Flipside—Chris Jacobie
PEACE and national unity in a burning world at war with itself are timeless and mostly not appreciated by those who don’t have to step over dead bodies to fetch water and a few grains of corn that were spilled by aid agencies. It’s worth remembering that the 34 years of Namibian peace is the longest uninterrupted peace since the 1760s when cattle wars, tribal wars, the 1904 Genocide, the First World War, the Second World War and the war of liberation were fought.
The 95-year-old Founding President of Namibia, President Sam Nujoma, after 34 years of independence, can rightfully claim that he and his Plan Fighters contributed more to democracy in the past 34 years of independence than what he and his Plan veterans did during the 23 years of the liberation war against South Africa when they stared down the strongest army on the African continent at the time.
To label ex-Plan, Koevoet, and South West Africa Territorial Force (SWATF) soldiers as war veterans, is factually wrong. They are also that, but these war veterans from 1990 transitioned to veterans of independence, peace, and nation-building and still do. They are still following the command of their leader, Founding President Sam Nujoma, and for that, they deserve more support from Namibian society than being demonised as war veterans whose service is not needed anymore because the war is over. They are still needed more than ever because political opportunists and self-styled analysts for social mercenaries are abusing them. Namibians should stop the abusers by first exposing and then rejecting these instant copycat armchair revolutionaries, for the sake of the legacy and sacrifices of President Nujoma and his family, who endured so much and contributed much more.
There is not a more loved, respected, and admired Namibian than Dr Sam Nujoma, and there is not a community in the world that would not trade places with a drought-stricken, hungry, unemployed Namibian in the blink of an eye to experience just a day of the peace in the streets of a small town, city, and village.
It is a remarkable achievement that is only possible through the great bravery and single-minded belief in national reconciliation and nationhood of the Founding President, a path from which he never wavered.
In spite of media smear campaigns and incitement in the interest of self-promotion by a few, Namibians of all backgrounds and social statuses are at peace with themselves. The registration of 91% of possible voters should have been a sign that the fake news onslaught and self-appointed analysts failed, and it is a pity that those who predicted the rise to power of fly-by-night groupings on social media like the NEFF and the likes, destroyed themselves.
President Nujoma was maybe not always a nice man and did not always make decisions that everybody liked, but he was never a coward and stood by his values and beliefs and remained unwavering. On a burning and bombed planet where more people are killed than trees in the forests are cut down, Namibia remains a beacon of peace, stability, and unity for the world to see if the dust of missiles settles down.
The founding values of Dr Nujoma and the journey to nationhood have deep roots in trust. It is a bond that Nujoma kept with every citizen that was never broken in spite of all the power and temptation to do so at any time. Nujoma kept the trust.
He was never swayed by might but by what is right. For that, he is the rock of ages. That is also the rock that holds the foundations of the Namibian House.