Youths must tap into President Mugabe’s wisdom President Mugabe
President Mugabe

President Mugabe

Tonderai Nyikadzino Correspondent
ZANU-PF as a people’s party and the only political organisation in Zimbabwe which has liberation struggle credentials must make its organs conscious of the fact that they do not exist to compete against each other for recognition with the party leadership regardless. There seems to be a phenomenon of organs such as the youths and war veterans seeking to compete against each other for recognition by senior party leadership.

The war veterans, instead of being boastful as the ones who coined the Million Man March mobilisation strategy they must be satisfied that its importance as a rallying point for mass mobilisation has been accepted by the youths and is now being effectively employed to demonstrate the strength of the party throughout the country.

In the same vein the youths must also recognise that the Million Man March which they are employing to rally support for the party is an effective idea they borrowed from the war veterans whose ranks include the Presidium. Such a recognition by both (the youths, war veterans and to a lesser extent the Women’s League) of the effectiveness of the Million Man March eases the mobilisation of support to the party.

It is this writer’s humble advice that all organs of zanu-pf should not seek material gains from the President as if failure to do so means they will not render their much needed unwavering support to the African iconic leader President Mugabe. It’s also my humble view that such political characterisation of organs demanding material gains such as we hear from the Youth League expecting to get $5 billion from the President must never be allowed to exist in the revolutionary party. If this conception is allowed to exist it has a potential to destroy cohesion among the organs resulting in arming predatory internal and external enemies who seek the decimation of zanu-pf.

In an article published in 1999 in the New York Times, Chika Onyeani detailed how 20-year-old suddenly and extremely became rich in Silicon Valley, at a cost of $6, which spiralled to $103 in the first day of the initial public offering. However, if the youth agree to the biblical teaching that all men are created equal then it behooves the youths to understand that being a youth means matching the brain power with the elders.

I feel humiliated using such characterisation, but for the youths to ask for $5 billion to be availed to them when they meet the President seems to be putting the cart before the horse; judging from the challenges the country is facing economically. It is my humble feeling that such a figure sets the expectations of the youths too high. It appears that we have youths that have just arrived from Western capitals to demand their dues with scant regard to the prevailing national, social and economic challenges bedevilling Zimbabwe.

When we talk of poverty, we are face to face with circumstances of in- equalities and injustices. Government, through the President has addressed this issue by opening up the economy to the indigenous populace, the youths included, through land redistribution and other economic empowerment programmes.

Again, it must be humbly noted that a full-fledged Youth Ministry was created by His Excellency to champion and map out strategies to mitigate employment problems for the youths. It is my humble understanding that the ministry, particularly the minister, must ordinarily be selling to Cabinet projects that enable the youths to be engaged in viable entrepreneurial ventures. The secret of success is found in the attributes upon which the war of liberation was fought. The war of liberation in my humble view was fought on two angles – hard work and honesty. This produced a cadre who understood what sacrifice, sincerity, morality, dedication and devotion meant to achieve success.

It would be sad for the youths to play the blame game and accuse the “main wing” of neglecting them when they do not first seek to rein in those from their constituency who are rich but not doing anything to empower fellow youths. It is my humble observation that black youths all over the world continue to shoot each other in the streets over meaningless causes when their counterparts are moving on and securing their future. All over the world, the story is the same – 20 to 30- year-olds raking in money from ethical dealings on the internet. The saddest part is that these nouveaux riches were just as poor as most of us.

It is my clarion call that the President has always said and continues to say youths must not prefer the comfort of guaranteed jobs to the adventure of deciding their future. Using their demographic strength in a way detailed by Onyeani, the youths can easily become a cog in the economy.

This is the wisdom the President always counsels them to consider as viable entrepreneurial options. It is the virtues that the elders of society who today comprise the “main wing” of zanu-pf party acquired and experience. These virtues, such as sacrifice, sincerity, morality, respect, dedication and devotion should be applied for for success. The main wing, therefore, in the light of this rich background remains the flagship of the revolutionary party zanu-pf mainly but not limited to the all important role of mentorship and nurturing the youth to become better leaders of tomorrow.

In the forefront, indeed, turns out the indomitable figure, the grand mastery of President Mugabe who did not only lose most of the productive part of his life in prison, in trenches during the liberation struggle, but continues to do some immeasurable firefighting against the historic predators of African people as a whole. It is my respectable view that gaining good leadership traits is the wisdom and wise counsel that must motivate the youths to darken the venues where they will meet one of Africa’s greatest sons and iconic leader, teacher and mentor President Mugabe. This writer sincerely and morally feels that zanu-pf organs, particularly the youths, must be looking for to gain good leadership traits rather than material gains whenever they meet with the President.

Tonderai Nyikadzino is a graduate of the National Youth Service.

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