You can't want
to do this job for more than ten years. You can't. If you are serious about it.
If you take the job seriously, you can't do it for more than ten years. You
can't.
And anybody who
sticks with presidency for more than ten years, that's a sure-fire indication
that he has failed, and he has no intention. He doesn't understand the job.” –
Duma Boko, President of Botswana since 1 November 2024
While President
Boko’s political assertion is undoubtedly sweet music to the ears of lazy
thinkers who want to be told what they want to hear, the statement is
nevertheless more of a populist anecdote or pedestrian bar talk than a factual
or profound statement, as it is neither a rule nor a principle nor a scientific
proposition.
There are many
cases which disprove Boko’s assertion, and expose it for what it is, namely,
hot air.
From history,
take, for example, the case of Lee Kuan Yew; the founding leader of modern
Singapore. He served as Prime Minister from 16 September 1963, to 28 November
1990, a total of 27 years.
Lee Kuan Yew is
not considered "an instant
failure" by any standard or stretch of the imagination. Quite the
contrary, he is widely credited with transforming Singapore from a struggling
port city into a global economic powerhouse which is a prosperous, orderly and
an innovative nation.
Currently,
take, for example, the case of Xi Jinping who has been in office as the
President of China since March 14, 2013. He has been in office for some 12
years.
At the end of
his 10-year tenure in March 2023, President Jinping secured a third five-year
term as president up to March 2028. Given that in 2018 China’s National
People’s Congress enacted a constitutional amendment that removed the two-term
limit for the presidency, President Jinping might remain in office well beyond
2028; should he choose to continue to serve, if he maintains political support.
Far from “an
instant failure”, adumbrated by Boko, President Jinping has been credited with
many significant achievements and successes that have positively impacted
China’s domestic and global trajectory; especially under his ‘Belt and Road
Initiative’(BRI) that he launched in 2013.
The global
impact of President Jinping's BRI has been massive, and a huge domestic and
global success story. There’s plenty of both popular and scholarly literature
on Xi Jinping’s unparalleled success in his more than 10 years in office, which
is good for China, and arguably good for the world.
Curiously, and
closer to home on the Continent, among the cheerleaders of Boko's populist
assertion, are well known staunch supporters of Rwanda's Paul Kagame who he has
been in office for more than 10 years. President Kagame has been in power since
22 April 2000. His supporters view him not as "an instant failure",
but as a visionary and a successful leader who has delivered peace, and
unmatched economic growth and social progress in Rwanda.
Therefore, upon
closer scrutiny, it's clear that there's more to the issue than the simplicity
of being or not being in office as president "for more than 10
years". What that entails is a question for another day! He was writing on
X
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