The Third-Term Phenomenon in Babylon

So you thought that the morbidly ego-centric political animals existed only in the backward banana republics? Think again. Kumbe, Mayor Bloomberg thinks he is the only Jew alive with a vision for New York City. Surely, he did some good things in his nearly eight years as mayor of NYC, but is he indispensable? Apparently he thinks he is and some city councilors have given him the node—chief among them some black councilmen, a testament to how far we blacks see beyond our noses.

With the chorus for democracy ringing across the globe on the heels of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, rootless and radar-less Africans jumped on the bandwagon—but with twists and turns that only that dark continent can muster. Wily operators disrobed their military fatigues and donned western suits and ties. They got on ant-hills to campaign for elections—supposedly marking the ends of issuing edicts from presidential palaces. Some dudes were, effectively, the only candidate who got 90 percent of the votes! One even concocted some wacko umbrella no-party “democracy” based on individual merit. Wise men warned that the scheme was only a ruse to consolidate power. They were to be proved right in time. At the urging of his foreign sponsors he allowed multi-party democracy. He would, however, stick to them by changing the two-term constitutional mandate that envisaged curbing the madness of Africans in tasting power.

In the end even if we are put off by the stench of politics, we must still keep vigil the world over. We cannot be intimidated by Museveni’s tanks nor mayor Bloomberg’s great wealth. Out of the 28 million Ugandans there must be people who are capable of running the country as well, if not better than Museveni and his clique. And the same applies to the 8 million New Yorkers.