Ian Khama Deserves His Farewell Gifts
Monitor Editor | Monday February 5, 2018 11:36
It is during these visits that different communities give farewell presents to the outgoing president.
President Ian Khama has not done anything out of the ordinary. He is simply following tradition by bidding the nation farewell, before the new president takes over on April 1, 2018.
For some reason Khama’s farewell gifts seem to have created uproar and rubbed a number of people the wrong way.
If the memory serves right, former president, Festus Mogae, who handed the baton to Khama, was showered with many gifts, and people seemed to be comfortable with that.
Mogae received 50 heifers and a bull from Ghanzi Farmers Association 10 calves from Serowe, Braham and three cows from the Khamas amongst other gifts. People at the time seemed happy about the compassion shown by the nation at large.
But with the outgoing president people seem to be singing a different tune altogether. Why?
Doesn’t President Khama deserve the same treatment given to the other retiring presidents? Social media has been quite busy, with people airing their differing opinion, on whether or not the outgoing president deserves gifts from the nation.
The last time we checked a gift was something that comes from the heart, and as such we don’t think anyone should prescribe to people what kind of gifts they should give another.
Exchanging farewell gifts is not a foreign notion, as even amongst our communities, farewell gifts are an acceptable way of showing love and appreciation to other individuals.
Many of those who complained about Khama’s gifts seemed to support their arguments with ‘leaked’ memos, which have been circulating on social media for quite sometime.
The authenticity of the memos has of course not been established, but some people seem to already hold it as the gospel truth, their argument being that people were coerced into giving the outgoing president gifts.
Then, again lets say the memos released to different constituencies suggested what the community should consider as farewell gifts for the president.
Where is the harm in that and why would it be the president’s fault, unless someone can provide proof that, the memos/letters are an instruction from the president himself?
From the look of things, none of the communities was coerced into giving gifts. Some people make it seem like there are people who go around the country holding a gun to people’s heads to force them to give gifts.
We don’t think anyone who does not want to give the outgoing president will get into any kind of trouble.