A for Agenda-setting
In this regard, Nyusi and his inner circle disguised the group’s intentions quite well by demarcating a clear discontinuity with Guebuzismo, which had made many enemies within the ruling Frelimo party.
His swearing-in speech was considered a break from the past. It was different, innovative and even revolutionary, considering Frelimo’s rhetoric. The speech charmed generations of supporters who had drifted away from politics. Unfortunately, he didn’t know the corridors of power and the interests behind the alliance that supported him.
His government agenda had structural pillars borrowed from Frelimo’s own agenda, but the implementation was never clear.
The setting of the agenda was affected by various factors, most importantly his character and the ambitions of the group. Both prevented him from seeing the responsibility of state and the political responsibilities of leaving a legacy.
He has been distracted by many issues and deviated from his objectives, from his party and tore up his fragile governing agenda.
As he enters the end of his second term, he can barely explain what he wanted, show what he has done, let alone state where he will leave the country.
B for Business
Informal-wise, Filipe Nyusi is the most business-oriented president. National projects are auctioned in closed circles, and ministers and national directors close deals in restaurants in the Mozambican capital of Maputo.
Invariably, the construction costs are hiked while the quality of the works is nothing to write home about. Seemingly, the quality has stopped to matter; what matters is the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Meanwhile, contracts in the sectors of defence and security, health, energy, roads, software and transport are awarded to businesspeople involved with Nyusi’s sons, who act as some sort of brokers.
C for Courage
One thing Nyusi seems to have in loads is courage. He is the only Mozambican and Frelimo president who treated the late leader of the Renamo opposition party, Afonso Dhlakama, with respect but with the frankness he deserved.
Without fear, Nyusi climbed Mount Gorongosa – Renamo’s former stronghold – to hold talks with Dhlakama, and when he died on May 2018, the conversations continued with Ossufo Momade, the current Renamo leader, which led to the signing of the Maputo Peace Agreement, on 6 August 2019.
When he felt it convenient, Nyusi did not hesitate to tear part of the agreements with reached with Dhlakama, particularly the postponement of district elections slated for 2024. The decision to hold district elections in 2024 had been an agreement between Nyusi and Dhlakama which had then been enshrined in the constitution.
However, Nyusi has yet to show courage in the issue of succession, preferring to keep mum and fostering suspicions that he is pulling strings behind the scenes in order to secure a third term.
D for (Hidden) Debts
This is Nyusi strangest mystery. So far, he has been behaving like an ostrich. Internally, he staged a trial to get the country out of the international financial boycott following the “discovery” of the hidden debts.
But the move backfired as it became clear that the judicial system was doing everything in its power to attempt to dispel any lingering doubts Mozambicans of Nyusi’s impropriety in the hidden debts case.
Meanwhile, time (as usual) and the foreign judicial systems, namely in New York and London, will give Mozambicans the answer as to whether he is clever or just sly. The debts are no longer hidden even if some players insist they remain hidden. And in this tale of two billion nights, dawn seems to reveal who Ali Baba is.
But Nyusi should not fear Frelimo’s justice. It never comes; and if it does, it comes to nought.
D for Deception
History shows that never had the ruling Frelimo party rallied around one person. Nyusi personified hope and renewal. At his swearing-in, he made an epic speech. Eight years have passed and the speech has become a dead letter whose memory only adds to the disappointment he has been.
“We’ve been tricked!” said sotto voce an elected provincial governor. The deception cuts deep in the ranks of the Defence and Security Forces, within party circles, within the investor community, and even in the opposition.
This deception is geographic and regional. Those feeling disappointed are the Angolans (who stayed away from SAMIM – Southern African Development Community Mission in Mozambique), South Africans, not to say anything about Mozambique’s elder sister, Tanzania, but Nyusi has found solace, support and cattle in Kigali, the de facto political capital of Mozambique.
D for Diplomacy
The economic diplomacy promoted at the start of his first five-year term was replaced by the debacle of appointing the political bureau to the government. Diplomacy and cooperation stagnated when Verónica Macamo took over the Foreign Affairs Ministry, completely inadequate and out of place when the country needed a person with the skills to manage world affairs: complex dossiers such as gas, terrorism, the United Nations General Assembly, among others.
The country’s main diplomatic agendas were sidelined owing to management woes both at the Office of the President and the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Amid the chaos, the deputy minister of Foreign Affairs is dispatched to New York (his second tour as permanent representative, having been there between 2012 to 2018) causing quite a storm, as Mozambique’s diplomacy was handed to a former permanent representative who preferred to be demoted from deputy-minister to the ambassador, whilst the ministry was transformed into a graveyard for some former ministers which Nyusi could not tame.
Thus goes Nyusi’s diplomacy, which very much like his steering of the country, shows lack of vision, serving the interests of the Makonde inner circle.
@2024, Mozambique Insights. All Rights Reserved
