Good Luck Mma-V

Monitor Editor | Monday January 30, 2017 13:48

Although generally Mma-V had not entertained  considerable media interviews from her homeland, possibly as a strategy to control what goes out, as a fellow Batswana, naturally the local media  would be proud to be associated with Mma-V in the event that she is pronounced the winner in today’s elections. We note that President Ian Khama has shown strong backing for Mma-V by going as far as sanctioning a budget for her campaign. This is commendable indeed, even though the transparency, regarding how much from public purse was  extended to the campaign, was lacking.

Could it be due to the fact that none of the candidates standing against Mma-V today has likewise also not made public their financial backings from their respective governments? Botswana media generally showed considerable levels of patriotism and have been rallying behind their woman, despite  certain reservations that may remain.

Indeed, victory for her would also go a long way in showing that Botswana is still revered in Africa as the torch bearer in issues of prudent management of resources, development  and economic issues.

The failure would also reflect the reverse, especially to those holding the school of thought that Botswana is being perceived as unPan-African, with some blaming the President as contributing to the perception due to his penchant for staying away from AU meetings. We would like to take this time to wish Mma-V and her hard working team all the best in their endeavours.

We also hope that should Africa choose to elect any of the  five contestants other than our candidate, there won’t be any endless finger pointing that put the Botswana loss on a particular individual.

The team’s failure, if it comes to that, should be embraced in the same spirit that we would have adopted had she won, for it is cheap to fault find rather than to positively construct. Therefore, her victory will be proudly ours as a proud nation just as  we would embrace the failure as ours to own, without necessarily turning on one another in cannibalistic fashion.