When an individual BPF man triumphs and the UDC crumbles

The obsession with the desire to take over power from the BDP should not make us so desperate as to want to forget everything else and sleep with the enemy who might tomorrow stab us in the back. Truth be told, I have never been comfortable with the association the UDC has with Ian Khama, a BDP diehard who only stepped aside from the party because of an internal feud with his successor. He does not hate the BDP. He has no problem with the BDP. He has no qualms with the BDP policies and way of doing things. He only has a problem with one man inside the BDP – President Masisi. And so too are the men and women who followed him from the BDP to join his party the BPF. They are people with a score to settle against Masisi and not his party. God forbid, should anything happen to Masisi that may leave him incapacitated to lead the BDP, Khama and his worshippers could in an instant be back with the BDP. And what makes you think he can’t? He has loved BDP all his life and has temporarily fallen out of love because of individuals. If he can team up with the likes of Saleshando, Boko and Phagenyane who for the longest time have been his greatest critics and he too has always viewed them in the worst possible way, what makes you believe he cannot return to his real love where he was worshipped and heaped with chickens, goats and cows? I am here thinking aloud after I listened to a recent Duma FM radio interview with one of his greatest praise poets Roger Mphafe, who on behalf of a group of other BPF activists poured scorn on the man. I also read something in a newspaper last week where similar accusations were made of the man that he is loyal only to himself and close members of his family. We heard and learnt that he runs his party on tribalistic lines, using those not from his tribe when they are of use to him, only to spit them when they are no longer useful. Cases of Biggie Butale and Mphafe himself were cited. The UDC was even warned against working with him. When people from inside the BPF say such things, why should we not see that as a red flag and tread with care? We heard the man has no real interest to work for Batswana or genuine intentions with his push to cooperate with the UDC. All he wants is victory against Masisi the individual and to worm himself back into control of national interests. Our leaders at the UDC and the party spin doctors are working very hard to convince us that Khama’s importance is in his weakening the BDP in their favour. And

Khama is not a foolish man. For his role, he wants something in return, which our leaders may have promised him in secrecy. He knows the UDC leaders are neither genuine in wanting to work with him – they are only after his magical influence on his worshippers and subjects to help with the numbers, after which they may turn against him. He is aware of all this and will be very smart in playing his cards. And Khama is a fighter to the bitter end. He has said it himself that he will not rest until Masisi is out of power. We hear he could be responsible for the motion of no confidence planned for the next Parley, in this instance using Saleshando and other opposition and ruling party MPs whom we gather may have promised some concessions. Once he has gotten what he is after, it surely will be pay back time, and we do not want to imagine what that will cause among the opposition. Our leaders should really stop being in denial – Khama’s association with the UDC is the reason we won seats in the central district and lost more elsewhere in the country. This issue of rigged elections was just a way to conceal our embarrassment at the way things went, especially where Boko lost to Annah. Khama may do the opposition good on face value, but the real damage will be even more compelling. If he genuinely does not want the BDP, why do we hear he could be working secretly with some BDP MPs to oust Masisi? That’s all he wants – to oust Masisi. The rest are just his means to an end, both the UDC and some in the BDP, after which we will be of no use to him. A man like that should not be trusted by our leaders. I am shocked even the likes of Nasha want to work with him. Nasha and Khama? Really? Are we that desperate for power? At what cost? I pray that we confine ourselves to working with BMD and AP who made up the original UDC. These are the guys we can trust – not a BDP faction of Masisi haters that may return once Masisi is gone. The double standards at his party must worry us. You suspend your party leader for charges that are not even reported to the police, and yet you cannot suspend the other who has been accused of matters that reached the courts. Even right now, there has been search warrants against him, yet he is not being suspended from the party like Butale. A group like that and we want to convince our followers that they are the best to work with? Will they not tomorrow claim that without them we wouldn’t have won power and want us to reward them somehow? They know that on their own they can’t go anywhere and they are going to ride on us for votes, until they are certain they do not need us. I have that discomfort. I may be wrong, but all I am saying is – let’s tread with care. We should open our eyes and be on high alert. This is the same man we talked about in the UDC and swore to take to jail. Today we even defend him against everything else we also accused him of. I pray our leaders do not become too desperate for power that they will ignore principle and just clamour for the man’s numbers under the guise that afterall he is helping us defeat the BDP. We just might be used to fight an individual’s battles against Masisi while the UDC loses the war against the BDP.