Boko, the BNF messiah
Ryder Gabathuse | Friday July 22, 2016 13:17
The party went into its elective congress over the past long weekend confident that Boko should not be challenged as the party president, something that is really uncommon for the BNF.
Does the latest development suggest leadership dearth in the BNF or this is a show of confidence in Boko’s leadership?
Given the diverse BNF membership, one expected tough competition for the position of the party presidency in particular. But Boko sailed through unopposed.
Although Boko was initially dismissed as an aloof leader or just someone who will become a burden to the party leadership as an absentee landlord, he seems to be hands-on.
In the party, he is considered a unifying factor that has separated the BNF from its warring past.
Who is really Boko?
First, Boko’s leadership inherited the BNF from its former leader, now public servant, Otsweletse Moupo, who is also a lawyer by training.
When Boko won the hearts and minds of the hard- to-please BNF members at an elective congress in Mochudi in 2010, there was doubt from many quarters that Boko will never succeed in turning the fortunes of the party around.
At best around that time, the BNF was a stagnant party with a tendency of breaking up towards general elections disappointing a lot of people who expected a lot from it.
After 2009 general elections, the Moupo-led BNF leadership had about five MPs to its name. By any measure, this achievement did not depict any major growth, but, given the BNF’s unreliable nature, it was better than nothing.
Upon assuming office, Boko the lawyer’s stay in the party office was characterised by lawsuits some of which challenged his membership of the BNF. There were dissenting voices in the party that Boko was not fit to lead the BNF because there was a claim that he did not obtain the party membership properly.
He literally had a turbulent time in office but he was strong enough to weather the political storm. With a desire to lead a party of his choice, all the challenges could not deter the determined lawyer-cum-politician.
When the BNF moved into a relationship with a Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) break away party, Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) and the Botswana Peoples Party (BPP), another storm from within the BNF started. There was fear from Boko’s detractors that cooperating with other opposition parties under the ambit of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) could temper with the BNF identity and believes.
There was fear in the BNF that the tri-party formation could end up with the parties of the BMD and BPP swallowing the identity of the BNF.
Boko stood his ground as the BNF leader and the leader of the UDC and won his day in the political court.
His doubters would later eat humble pie as under his stewardship the UDC produced 17 seats in Parliament after 2014 general elections, a feat that his predecessors failed to achieve.
Early this week at an elective congress held at Setlalekgosi Junior Secondary School, the BNF delegates chose not to oppose Boko for the party presidency not because there was no one to challenge him.
To a large extent, the BNF continued to show confidence in Boko as their leader and the bigger picture of the UDC grouping. They wanted him to continue where he had stopped with the UDC project particularly with the late entrance of the Botswana Congress party (BCP), which has witnessed a slow start.
The BNF diehards are only hopeful that Boko whose leadership has revived one of the oldest party projects of Kopano House, will help the party achieve more as he seems focused on turning the party fortunes around in many ways.
Kopano House is a potential money-spinner, as it will assume the form of a commercial complex, the BNF has said. Under the previous leadership, Kopano House plot was incessantly threatened with repossession by the government for failure to develop the plot.
Boko revealed at the elective congress that the project at Kopano House will cost a whopping P18 million and indicated that members will soon be invited to a groundbreaking ceremony of what he described as a massive project.
“We are also on course to secure the necessary funding to begin the project. We have secured all the necessary guarantees to ensure that the finance is obtained,” Boko told the BNF congress. He added: “The project has now reached critical stages of having secured not just the anchor tenant, but also the rest of the tenants whose rentals will help cover the installment for the repayment of the loan.” Boko might not claim solo effort in seeing this important project take shape, but as a party leader he deserves accolades.
Justin Hunyepa, the BNF’s newly elected publicity secretary explained this week that the party did not instruct anyone not to challenge Boko for the party presidency. “It’s just members who chose not to oppose him for the party presidency as a sign of confidence in him.
They have such confidence in him because under him, no doubt the party has stabilised and enjoys peace,” observed Hunyepa. Others who were unopposed are Shampoo Shadikong-Matshidiso for the position of deputy secretary general and Dr Castro Lekobe for the position of secretary for health.
Hunyepa noted that the Mahalapye-born politician might have impressed the party delegates as he talked peace and unity within the BNF ranks and the wider opposition bloc.
“Without speaking for anyone, it’s possible that party diehards considered Boko a unifying factor at a critical time when the BNF and its partners are preparing themselves for a take-over of the government.”