like with every revolution, after Mugabe, will come the real revolution of purging Mugabe's loyalists and replacing them with his own henchmen; and how far his decisions will go is also anybody's guess. But whether those that will be affected in the coming purge will just accept it and quietly go into the night without a fight is also up in the air. 

It is Africa where tribal and regional loyalties are always paramount in peoples affairs. As the people of Libya are still finding out after the celebration that followed the international conspiracy that led to the murder of Moummar Gaddafi, Zimbabweans might soon find out that President Mugabe was not the problem. Iraq too. Winning the war against President Robert Mugabe is definitely going to be quite different from winning the battle against a comatose economy and a people yet to fully grasp what has taken place - that their Bobby is no longer in power. A Zimbabwe military which took side with a Vice President against their own commander in chief is not a military any incoming president should trust and the real change should in fact start with them by removing every senior military officer that had a hand in the ouster of President Robert Mugabe from office. Thereafter, the over devalued currency should be addressed as well as the overall economy which is in cold doldrums, towards providing jobs for millions of unemployed Zimbabweans and prevent the 90% unemployment from further north bound trajectory. 

As far as ICHEOKU is concerned, the manner of President Robert Mugabe's removal from office is not the best. The military should have demanded the reinstatement of the sacked Vice President and allowed President Robert Mugabe to serve out his term. At his very old age of 93, he does not have that much long to live and they could have also waited him out or have the election conducted in such a way as to vote him out in next year's election. But all these are now but the shouting, as the deed is done and Robert Mugabe is no longer president of Zimbabwe. ICHEOKU says lets now wait and watch how the post President Robert Mugabe's era will turn out for Zimbabweans. So long President Bobby and may he live out whatever remains of his last days on this earth in peace and harmony; and ICHEOKU thanks him for the much which he was able to do for Zimbabweans within his widow's mite abilities. Viva Bobby.