Zimbabwe should have considered what kind of leaders an armed struggle will produce - we would not be in this mess today!

During India’s fight to end British Colonial rule of India some of the nationalist leaders urged that they should escalate the struggle by taking up arms.

“What kind of leaders will the armed struggle produced?” asked Nehru. “And are they the kind of men and women we would like to rule the nation?”

In Zimbabwe we chose to escalate the struggle by taking up arms. I am sure it was losing the bush war that hurried Smith out of power but by God the nation has paid dearly.

In independent Zimbabwe mismanagement, corruption and down right looting have gone unchecked destroying the country’s once promising economy. Millions now live in abject poverty. The nation has been completely helpless to stop this criminal waste because we are a nation paralysed by fear. The heroes of the armed struggle have gone on to rule the nation with an iron fist boasting that “What was won by the bullet can not be changed by a ballot!”

Mahatma Gandhi’s none-violence strategy may have delay India’s independence by a decade or two but it was well worth it because it allowed democratic leaders to emerge. The kind of leaders who have set India on a path of peace, freedom and prosperity. By taking up arms Zimbabwe brought forward the end of white colonial but cast into leadership role the village thugs who have dragged down the path of self destruction and despair.

It is not as if the war of independence did not have a price tag, many good men and women lost their lives in the war. And at the end we did end one exploitive and oppressive regime only to replace it with a corrupt and an even more oppressive one. In our hast for independence we took one step forward and two steps backward; we too should have considering what kind of leaders an armed struggle will produce!