By JENERALI ULIMWENGU

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When he left office after 10 years as president, he was so popular that his many of his people wished he could stay on. Since the Constitution did not allow for this, he left, to prepare for a return after a respite. He is now getting ready to vie for the presidency again, but that may never happen.

That is because Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, former president of Brazil, has been found guilty of corruption and sentenced to almost 10 years in the cooler; the judge has ruled he can stay free during his appeal, which it is assumed he will soon file.

Lula, whom Barack Obama once declared “the most popular politician on Earth,” was accused of having accepted a material bribe in the shape of a luxury apartment on the beach.

He is a most amazing politico. From humble working class origins, he became a union leader and then was swept to the presidency as the flagbearer of his Workers’ Party.

He won many hearts in Brazil and abroad as a smiling and humorous, down-to-earth leader with charm to spare. His pro-poor economic policies stood him in good stead even when the economy was in doldrums and the poor suffered. Lula was such a darling of his people as they had not seen for many decades in a country whose past had been bedevilled with military dictatorships and instability.

But for now he is laid low, and though his supporters claim his was a political trial, he looks like a betrayal. The appeal will tell if he has been vindicated. But, just to jog our memory, his successor Dilma Russeff was impeached for a similar reason and removed from office.

Interestingly, Dilma’s own successor, Michel Temer, looks set to join the parade of impeached presidents, again for corruption: Temer is accused of involvement in a conspiracy to bribe the Speaker of parliament to hush up an investigation into his own corruption scandal.

Now, Temer and Cunha were the leading pair in the parliamentary ouster of Dilma. It all reads like a labyrinthine web of graft involving politicians from both sides of the political divide playing puppets on strings pulled by Petrobras, the giant state energy firm. There are so many political names dragged into this murk that one has to wonder if there is anyone in that country who remains untainted.

Which is sad. It is a sad day when people who are entrusted with the very life of their nation and its people turn out to be thieves and brigands. It is particularly painful when we know that these people are provided for, they are paid well even after their retirement, until they die.

I look around at our own variety and wonder. The African presidency is one of the most comfortable jobs in the world. First, you do not have to worry about political pressures from your opponents. You can run the country any which way you like by issuing orders on a daily basis.

Very few voices will be raised to oppose you. Anyone stupid enough to criticise you may be arrested and charged with the crime of insulting the leader, a case of lese majeste.

So “the leader” need not fear that he will be found wanting, since those who think he is deficient are well advised to keep it as a state secret. You can hire people who call themselves doctors of philosophy and professors who come to sit at your feet to lap up your wisdom, which they will go out and amplify unadulterated, since you are the wisest of wise men.

So you really do not have to scratch your head thinking up something clever to do or say. Then when you retire, our system will still treat you like royalty. You are still paid a fat salary and hefty allowances, assured security and comfort. You get to travel all over the world, paid for by organisations that think you are upright and wise, since they cannot believe a former president could be bereft of wisdom. How else did he manage?

So, why are those in office, knowing that this is what is reserved for them, still go ahead to steal from their people? Is it a mental disease, compulsive kleptomania?
That is what Brazilians are trying to find out, and we should learn from them.

Jenerali Ulimwengu is chairman of the board of the Raia Mwema newspaper and an advocate of the High Court in Dar es Salaam. E-mail: [email protected]