Mozambique: An indictment on absentee regional leadership

By DARLINGTON CHILUBA
THERE was a time when the depressing chaos in Mozambique would have made a different kind of headline. One that showed a gathering of regional and continental heads of State calling for an end to all atrocities.
Granted, intervention in such matters is never done from a blind angle because every side has a perspective that must be heard and considered cautiously and respectfully. However, perhaps because of constant flow of information through social media, from inside Mozambique, there appears only cautious external intervention from regional neighbours – even the continent.
It needs to be stated here that the right to life, to self-determination and peace is not a gift from another human being.
This is why leaders in 1945 met to create the United Nations (UN) to preserve the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all nations. Territorial integrity and sovereignty are given credence by the presence of human life within their given geographies. From Somalia to Mozambique, the right to life must not be dictated by those that have access to guns; even worse, fellow Africans.
This is also why the African leaders of old – those founding fathers – decided to create the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to restore the dignity and integrity of Africans to live in peace.
What the OAU did best was create like-minded leaders who understood that independence was necessary for Africans to live free of political or economically imposed hardships.
Secondly, that the sacrifice for freedom was to be borne by many so that the freedom of one country represented a victory to all Africans. Conversely, that one shackled nation affected all nations negatively not just economically or politically, but at a deeper core as citizens of this most ancient motherland.
Some of this history can be lost to the new generation of African youths, some argue, but economic disparity and political disputes are not new.
Economic disparities or difficulties can be explained away by politicians as inherited challenges. The problem with such explanations is that they become redundant if no solution is proffered.
Even worse, when only a section of people benefits from the same policies that create angst for the majority, a revolt can be expected whether through the ballot or other legal protest.
Botswana is the latest country to show what electoral revolt can achieve peaceably. For Mozambique however, the political and economic challenges are not vastly different from what its regional neighbours have gone through, not least Rwanda or indeed Angola.
In fact, there was a time in the 1990s when regional neighbours Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia joined forces to stop rebels from overthrowing the government of the now late former President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Laurent D. Kabila. Right or wrong, there was a brotherhood in the sub-region.
While the OAU and now the African Union (AU) managed to create likeminded leaders who agreed that external impositions that foster wars must be shunned; the number of nations that have risen from civil wars should have created likeminded leaders that readily oppose situations like we now see in Mozambique.
Leaders who are ready to intervene before those in Mozambique become too depressed to even remember why they were fighting in the first place.
The ruinous civil wars that displaced many Africans so that refugees defied territorial borders in search for peace should not be allowed to re-enter our language again.
Our regional borders should not return to the days of receiving more displaced fellow Africans being forced out of their own countries.
Electoral integrity should embolden election observers to prioritise national above personal interests.
Again, Kenya and Malawi are good examples where election results were nullified irrespective of the incumbent initially claiming victory. Everyone who participates in the game of politics and elections must understand that power is transient.
The fact that we have too many of these examples informs the title of this discussion so that it becomes necessary to ask: Does Africa lack regional or continental leaders today?
Has there been a shift from real power to only represent positional authority? Is it that most former presidents are persecuted by their successors to the extent that they become limited to export their expertise and influence beyond their borders?
Worse, is there a trend to only expect and accept Western (non-African) assistance to stop civil wars in Somalia, for example?

Whatever the reason, we still have renowned and respected leaders on the continent that can help resolve African challenges. We still have, I trust, leaders for whom the life of an African, indeed other human being is not just relevant because of shared nationality but because they are humane and deserve a chance at life itself.
Mozambique must be redeemed, but we need to see leaders rise to the challenge and seek a win-win solution before the bloodbath escalates. The challenge is on hand, where are the leaders?