The 4th of February 2024, a day of historic significance on which our extraordinary president Hage G Geingob passed away, unquestionably remains the most sombre hour since the founding of our republic on 21 March 1990.
With all events of cataclysmic magnitude, moments during which a nation’s history is marked by defeats and the resolve of republican institutions is tested, providential men and women emerge to lead nations through those dark hours and uncharted waters.
With great difficulty, emotion and hurt, president Nangolo Mbumba stepped up to assume the reins of the Namibian nation on the very day we lost a president he had known as a cherished comrade and brother for more than five decades.
Notwithstanding the unimaginable weight and strain of the moment, including accompanying a nation engulfed in collective emotional and institutional stress, what president Mbumba has achieved as head of state over the past six months is exceptional.
He has not only reconciled Namibians with the inevitability of death at the summit of the state, but ensured continuity of the republic and its institutions.
UNFLINCHING
As with all transitions, and as many of the president’s guests have since noted, a number of things could have gone terribly wrong; missteps could have proved catastrophic for the stability of the Namibian state.
Consistent with our constitutional architecture, president Mbumba navigated the Namibian ship out of the morass of collective anguish and ambiguous moments with skill and composure.
He took broad-minded actions and decisions that entrenched the foundations of our democracy as the peaceful, stable and one that is, in the words of the late scholar president Geingob, “buttressed by an effective governance architecture”.
Through the tears, president Mbumba did not flinch in the face of the challenge.
He remained noble and decisive in his command of the ship of state, urging fellow Namibians to rise from the defeat of mortality.
Fittingly, the president pressed us to focus on the development tasks we committed to undertake 34 years ago when our revolutionary founding president Sam Nujoma urged us “to set ourselves higher standards of equality, justice and opportunity for all, without regard to race, creed or colour”.
To play his part in furthering the ideals of justice and equality, president Mbumba, as the fourth president of the republic, moved swiftly to reconcile our politics with its essence – hard work in the interest of developing the Namibian people.
MEETING THE MOMENT
In that vein, over the past unprecedented six months, the president has put his best foot forward.
He has attentively led marathon meetings with traditional leaders from and in almost every region, emphasising the crucial role they should continue to play in development and nation building.
Strengthening a culture of transparency, public consultation and political dialogue in a year of elections, president Mbumba has engaged with various religious leaders of different denominations.
He has met with political parties from the opposition benches, listening patiently to their concerns, providing logical but empathetic and comprehensive responses to their questions and demands.
The president has given audience to business leaders, ordinary Namibians, seeking to find pathways to their challenges, guided by the need to unlock more developmental and economic opportunities for Namibians.
In addition, president Mbumba participated in and officiated at countless events in the realms of sports, business and culture, conscious of the ideals of social cohesion, nation-building and development.
NAMIBIA FIRST
In the pursuit of our foreign policy ambitions, which ordinarily intersect with our domestic agenda of socio-economic development, president Mbumba has accentuated the need to put our national interests first.
The head of state has been encouraging, with pragmatism, foreign policy implementers to unambiguously define what we want from our external actions, including bilateral and multilateral partners.
As the philosopher Edgar Morin rightly reminded us a few years ago, international relations are like traversing a Damocles-type world, one of deadly threats with imminent possibilities of destruction and self-destruction.
In the coming month, by co-chairing the Summit of the Future during the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, president Mbumba will play a historic role in finding solutions to the distressing challenges of climate change, war and the crisis of development, which are leaving billions on the periphery.
THE SIX-MONTH SEQUENCE
The solemn weekend that starts and the week ahead of us not only closes a sequence of six months, but it also opens the final sprint of the Mbumba Presidency.
On 3 August, president Geingob would have marked his 83rd birthday. Coincidentally, a day later, president Mbumba will cross the symbolic six-month mark in the mothership, the Presidency.
Moreover, our nation will have less than 100 days to pivotal presidential and National Assembly elections that could lead to the election of Namibia’s first female president.
In the march to the November elections and our rendezvous with history on 21 March 2025, president Mbumba will carry out the final tasks of a punctual, but far-reaching, presidency with his trademark art of leadership, one that privileges a focused operational style, nobility, wisdom and perseverance.
– Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari holds a doctorate in international relations from La Sorbonne and serves as an adviser to president Nangolo Mbumba
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