Tribute to our Founding President Sam Nujoma
OUR Founding President turned 81 on 12 May 2010. As is well known, H.E. Dr. Sam Nujoma is a celebrated leader not only in Namibia but also in Africa and beyond. Over here in China, the mention of his name ignites praise and admiration from the Chinese leadership and people.
Thus the birthday of our Founding President is not an ordinary day because his life has been an extra-ordinary and a revolutionary life. Early this week, I remarked to a senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC) that Comrade Nujoma is to Namibia what Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping are to the Peoples Republic of China. Indeed, Comrade Nujoma can, in this respect, be described as a political and economic visionary of Namibia.
Of course he grew up in a African village and tended cattle and other livestock of his family; ordinarily, he was to follow in the footprints of his immediate family into the future of manhood. However, Comrade Nujoma followed footsteps and footprints that did not exist anywhere in the country. In other words, he paved his own footprints into the future of Namibia’s liberation struggle under Swapo. The odds were against him and the chances of victory were perceptively slim. That notwithstanding, he defied the odds and became a David against a well-armed Goliath and ultimately delivered freedom and independence on 21 March 1990. From then on, the DNA of Namibian politics was changed forever when he became the first President of a free and independent Namibia for fifteen years. A free nation was born wherein all Namibians, black and white, rich and poor, young and old, rural and urban could live together in harmony and with access to equal opportunities. The legacy for nation building and national reconciliation was laid irreversibly.
In my opinion, for the past 20 years we have lived the vision of Sam Nujoma. It is he, together with his comrades in the Party and Government leadership, that had the foresight of a free Namibia when many did not believe. He had a vision of a Namibia we now see before our very eyes. Every Namibian should now, on the eve of this historic birthday, dedicate themselves to the vision embodied in Vision 2030, but above all it is a vision that must be seen through the eyes of every Namibian.
Strikingly, his call for Science and Technology as a focus for our education rings similar to Deng Xiaoping’s vision of China’s transformation into a powerful and respected country it has become today. Our Founding President possesses an inextinguishable spirit with which he continues to encourage us to think creatively and clearly about the ways of pursuing the economic struggle of our country. He is an embodiment of hard work, honesty, patriotism and unwavering commitment to Namibia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Indeed, the Nation can be agreed that our Founding President has an astonishing determination, extreme political astuteness and absolute decisiveness which has served our country well and will continue in the future.
Pursuing this vision also entrusts certain responsibilities on all of us as leaders and citizens. As leaders, all our actions, individually and collectively, must be informed by the aspirations of our people and the national interest of our country. As citizens, we must rise to the realization and commitment to service. We must patriotically vow to bury racism; we should resolve to bury tribalism; also nepotism and favoritism. Let us in honour of our Founding President build the tower of hope for our people and country. In my view this is a befitting celebratory undertaking that we can individually and collectively make to our Founding President: A Namibia free from poverty, free from hunger and disease, free from ignorance, free from racism, free from tribalism, free from corruption and above all a Namibia that is perennially united around the ideals of One Namibia One Nation.
Dr. Elijah Ngurare
Beijing, China