President Festus Gontebanye Mogae

ALBERT G.T.K. MALIKONGWA | Friday April 4, 2008 00:00

Decorate our ever pursuits of democracy and love of man
You cherished the human condition and cared for the lesser breeds
Guided as it were by that inner richness
Of a rare composure and steadfastness true
For all these never allowed your position of power
To be a humdrum of useless expectations or arrogance
Or some empty rhetorics feathered in pomp or vain-gloriousness

You upheld the ethos of equality and human dignity
Before the law knowing that inside our skins
We are all the same or alike or equal
Or that to rule a riotous nation
Is but a suffocating powder keg and a paralysis
Nor have you ever camped in the shadows
Of the trivialities of the power of corrupt, wealth seekers
You floated not with the money class
That ignored the welfare of their fellow folks
And trimmed their pockets aplenty

The plaudits from thus nation mirror your stewardship
That was always dressed in that garment of unpretentiousness
Or decorated by that subtlety of wisdom, courage, love
Composure, hope and a rare intellectualism
In times of tribulation or harshness of weather
Or when calamities ambushed the nation
You stood straight unscarred by the rough political grids
Fortified by that inner beauty of mind and altruism
Bringing prosperity to a nation thirsty
Of development and essentials of life

Remember that great men or women are great
Not because they never faulted nor stumbled Nor dreamed foolish dreams nor darted to way-wardness
Let alone staggered in pursuance of higher ideals
Nor walked on muddy waters or dark abyss
But that when all these pricked their resolve or inner self
Oh dear gods they got up, smiled and soldiered on
Taking the gauntlet with a tenacious determination
This is the blue print of the deeds of greatmen
Mogae, our Mogae, a legend
That kept Botswana on the radar screen of fame

You dominated the world fora
Your eloquence forever penetrating the labyrinths
Of ingenious sophistications and political intrigues
Without ever bowing to flimsy or cheap rhetorics
You have outshown even those statesmen of great renown
At home you have tamed or disciplined the political gods
Without ever applying the vicious pricks or harshness
That form the apparatus of dictatorships
Or ever sending opponents to insane asylum or prison barracks
Your name and deeds shall forever remain glued
And engraved in grandeur in the annals of Botswana