Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Wednesday told the nation that the Mozambique has “solid foundations to grow as a competitive, sustainable and inclusive country.”
Nyusi was speaking in his penultimate State of the Nation Address delivered at the Assembly of the Republic, the country’s parliament.
During almost two hours, Nyusi was ridiculed, humiliated and heckled by members of parliament of the main opposition party, Renamo, who booed, played drums, blew whistles, and sang, as a means to continue repudiating the municipal election results, already considered the most fraudulent elections in Mozambique’s living memory.
This behaviour reached a crescendo when Nyusi told Mozambicans that although there were some “isolated irregularities” during the 11 October municipal elections, “which we dealt with legally, all the contestants had the opportunity to publicise their election manifestos, which allowed voters to vote for the options that corresponded to their preference.”
Nyusi added that “[W]e are a nation still under construction, we are still a young democracy. The consolidation of the rule of law requires all of us to make a permanent critical assessment without emotions and imitations that are far removed from reality.”
As such, he told Mozambicans that “all nations, even the most developed, are still building and consolidating their democratic processes.”
Comment
The person and party which seem to be removed from reality is the President and his ruling Frelimo party, which were behind the most fraudulent elections in Mozambique, aided and abetted by lower courts, electoral bodies and the Constitutional Council.
In some municipalities of northern Mozambique, where the opposition believed in was swindled of a victory, there was political violence, leading to a handful of deaths and scores of people injured. In some places, the elections had to be rerun owing to gross irregularities.
That Nyusi considered these “isolated irregularities” is the understatement of the year. But with no hint of irony, he said that it behoves all Mozambicans “without exception from any party, the duty to defend national interests above party interests. We must bear in mind that in no country in the world is democracy perfect or taken for granted.”
It was Nyusi and Frelimo that had trampled in democracy by using state institutions to rig the elections and crack down on protests.
Meanwhile, Nyusi stifled any internal discussions on his succession by not ordering Frelimo’s secretary-general, Roque Silva, to convene the statutory second sitting of the party’s Central Committee.
Nyusi cannot argue that he laid the foundations for a more inclusive country when he and Frelimo ensured that the will of millions of Mozambicans who voted on the opposition in Maputo, Matola city, Nampula, Nacala, Mozambique Island, among other municipalities, where Renamo won, was subverted.
At the end, Nyusi was an embarrassed, nervous and irritated president, who had to swallow his pride and run over his words, as he is wont to do, to say things he knows not to be true. Renamo helped him hide the shame of an empty speech, which described a country with no prospects for a great future. “At the end of this term, will there be any country left?” asked an old man after listening to the speech.
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