Born to Rule

Preface

xxix Born to Rule: Autobiography of a Life President Preface It seems incredible to me that so many president-monarchs like me should be passing away without leaving anything in writing to posterity. This is another area in which we on this African continent have shown great bankruptcy. I don’t mean financial bankruptcy because we are supposed to have stashed away in our personal national bank accounts abroad enough of our countries’ financial resources to live very happily ever after. In this context, I mean political bankruptcy because we know that each time we fire our ministers or accuse them rightly or wrongly (though wrongly most of the time) of fomenting a coup, they become disgruntled and write all sorts if irreparably damaging things about us. We all know that even in the United Conquerors Republic, there is a kiss-and-tell virus going all over the place, and sooner or later it will reach us like all viruses that are born there. The only way for us to control it is by setting the records straight, and that means we must write ourselves. One only has to read some of the books that have been published in recent times to grasp the urgency of the situation. I suppose we have all read Foreign Policy: the triumph of adventurism by Edmund Dwight Greenberg, former Minister of Foreign Matters under President John Wright Wenger (‘The Bullet’) of the Hegemony Republic. The book narrates in slurry detail President Wenger’s trysts with prostitutes as well as his sleazy connections with the underworld. Who of us wants such revelations? We have a duty to posterity to contribute to the building of our nations by ensuring that the course of history we have charted is not changed. A lot is at stake, and we can’t allow other people to write for us nor expect them to forge our history in our place. They will falsify the facts. It is for this reason that I have, in my infinite wisdom, decided to pen down some of my thoughts, debunking the derogatory things prevalent in the world press about my country and me. In doing this, I am not unaware of the fact that most of us leading Africa cannot even write or read well. But then that should not be an excuse because we are not alone. In fact, we in Africa are in cosy company. One only has to look at all the so-called xxx Tah Asongwed developed countries which claim to be the custodians of world wisdom to see who is at the helm of their ship of state. A cursory glance at the beaten path of world history shows that intelligent people throughout the world owe so much to so few of us. I know that each time my colleagues and I meet at our annual Solidarity Meeting and I open my mouth to speak, my colleagues always laugh at me in their handkerchiefs because they say I don’t know how to speak and write English well. They think I do not notice them when they are laughing. They may laugh themselves hoarse if they like, but then in fairness to their people, I think they should open their hearts and clear their conscience to history as I have done in this book otherwise after we are gone, everything we have fought for will be dismantled. It is true that there have been attempts, albeit timid attempts, by some of us to have our memoirs and autobiographies written. In almost all the cases I know, these have not really been memoirs or autobiographies in the sense of the word but a collection of ghostwritten speeches. This may be understandable because a president who takes his work seriously- like we all do- does not have the time to attend to matters of state and at the same time indulge in writing fabricated stories. I suppose that the time we spend formulating the strategies needed to maintain us in power - so that we can finish the national duty thrust upon us by history - is much too short to allow for any other pastime. To prove what I am saying, I refer the reader to some of the works published on behalf of some of my colleagues: The Divine Right of African Presidents by His Royal Oneness, President-for-life, Dr. Prof. Judas Iscariot Ndon; Chieftaincy and Presidential Politics: A Study in Contrast by His Excellency, Field Marshall Corinthian Korokoro; Democracy...