An age old adage says the Generals don’t retire, they simply fade away. The politicians, whether they are in power or in the opposition, neither retire nor fade away unless their number is up and their Maker is ready to meet them.
We won’t go in the distant past but restrict our discussion to the recent past. Julias Nyerere, the outstanding president of Tanzania was a great man in all respects. The Tanzanians loved him despite failure of his economic policies because he wasn’t a corrupt person and he was a well-intentioned man also who could feel the deprivations of his people and was genuinely concernced about their economic uplift. When he realised that since his policies haven’t achieved the desired results for the good of the people, he voluntarily stepped down from the presidentship of his country thus paving the way for the fresh blood to try its hand in improving the lot of the common people of his country. Nelson Mandela is another example who didn’t cling to power till his last breath and called quits in the pink if his health giving opportunity to other South African leaders to run his country.
Sir Winston Churchill had won the election and a couple of years were still left of his remaining constitutional stint as British prime minister but one fine morning he called on the British queen to tender his resignation. When the Queen asked him about the reason for his early resignation he told her that fresh ideas have stopped coming to him and it was about time if a new man is given the charge of the British prime ministership. Now compare these examples with the attitude of our politicians whose appetite for power is never satiated till they kick the bucket.
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