This is very good news for Namibia and for Sam Nujoma! It is monumentally important news, because many people were concerned Nujoma would not be able to let go of political power and influence, like his friend Robert Mugabe. I can hear a sigh of relief by many friends, comrades and colleagues.

Sam Nujoma has been a dominant figure in the politics of our nation for so long, and his decision to step down will not only make room for President Pohamba to fully take over the reigns, but also allow a new generation of leaders to emerge in SWAPO.

Nujoma has shown character and wisdom by deciding that his time has come. Reason has prevailed. He will go down in history as the founding father of our nation, and one who knew when his time had come to say "goodbye", just like Mandela did in South Africa.

I salute his decision, and wish him all the best in his well-deserved years of retirement. Now it is for SWAPO to renew itself, to start looking to the future, to start moving away from the liberation struggle and towards solving the problems our nation is facing. No more living in the past.

Yes, the struggle continues, but it is the struggle for a democratic, peaceful, prosperous Nambiia, not one where excuses are made in the face of failure, of maladministration, of bad planning and bad policies.

Oh joyous day!!! Sing a song for comrade Nujoma!!! He is blessed and joins the ranks of Africa's great statesmen! Oh happy news!

Here's the full article, courtesy of New Era:
NAMIBIA: Nujoma not seeking re-election

Cast your vote on the topic in the Voting Booth:
http://www.theshebeen.org/politics/1...president.html

I came across the following opinion piece in The Namibian by Jesaya Nyamu, a former Swapo member who served asMinister of Mines and Energy and Minister of Trade and Industry. It makes for extremely interesting reading and puts Nujoma's announcement in perspective. All is not what it appears to be, brothers and sisters. Nyamu was expelled from Swapo by the Politburo in 2006. Here's what Nyamu writes:

THE announcement by Namibia's former President, Sam Nujoma, on October 1 that he will nt stand for the position of party president at the forthcoming Swapo congress has generated a great deal of hyper-excitement and frantic media speculation.

The speculation is largely a result of the deliberate ambiguity in which the announcement was couched and the haste with which it was made.

As a consequence of such wild speculation and over-interpretation, especially by the news media and a number of academics, a misleadingly high significance is now being given to what is actually a minor occurrence in the country.

Nujoma's announcement is just yet another political gimmick, contrived to deflect the mounting public criticisms in the country about his insatiable desire for power as manifested by his autocratic interferences in the running of the country's public affairs when he is supposed to have left active politics.

Nujoma knows that the nation wants and expects him to genuinely retire from political activity, something that he finds very difficult to do.
Hence, the ambiguity and vagueness of his announcement.

This is not the first time that he has made such announcement.
In 2004, he told the National Assembly the same thing.

But that announcement turned out to be a mere gimmick designed to mislead the nation.

Nujoma also made a similar statement in a meeting of the Swapo Politburo in that same year, saying quite categorically that he was going to vacate the positions of being both the President of the Republic and of Swapo.
As a result of that announcement, a meeting of the Politburo resolved to make arrangements for Nujoma's retirement.

To that end, it appointed four of its members, namely, Hifikepunye Pohamba, Ngarikutuke Tjiriange, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah and Pendukeni Iivula Ithana to separately visit Tanzania, South Africa, Mozambique and Botswana with a view to investigating as to how these countries took care of their retired presidents.

Money was spent and the said visits were undertaken.
A report, with recommendations for the setting up of a Nujoma Foundation, was submitted and adopted.

But the Politburo was afterwards stunned to hear Nujoma repudiating his own pledge to simultaneously give up the position of being President of the Republic and of Swapo.

That pledge was just another gimmick to mislead the nation which, he knows, was interested in seeing that the agreed-upon political processes, procedures and institutions are respected and adhered to by all those who are entrusted with responsibility to manage public affairs.

The fact that Nujoma's latest announcement is devoid of specifics as to the dates and modalities should surprise nobody.

If he were actually relinquishing the position he now holds, he should tell the nation when he will give up the post.

He should also make it clear that he will not chair or participate in the forthcoming congress.

But the questions are left out of the announcement to cleverly provide room for him to be able to wriggle out or renege on that pledge, as he did on those other instances mentioned above.

The myth of saying that "the people want me back" can always be invoked to justify the greed to cling to power.

Moreover, it is common knowledge that Nujoma has already completed the rigging of the Congress process.

As testified to by a long series of nullifications or removals of people from positions to which they were duly elected at regional and district levels of the party structure.

By virtue of being elected to such positions, these people were to be delegates to attend the congress.

In their place, preferred groups were put in charge of all those structures and will thus be the ones to attend the congress.

This is to say that he has ensured, over the last two years, that his lackeys will constitute the overwhelming majority of the delegates to the congress.

This is a blatant negation of democracy.

The people who have been smuggled into the leadership structures against the will of the electorates at those levels are in most cases neither competent nor dedicated cadres.

As such, they will not be at the congress to critically think and help to formulate and make sound decisions about ways to grow the economy, to reduce unemployment and poverty.

Rather, they will be there to merely sing praise songs about Nujoma and dance to his tune.

Indeed, they will be there to "persuade" him to stand for re-election.
Under such circumstances, it is difficult to imagine Nujoma giving up power.

Therefore, those who have jumped to the conclusion that Nujoma has relinquished power are living in cloud cuckoo land, the world of illusion.

Clearly, therefore, Nujoma's autocracy is, in fact, a source of retardation to our democracy, progress and competency in Swapo.

The announcement is a typical gimmick or self-serving scheme put forth to bamboozle the nation with a view to easing the popular pressure being exerted on him to stop his interference in the country's governing process.

Thus, even if Nujoma were to formally give up the title of president, he will still be lurking about to destabilise and divide the party by remote control, thereby rendering the party bankrupt in terms of people with ability for free thinking, sound policy formulation and implementation.

He has become a liability to, and indeed a gravedigger, of a party that he had worked to build.

As Marc Springer points out in the German daily Allgemeine Zeiutung in the article "Tactical Razzle-Dazzle", the likeliest outcome of Nujoma's latest maneuvers is that he will be appointed party chairman instead of President. Judging from the all the comments coming out of SWAPO, that newly created post will have enough power attached to it that Nujoma will remain the king of SWAPO and thus Namibia. Sad times for democracy, which always implies competition for power, within SWAPO, for Namibia..

OK - it's official: Tatekulu Nujoma is on the way out, and there is now a good chance for aq smooth, peaceful and orderly transition of power to Pohamb in the medium-term. Very good news for our country, and congratulations have to go to Nujoma for being wise to leave the scene on a high.

Here's a story by Oneword, posted today: http://www.theshebeen.org/governance...successor.html

Tactical razzle-dazzle? Does not look like it now. Seems to be pretty final ... but then ....

I salute him, for he sacrified himself to carry what himself termed as a torch from the time of our forefathers through the bitter struggle to the freedom we re enjoying today. Tatekulu Shafiihuna led us with tireless effort, taught us by examples.

Wishing him personal strong healthy!!!!