Having stayed in Guiné-Bissau for about two months and studying their political make-up, it is indeed noteworthy to say that African countries have a lot to learn from this republic that see politics as an avenue to seek for the opportunity to better the lives of their people. For them, it is not a do or die affair like in most African countries, but a patriotic actions that must be guided and exercised as a gentlemanly contest where losers support winners to strengthen the fabric of democracy in nation building.  This uniqueness I must say, stand Guiné-Bissau out in Africa and it a virtue that must be extolled.

I witnessed a full month of campaign and uneventful peaceful election that saw winners emerge and alliances formed where the runner ups are given open hands to choose a candidate to support in a bid to forge a force that will drive any policy so packaged by the man that finally emerge through the second round balloting expected to be effected on 29th December, 2019.

Be that as it may, there’s this strange and unexpected display of desperation on the part of one of the contenders who came first in the first round. To a large extent, he controls the running of the interim government and has continued to attempt to employ it against his opponents in manners that may be described as an act of frustration and ‘final cry of a drawning man’.

According to the political composition of the stakeholders, Nuno Nabiam is the man with the determining factor as it is believed that the candidate he chose to support stands at least 70% chances of winning the election (this position can be attested to when in the past it was Nuno’s support that made DSP the Prime Minister)

ACTS OF DESPERATION

AFTER the first rounds, In a move to pummel Nuno into agreement, DSP made the first misfire of publishing a letter that Nuno had agreed to work with him even when  Nuno was still mourning his late father. When the prank did not work, the next thing he did was to offer $1,000,000 to Nuno and another 1 million Dollars to his party APU-PGDB, Nuno also jumped it but some of his party members succumbed, but just an infinitesimal few that has since been passed as greedy.

In making a patriotic decision; First Nuno had to consider the future of the republic and the money than could’ve changed his life forever, he chose the welfare of his people over the bribe offered by DSP and joined Sissoco.

Umaro Sissoko Embalo turned out to be a better negotiator when he succeeded is wooing NUNO, JOMAV and CADOGO who scored 3rd, 4th, 5th respectively, thereby forming a more formidable team that has continued to unnerve DSP.

Having failed in all attempts to woo strong support, and considering the fact that the majority of the people seem to have disrpoval of DSP and greater love for USE, DSP decided to play ethnic and religious card imported from his allies but strange to Guiné-Bissau. It took little effort by the team of 4 to turn it into a political tool that has continued to weaken DSP in all his strongholds.

Being a man with much influence over the interim government,  DSP adopted a new style of using the state to frustrate the efforts of his opponents to create a reaction that will generate crisis and give his men ample opportunity to hold onto power while he re-strategies to reinforce because all his actions has indicated that he want power by all means either by crook or by hook.

One begin to wonder why DSP is displaying such level of desperation when others are being gentlemanly in the contest.

Surprisingly,  his last act of desperation was displayed few weeks now when through his henchmen in power he seized all campaign materials belonging to Sissoco without any reasons and all peaceful efforts to secure release of those materials hit the rocks. But bad as such actions has portrayed,  it is annoying that DSP’s campaign materials passed through the same border without any issue. The question on the lips of every Guineans has been: “Will seizing USE’s campaign materials make him to lose the election to DSP or are those acts merely targeted at provoking crisis that will favour DSP to buy time?”

For a man that has spent millions bribing all his countrymen to become a discriminating president, how does he plan to pay back the whole money he has collected because it is a very known fact that DSP do not have factories producing money for him. The only answer will be that as an aspiring candidate,  he has already mortgaged the future of the republic in personal debts.

The people will on 29th December, 2019 either choose to move forward by voting USE, 2 or face bebts for the next 5 years.

Comr Amos Kalu writes from Guiné-Bissau