Mugabe’s UN pull out claims distasteful

It is now a common appearance that President Mugabe is always in a league of his own, both in speech and in deed. The grandstanding about sleep walking Africa out of the United Nations is, however a step too far.

His insatiable appetite for attention is having the potential of watering down legitimate calls for reforms in the UN. To claim that the UN’s shortfalls and inconsiderations are so grave to warrant a mass pull out by the whole continent is a clear lack of understanding of the organisation. Serious reform campaigners and lobbyists will be cringing to suchunsavoury statements of getting Africa out of the UN.

While United Nations entails international cooperation, President Mugabe is pushing for selective cooperation. His flight combat tactics are partly the ones which got Zimbabwe in the mess that it is in the first place.

We have abandoned many international trade and diplomatic ties because our government in power believes in ‘Blair keeping his England and us keeping our Zimbabwe’. Our adversaries have not stopped because we have left the negotiating table but they forged on to alternative alliances.

Perhaps it is a worthy reminder to the president that his time allocation on the General Assembly podium and the handshake with the UN General Assembly President are a fundamental source of legitimacy for his presidency. He has derived excessive sufficiency by being the SADC Chairperson and thought he can now speak for the world.

With a dismal baggage of election rigging and totalitarian rule, President Mugabe should be proud of UN as an institution that gets him on the platform and force almost 200 heads of states and billions of people to listen to him.

I feel that the ordinary people of Zimbabwe should be the ones shouting on top of their voices for serious shake up of the United Nations. Its institutional rot was heavily felt in 2008 when its Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) in Harare connived with Zanu Pf to conceal the devastating effects of Cholera in the country.

Even the UN Tribunal itself was appalled by sheer lack of empathy and corruption in the organisation which led to death and ruined lives when help could have been called for.

What Zimbabwe and the world today want is not exhibitionist leaders but front-runners who take their needs and voices to fight for change in the General Assembly and all the various UN specialised agencies. Our problems are now far from being localised, we need a stronger and more effective United Nations to preside over our more and more globalised issues. This is the progressive way.

Fungayi Mukosera contributes here on his personal capacity and can be contacted on [email protected]