Exclusive | Botswana's Duma Boko talks Economy, Corruption & Foreign Policy

I am a boy born and raised in a rural Village in bwan with a typical childhood like that of every other child most of us most of the children of this country were born and raised in the most humble of circumstances some obviously in less than humble circumstances I I am part of that cohort of children raised in this country walked like all of them to school studied went from primary school to Secondary School in the same Village that I was born and raised in finished Primary School and came to town for the first time

after serving one year of naal service in some other very remote part of the country and having finished that went to the University of bwan where most of the children of this country went and I studed L finished and then practiced for a few months before going back to the university as what was called a staff development fellow which was a pathway to becoming a lecturer I then went to study in the United States at Harvard Law School and returned to teach law at the University for about 10 years in Academia after which I left

and went into full-time Private Practice I practiced largely in the area of public law doing human rights criminal defense work encountered violations of people's rights abuses here and there which strengthened my resolve not only to defend these rights in the courts but also to find a way in which I could would assist in preventing the occurrences of violation of people's rights and that has been the animating impulse for me not just to be reactive and deal with the violations after they have occurred but to try and see how we can ensure that they do not

take place in the first instance so that's that's basically what I've done fought in the courts I've defended human rights I've advocated and uh ultimately I felt the best way to carry the advocacy forward was to venture into the political space I did was a long and arduous Road and happily it has brought me there were heads along the way when you look at uh your growth in politics to be where you are what were those headles and how did you deal with those headles the first hle was even though I was uh involved from

early days from my pretty much Primary School secondary school days through University in in politics the more active role of leadership was given to me in 2010 and that's when I contested the presidency of the main opposition party the B National front considered as I then was an outsider because I hadn't been involved in the structures as such so I was I was an a rank Outsider I had the confidence to step up uh contest and I won I became president of the party with a mandate to try and bring it together with other opposition

parties to create a coalition that would then challenge for power meaningfully in in contradistinction to what had happened before so that's that was my main main focus really that if I succeeded at anything at all it should been trying to bring the opposition parties together and then you brought the opposition parties together some of them with the UDC and you contested elections the last time I spoke to you you had reservations in terms of how the Electoral commission was conducting its business but here you are victorious how did you arrive at this Victory well the

victory was a result of a generalized feeling of discontent disenchantment by the majority of the people of this country we owe this Victory more more to that than anything else but of course there were other factors that came into play we were able to present a message that spoke to the existing circumstances but also offer hope for how the situation can be made better for all the citizens of the country and a message that we were able to take to all parts of the country to every citizen as best we could and that message resonated

sufficiently with with the citizens and often the problem is not so much whether you have access but other competing narratives that keep being flung at you and at the people what with those narratives when you're in a coalition first you have different political parties having come together there are two things that happen at the same time one is cooperation or collaboration amongst these parties which is a very good thing and that's what we want but there's another attendent issue which is the one of competition that the same parties that are in collaboration are also in

competition with each other this competition properly handled and managed can be a force for good but if it is not properly handled as in instances it be became clear that there were challenges in relation to the competition aspect it can actually result in a necessary splits unnecessary fights and a waste of time on frivolity and trivia and so we experienced that throughout the Sol solidification of the UDC we had at the beginning the Botana National front the Botswana people's party and a part part that was called the bwana movement for democracy which was a splinter

group of the ruling bwana Democratic party we went into the 2014 elections solid as a unit in 2014 the UDC literally began to hold together about 3 months before the elections but even with that it did spectacularly and we were able to get almost 20 if not 20 exactly seats for the first time in in in the parliament of bwan and so what remained to be done then after the 2014 spectacular success was to build on and consolidate in order to then this opposition Block in order to then contest meaningfully for power at the next

elections which would be in 2019 now we begin to experience head wins first the bmd itself split a new party was formed Alliance for progressives the remaining faction or grouping under the name of bmd also became weak became disruptive in the Coalition resulting in its expulsion and so we then were able to woo and bring into the Coalition another OPP big opposition party that had chosen in the lead up to 2014 to stay out which is the Bana congress party it suffered a devastating loss in the 2014 elections and then the thinking on my part

and a lot of people within the Coalition were opposed to this that we should not bring in the bana congress party I am the only person who fought vigorously to bring the bana congress party in they mentioned certain Tendencies and practices and traits of this organization that they had seen But I said it would be a coalition of the Wounded we had done very well but we had not taken over they had been decimated at the polls so we would create here a coalition of the Wounded people who were eager to unseat the ruling party

and so I succeeded in persuading others within the coalition to accept the bosana congress party in no sooner had they come in than the very issues that they were accused of started surfacing dangerous ambition and a spirit of internation competitiveness that now tended to disrupt the operations of the Coalition we managed these over a long period of time and we got to a point where certain actions had to be carried out suspension of the president and the Secretary General of the of the bana congress party from from the executive committee of the UDC as a

result of which they then left and so these are some of the challenges that we we faced and the narrative That Was Then spun and which was sustained until these elections was that I personally was anti-democratic I was a dictator and uh afraid of competition and I dealt with these accusations in a very factual way which was one a coalition by its nature brings in different parties the principle that we had agreed on was that we are equal in this Coalition no part is deemed bigger than others and so because of this each party was

represented at the national executive committee of the UDC by four members regardless of the size and so they wanted an election in the Coalition which would determine the leadership ship of the Coalition and the argument then which argument holds even now is if we go to an election and one party as an example emerges Victorious and has swept all the boards none of these other parties has any representation in the leadership of the Coalition how then do we proceed to hold the Coalition together not it it it would be a problem and there were many

other other issues arising from the very structure of the Constitution of the UDC in terms of how to then constitute the delegations to that elective Congress so all these arguments were then used and a narrative presented that said there was only one person because he he was the president he was afraid of competition he feared he would lose to his then deputy and factually that was actually incorrect it was Far Far From The Truth uh and I also dealt with this and said look because of the the Dynamics within the Coalition two parties had begun

the Coalition and had anchored it Botana congress party was a late Comer these two parties have stood together and going into any election these two parties would vote together and they would vote and clean out the BCP and my fear was not that I would lose my fear was I would win so massively that the BCP within the Coalition would be left without representation in the leadership and this would adversely affect negatively affect the Coalition and so this was the argument and it still is the argument to date and so they then took the view

they went so we went into the 20 24 elections without them and this is The Narrative they sold to the public their campaign was constructed around this propaganda about the leader of the president of the UDC being a dictator the UDC itself being an entity that is not viable and so as a proposition to the voter it was tested and it fed miserably and that is why the bana congress party is now the opposition when we should be with them in government and now the umbrella for Democratic change has succeeded and it won in in

in in a very spectacular fashion so we are pleased with what has happened but we we're also humbled because we appreciate the the sentiment on the ground the expectations and the challenges that we face now because of the dire economic situation that the country finds itself in let's look at the transition quite smooth now you have to really face the real challenges you pointed out what are your priorities the main priority right now is to turn the economy around and if you parel it down further we are dealing with an economy that is dependent on

a single commodity here which is the mineral diamonds diamonds have fed very badly in the market for many reasons one the Advent of synthetic or lab diamonds two the now cost associated with mining because we're getting deeper and deeper into the belly of the earth and a host of other factors the other one being this ongoing impass if you will between ourselves as the government of bwana and our other partner in Debs being Anglo American that that impass how are you going to resolve this impass because some people are saying perhaps the idea is good

as the continent is fighting for beneficiation and better returns particularly in relation to the V chain uh that transformation of how you deal with these people who came to Africa to exploit our minerals it can't be businesses usual what will be your approach well it it can't be business as usual and In fairness it hasn't been business as usual as such we must appreciate that uh this Venture mining involves raising Capital to actually do the mining and and uh extract from the ground and take to Market in some shape or form we've been taken to

Market in the raw raw and processed we now are saying we want to get involved in beneficiation in the processing and and and there there's a whole host of ways in which we get ourselves involved the main focus is narrowed down by those who look at this to cutting and polishing and that basically is seen as the be all and end all we need to look at other aspects bringing the Diamond Trading back to bwana was in and itself a major step of advance did we build on that that must also be attended by infrastructure

these folks will come to buy the diamonds they come here they fly in in the morning they view they make their decisions and no sooner would they have finished than they going to spend the night in Johannesburg and they had come here so how do we keep them here for a day 2 days 3 days how do we then even take them from here from viewing and making their decisions and purchases on diamonds to our tourist areas because they're already here it's easier for them to go to the okavango it's attractive it's appealing so we

need to find a way of ensuring that we link up all these sectors in order to have them come here and and then go to to support our tourism that is one two we also need to have a Associated or Allied facilities for training bana has mining it has generated expertise it has trained its people and it has a lot of skill and expertise in mining in mology to offer to the world so we need to locate those skills here and make Botswana the center for the world in relation to the acquisition of these skills

so that we are able to to benefit so there's a broader array of aspects in which the concept of beneficiation could be deployed not just in the narrow sense of cutting and polishing even in that narrow sense of cutting and polishing we have not sufficiently developed the skills the best in that area are not here they're not even in India they're in Russia in the area so are you saying you also have to re look at your Rel relationship in terms of trade and investment with other countries of course we need to but the more

important point is we need to develop our skills to Cutting Edge to a level where the world will come here when they want the best cut of diamond the best stone handled by our own people the world should not want a Russian cart they should want a Botswana cut and that is a function of skills development we need to invest more so the issue of beneficiation is broader than just geographic location bring people here and let them do this it's do we have the skills do we have the attendant environment that conduces to Bringing many

people in here when you do that you will then have a need to have direct Roots Airline you improve your surface Transportation you build bigger better smarter airports not one many and so when you do that you assist these people who come to buy diamonds to be able to access the rest of the country but you also locate bwana now as a a Haven and a Gateway people come here they can then take off from here instead of maybe or tble to go to other places in the world and it becomes efficient it becomes quicker

it's safe it's stable now the transition that we've just witnessed does a lot of things for the country the first thing it does is it cements our place as a robust tested democracy it does this because in this instance we have or we had a party that had ruled for 58 years that did not expect to lose by all accounts all the analysts in this country and elsewhere were emphatic that the bdp was going to win you go into the elections no sooner has the counting started than it becomes evident that the bdp is losing

what does a person who's sitting there and who has the power to affect the process even as it unfolds what did he do he called you he assesses he accepts now that's no small feat he accepts that the Democratic process is going in a particular direction it does not occur to him that he can go against it it doesn't and this is critical because if you were we were saying no he said he called his security Chiefs he he did an assessment and they told him it would not be good no none of that happened

the person himself is sitting there sees what is happening and it comes naturally to him to understand that what what this means is there will be a new president at the end of this process he reaches out he talks to that prospective president that potential president and he says congratulations your party seems to be doing very well you seem poised to win we are still hopeful that we may bounce back but congratulations all the same that is a powerful evocative statement and act about the substantive quality and depth and strength of bana's democracy and this

has happened and it goes on through the counting is going on in the evening he calls the counting has not been finished it will finish around the afternoon of the next day but the pattern is emerging he says I can see how it is developing it hasn't there yet but I will ConEd I want to assure you that I will readily conceit what kind of person behaves like this a person who's stepped who's entrenched in the values of democracy and it goes on on the following morning before it is concluded he goes and he he

he concedes so what this must tell the world and I believe it has because now the world has the world's attention has been drawn to this country it says there was never any doubt all the anxieties The Dread and fear that anybody may have HED or nursed it's done was without any meaningful basis here is a country that accepts seamlessly and this uh goes the president has conceded everybody now and he says himself that I had to counsel some of my members some of them broke down I had to tell them that this is the

happening this is democracy so you must respect and respect deeply a person who behaves like this and it goes on he doesn't impede he doesn't um obstruct he hands over He makes himself available I was with him yesterday we we talk I called him in the morning wish him well and tell him I I look forward to seeing you at the inauguration he was there and we we we had a chat together so it's been it says to the investor you are safe investing in bwan change of government does not affect your circumstances this Republic

is bigger than individuals who happen at any moment in time to be it its leaders so this is this is a powerful statement Mr President still on the issue of diamonds um in terms of uh the talk the issue of the shareholding there was a proposal in terms of changing of the shareholding structure with theb or now I can say those who have taken over theps do you agree that you have to change the agreement look the agreement is is is being discussed now the shareholding inbs as we sit here is 15% held by the

government of the Republic of Botswana and 85% held by glow in all its other shape and formations if and in any corporate or commercial setting bwana wants more shares it obviously will approach the majority shareholder and say we are ready to buy let's do a valuation we want to buy 30% of your shares why buy buy because this is the shareholding this is this is it's it's proprietary the 85 % shareholder is a property holder these shares in Corporal property that they are are property so if you want to acquire somebody's property you've got to

pay compensation that's what the constitution of this Republic says that's what property law dictates so you're going to have to go to them and engage are you going to do with a view that's a different proposition Al together the real proposition right now is Anglo has taken a decision that it wants to sell its shares or demerge its operations one are we able to buy if we want to buy then there's nothing that stops US why because we have a right of first refuser do we have the money to buy that's the question has evaluation

been made which is reasonable and fair and commercially sound that's another question but critically the value of DBS without any doubt is dependent on the existence of a contract between itself and the government of bwan so we need first to Anchor that property which is DPS which is the mining by concluding the contract between it and the government of bwan as matters stand there are a few outstanding issues which could not be resolved until the previous regime left we are in the process now and we've made overtures we want those issues resolved at the earliest

if we could resolve them by the end of this coming week it would be excellent because if they are not resolved they pose an existential threat toan in terms of its Revenue earning capabilities so we are alive to this we are engaging actively with our partners in DBS to address these issues and address them as quickly as possible so we will in my brief encounter with the delegation from DBS Anglo yesterday we both expressed a commitment to resolving these issues as quickly as POS POS and a resolution and I don't I'm not being overly presp

us or preemptive may result in a situation where our own shareholding increases it is on it is one of the issues on the table but obviously the negotiation process will still have to negotiate let's move to another thy issue as neighboring countries we do have challenges at times because we have different uh uh uh levels of development particularly when you look at the GDP and the opportunities the issue of Zimbabwe at some point in time you spoke about uh giving zimbabweans uh the necessary documents uh to be in bwana can you really explain that I'll

tell you why this issue of movement of people is causing a tension not only in our region around the world migration has become so so problematic and the immigration laws because the citizens of respective countries are fighting for resources with some who are not from that country the issue of Zimbabwe yeah we've got to approach the issue of Zimbabwe somewhat dispassionately leave our emotions out of it and deal with the facts what are the facts the facts are there is without any doubt an influx of people from Zimbabwe into bwan they end up taking up

the most menial of jobs as a matter of fact many of the jobs that they end up taking are jobs that our own people are not desirous there's no serious appetite on our citizens for these jobs and there's nothing wrong with not liking a particular job and therefore when an opening arises you you're not interested but it also must we also must acknowledge that there will be somebody else either out of desperation or whatever reason who will be interested in taking this TR and so that person comes in without any doubt how did this person

come in they came in illegally but they are doing the job they are already here what do we do we can choose to spend money and send this person back the moment you leave this person at the border they cross back and by the evening they are here so are we succeeding no how then do we deal with this situation we could deal with it but and when they are illegal like that because they are hiding they end up involved in crime they end up exploited and this exploitation makes it even more unappealing because they

will take this job for next to nothing and so the employers those who have these jobs who are hiring them prefer them to Citizens because the citizen will want more so there is a demand for people who will work for a pittance so they themselves are exploited why are they exploited they are outside the protection of the law because in the first place when they came in they placed themselves outside the protection of the law so we want to deal with this thing and say let us allow you to come in Legally then you contest

for the job however you do you get the job the employer because they can no longer exploit you as an illegal are the employers are now forced to bargain with you for a better pay and if the pay Rises then maybe the citizen will see this job is paying more than it used to I'm now interested I want this job then there's some competition there but you can only achieve that if you take the initial step of ensuring that they come here legally this is not to go and invite and say just come and run

us over no it means you are not saying open borders no no no no we're not saying that we are saying we recognize the challenge let us deploy strategies and approaches that are appropriately fashioned to deal with so that they do not pose a security risk to us and to our people then they can be within the law they can be controlled either by way of a temporary work and residence permit or a much longer term work and residence permit we can control we can manage them we can account for them then we manage the

situation that is one part the second is at the same time our people have not been given skills in sufficient numbers we don't have enough electricians Artisans really and so that is why if you go to any construction site in ban 80% or more of the workers that are from Zimbabwe it's a fact and they have some of these skills that we have not cared perhaps or managed to impart to our own people so one way of dealing with this is to address the skills deficit so that our people are available and they can step

up then we we we we are we're able to address this but even more fundamentally in in the medium to long term with a population of 2.4 million an active Workforce probably of about 300 maximum 400,000 active unless you to engage child labor or the Aged the active active Workforce will probably be in the in the region of 400,000 if we create the kind of jobs that we want to create in this economy grow the economy and create jobs then we will be able to absorb some of these without without any difficulty and rather than

take a short-termist approach of of hiding our heads in the sand let us take a more proactive sustainable approach of growing the economy creating the jobs ensuring the skills are available they get absorbed in the economy but those who can come in from outside and also give us skills that we need we make it hospitable for them to come into our country and and we we we we together Build and Grow the economy this is the argument and if you take it from because the the immediate former president was saying to me yesterday about this

issue of people from Zimbabwe people from Namibia coming in uh one of the challenges on the African continent we must admit is the the difficulties in free movement of goods and services Services here we mean even skills Services we mean people who come visit our country a person from France carrying a French passport enters this country easily and goes a person from some of these African countries some of them have a lot of money they want to come here we have Visa it's a mess because we have the colonial hangover of being overly suspicious of

other black people so we need to grow out of this colonial hangover if we give a person carrying an American passport we give person carrying a French or european passport free access easy access let's give access it is not unregulated it is regular you come in right now Russia decided people from bana no longer need visas come in if you from bana we'll stamp your passport we give you 90 days per year it's a decision they took have batana relocated to go to Russia no people assume that other Africans want to run away from their

countries and come and flood studies on migration proper Studies have shown that that is not correct people want to come and do what whatever they do and go back so if we manage it well and ensure they come in they are documented we know where they are if you overstay you know you'll be fined or you'll be arrested they will behave so this is how we can deal with the migration issues we don't deal with the migration issues on impulse or on on on trying to visit recriminations on those who come no we understand the

nature of the problem we find appropriate Solutions evid backed by evidence and then we we do exact that let's look at you are now leading this country and there are reports that uh there are allegations of corruption and how other people conducted themselves how are you going to approach this issue are you going to hold people accountable it's not even a question of am I as if I have a choice not to the legal framework in this country is that whoever engages in corruption for is operating in violation of the law the issue then becomes

are we able to detect are we able to process those violations and are we able to secure appropriate Act ction either by way of conviction or um seizure of the properties or proceeds of of those crimes this has been done maybe the demand is do more so if there's more then more must be done and there's no question about it's not even whether I want or I don't want the way it becomes troubling is when it is expected that we might we should be vindictive there's no vindictiveness it's account there's no Vengeance it applies to

us in the same way as it applies to everybody if any person in this new government engages in corruption they must face the consequences in the same way that anybody who has before must face the consequences and so that is not a matter for debate what is for debate is do we have the trail do we have the the evidence then we take it forward so that I think is the nature of the of of the question there not whether I want to go after I don't want to go after anybody but anybody who has

engaged in corruption I don't have to decide to go after it the law must go after any and every person who is engaged in corruption as we wind up or wrap up let's look at Global issues the war in Ukraine the Middle East now you being a head of state these are some of the issues that you will have to participate in at multilateral level what would be the role of bwana particularly in relation to foreign policy on these matters our foreign policy is governed by the protection of the interests of ban that is the

main driver of our foreign policy and in protecting these interests we will engage with others and our engagements with them will be determined by the extent to which a mutually beneficial relationship in which our interests are secure can be achieved and any country a relationship with which would geod our interest we will be loath to engage with such country but we don't have any preconceptions about any anybody we have clear clear requirements and demands in relation to what our interests are and any country with which we can cooperate to serve our interests and in so

doing we are not enemal to them and they are not enemal to ours then there will be a proper bilateral relationship let's look at South Africa currently there's a standoff in relation to uh import of products from South Africa the vegetables and the fruits at some point in time we were dealing with Namibia with meat have you looked at that issue how are you to resolve this issue because you get people from bwana saying it has affected supply chain you get people from South Africa saying it has affected business and they are looking up to

politicians to resolve these matters yes it's an issue that uh is capable of causing problems if it hasn't already we are members of a customs Union there are certain rules and regulations governing members parties to a customs Union agreement there's a dispensation there in which nent Industries are protected there are guidelines bright lines on how this protection is invoked the question then would be whether Botswana in doing what it has done which is impose the ban has operated in accordance with the requirements of the agre agreement and is protecting any nent industry in accordance with

the terms of the agreement if that is not the case then we we need to go back to what the agreement provides but aside from the agreement we have a relationship a neighborly relationship South Africa is a trading partner think bwana is South Africa's biggest trading partner so we offer them a market we together with South Africa will sit down and determine what our interests are what their interests are and how we can move towards each other and find some workable accommodation in terms of which we will agree if there is a ban because we

want to protect an industry that is only emerging this is how we want it done and it is known and it is is accepted so if we act unilaterally then we create a problem if they act unilaterally then they create a problem so we need to come together and discuss and that is what the custom the Customs Union actually but is almost dead well Saku is not dead Saku revenues are are being generated ex except maybe the the the terms of the Customs Union are not being properly observed that we will need to check and

that will need to strengthen if we need to renegotiate and improve in the context of the Africa Free Trade Agreement in the context of envisaged trade relationships tripartite between comma between sadc and um echas then all these will have will have implications for the existing agreements so we will need and this is it's it's it's part of engagements between nation states will go to each other we discuss and we say we must resolve this there's a problem we don't know what the nature of the problem is uh we need to sit together and agree how

we handle this problem I think between bana and South Africa there's there's no shortage of capability to resolve these issues and resolve them amicably and indeed between bana even between bana and Zimbabwe if there's a a niggling trade issue we will discuss it and we will resolve it so what is important and this is what I I keep raising because I've said this government this Administration this people's Administration must be agile it must be quick to realize there's a problem and to examine accurately using evidence the nature of the problem diagnose and then do a

proper strategy and Implement evaluate and make sure that the strategy works if it doesn't work change it but we need to to address problems in a manner that is proactive that is agile and so in relation to those we're going to get off quickly to deal with all these problems and try and resolve them because we need to build this economy we need to turn it around and turn it around quickly you invited opposition parties in the region what was the reasoning behind that it's democracy that's the reasoning they are part of the democratic process

they are part of peacekeeping and the maintenance of peace and Harmony in their respective countries if they are not recognized if they are not appreciated as part of the democratic process then we are creating a situation for other than Democratic me means of accessing power so once you have them come and they realize we are part of this we we are the opposition we are now in power other countries must realize at some point the opposition will be in power do you want to have angry people vengeful people because you abused them come into office

and start doing the same to you no there's no need to abuse each other even aside from political competition there's no need so we need to appreciate all of them appreciate the ruling parties as well as those who are aspiring to rule because they will be in power one day and there's nothing better than having all of them at one table laughing and then they go and compete and finally Mr President we saw this change in L in Malawi in mamb Beek no not mosambik in Zambia yes in Kenya the question people are asking is

how are you going to ensure that the expectations of batswana are made because you see a person coming in with all the promises particularly from the opposition and two years down the line the nation is disappointed how are you going to ensure that you don't disappoint not only bana but the region because people in this region on the continent are looking at this story sabana and are saying democracy has prevailed first let me make it clear and be upfront about the fact that we will not disappoint but to get to your question see the people

who have these expectations are mature and sensible people they appreciate the gravity of the problems that they face on a daily basis they know what the solutions to these problems would be in the short medium to long term and they want these problems to be solved that's the broad bottom line they want these problems solved and solved quickly we have laid out Ambitions we have put down an ambitious plan that has resulted in these promises and undertakings to the people and the people have agreed they they know they want this but because these people are

mature and sensible and because we appreciate that this mandate we hold is for them and on their behalf we need and I've said this many times to play open cards with them we need to be open we need to be transparent with them tell them this is the situation that we Face these are the resources at our disposal these are the measures that we have initiated to try and increase the resources and we expect that these measures will yield results in this manner so with these resources available we propose to address the following urgent matters

while we prepare to address the rest when you go to the people and you are honest with them you are open with you make them see government is not a mystery is not running secretly these people will themselves will themselves say because of this problem maybe let's let's suspend any increase let's let uh take a salary cut the people will say that because you have let them in they see they you demystify power and that's one of the things that I I set out to do to demystify power don't look at me as if I

was a demigod and you approach me with a quizz that you have when you approaching a deity I'm not a deity I'm a human being fallible like like other human beings so I must tell you the truth I must show you what the situation is and we will thoroughly accurately professionally examine the situation we examine it not because we want to go after anybody we examine it we audit the processes because we want to see how they have served us and if they have we maintained and how they have failed us and if they have

failed we improve this is the whole purpose so we will go to the people and I I'll be delivering the state of the nation which will be frank brutally honest about our circumstances but that will also have no Vengeance no vindictiveness I don't I'm not going to focus on punishing I'm going to focus on arresting the situation and trying to find Solutions of a durable nature so that we live a legacy of a A system that works A system that is foolproof against all these imp infections and one where when you walk away without maybe

even having punished anybody or having gone after whoever by the law not me then you can have people say but this was a massive Improvement on what uh we had before and be able to invite the former leaders we saw former president Yan we we saw the former president we saw the former president now we have three Mai yes and uh president maiss was telling me yesterday that I am actually the first post Independence born president of the country and maybe I bring some good luck there to the country I hope I do I believe

very firmly that I do together with the people that uh that uh changed this government for themselves not for me and I'll serve them and we all will serve them to the best of our abilities and we'll be guided by them we'll work closely with them we will not deceive them we will not hide things from them we will tell them the truth and more importantly we will maintain a closeness with them they will they will feel they need to feel that they they are part of this they need to feel us they must not

fear people must not fear the government it is the government that must fear the people I have a sense of dread when I approach that because I have so much respect for them I I know the circumstances and when I approach them I approach them with atmost humility appreciating that these are the people that matter more than any other and so I think if all of us in the political space dealt with each other this way appreciated all this respected the ordinary citizen immensely then we would have peace and Harmony and we would have progress

in in our continent for