There are a lot of Ghanaians (and Africans) who think Robert Mugabe is a hero. I wonder what they would be thinking now after his latest outrage: “bouncing” Kofi Annan’s visa application.
Our dearly beloved Annan, the angelic peacemaker we love, has at long last decided to pay a little attention to the madness in Zimbabwe. I think he could have intervened much earlier but as they say, “better late than never.”
Annan, former US president, Jimmy Carter and Graca Machel (Nelson Mandela’s wife) – who are part of a group known as “the elders” – had planned to go to Zimbabwe to assess the extent of the humanitarian catastrophe wrought by Mugabe’s insanity.
Knowing very well that the three eminent personalities will be followed by international news cameras – which do not lie – Mr. Mugabe decided to do the unthinkable: reject their visa applications. It’s such a disgraceful thing to do and defies all international protocols. But Mugabe doesn’t know what disgrace means anymore. He’s a man in a little world of his own where madness rules.
On one hand, I believe Mugabe’s decision to reject the visa applications brings him a little closer to his expected fall. He’s going to suffer even more international opprobrium and that will cost him some of his ardent supporters, particularly in other African countries who seem to think he is a hero and not a raving lunatic. Now everyone will start asking why he wants the cameras out if he has nothing to hide.
On the other hand, though, I feel like I should say “thank you” to Mugabe for bouncing Annan’s visa application.
You see, I am very happy that Mr. Annan has suffered the humiliation of having his visa application bounced. I’ve always been very jealous of the fact that he travels freely around the world whiles I get consistently bounced. Now he’s been brought down to earth and as you can tell from the picture he wasn’t very amused.
The last time I was ‘bounced’ I cried for weeks. With what has happened to Mr. Annan, I won’t shed many tears if I am bounced again. I will simply say to myself: “If it happened to Kofi Annan…”
