Conte's Cowards and Clowns: Will Our Syndicate Learn Anything

by Tut Tsanga; 25th December 2008

As a Zimbabwean, I cannot help but get gripped by the events unfolding in Guinea. Another evil African despot has bitten the dust and there is jubilation in the streets. Strange, is it not, that the death of a man who claimed people had given him an overwhelming mandate to rule over them has resulted in the very same people running into the streets as they excitedly toi toi in the dusty streets of the slums of Conakry, singing songs of joy while waving flags and palm fronds?

Lansana Conte, the criminally incompetent and widely despised dictator of Guinea is dead after unpardonably abusing the wonderful Africans of Guinea for almost a quarter of a century. Guinea is a country endowed with vast mineral resources, boasting more than a third of the world's known deposits of aluminium-source bauxite, diamonds, recently discovered oil, in addition to a rich and proud history. The people of Guinea are a hardworking lot that will go to incredible lengths to better their lives, like these kids studying under street lights - at least they have electricity and no raw sewage flowing in the streets of Conte's fiefdom, unlike a certain fiefdom in Southern Africa whose name I will not mention.

Like most African countries, God gave Guinea everything except sensible political leadership. Little wonder when African leaders die people celebrate, a phenomenon, until recent times, alien to our culture. When an evil man dies and people thank God the almighty, we should not accuse them of being out of cultural bounds.

I recall Lansana Conte saying some lame excuse to justify his seizure of power. It was in 1984 and I was in secondary school when aged uber African nationalist, Sekou Toure, died while receiving medical attention in New York. It was touching because I considered Sekou Toure a bona fide African anti-colonial hero instead of another pathetic but destructive African nationalist-turned-despot. Like his great-grandfather, the Guinean nationalist had stood up to the French who, in turn, vindictively destroyed everything, including toilets, they could not ferry back to France. Sekou Toure was a nationalist who had told the French to take their wares and shove them into part of their anatomy on which the sun never shines. It was music to my ears then. I was a young Communist Manifesto thumper, an ardent listener of Mugabe's radio addresses. In my teenage years little did I know that these terrible African nationalists are only good at crippling nations and keeping people fettered in poverty bonds.

Conte took over from the despotic African nationalist Sekou Toure. Unlike Sekou Toure, Conte was not a nationalist but a shameless opportunist. Like his fellow dictators, Lansana Conte thought of Guinea as his fiefdom and its entire natural resources God's gift to him and his cronies. Without surprise, he had an elaborate patronage system whereby foreign companies were given mining concessions, deals that greatly benefited Conte's cronies to the debilitating exclusion of everyone else. For his iniquities, Allah should toss Conte's soul into hellfire. It will make Iblis happy, he who rules and fans the fires of that terrible pond.

Frankly, as he stared death in the face, Conte was reduced to running a crime syndicate while using state apparati like the military, the secret services and judiciary to cower everyone. As old age and illness sucked life out of him, the vultures that comprised his patronage system picked up everything including power. Dictator Conte only provided political cover for the heads of the military services and their civilian handlers.

In 2007, Conte, described as a hopeless chain smoker, diabetic octogenarian, was under pressure to relinquish power. Despite worrying reclusiveness and rumours of his senility, the leeches that benefited from his presidency insisted he was still in charge. He was adept at organizing sham elections. Conte had a retinue of misguided and politically stupid women dressed in party dresses emblazoned with his putrid image singing his praises despite the obvious ineptitude of the man. Now, he would not have been a quintessential African dictator if he did not have these pathetic women praising him for non-existent governing skills, would he?

Like I stated in another op-ed, the patronage system has its limitations. It is like a feeding trough, as time progresses, more and more people who had initially benefited from the patronage system are pushed away until only the most powerful politicians and heads of military services are allowed to feast on the slops. Sooner or later, those pushed away will voice their displeasure and finally seek retribution. A decade ago, beneficiaries of Conte's patronage system should have seen the writing on the wall. When, in 1996, several thousand soldiers mutinied and ran riot in the streets of Conakry, it was a sign that positive change was needed. The denizens of the Guinean political order dismissed the soldiers as malcontents. Guinea has witnessed riot after riot after riot by disgruntled young soldiers. It is complete foolishness for any government to think it can pacify hungry and disgruntled young soldiers.

Conte and his mafia gang were doomed from that moment onwards. Conte had a Damocles sword hanging over his head. Immediately after rigging an election, his convoy was attacked by what he dismissed as unknown gunmen. For crying out aloud, these were not unknown gunmen, they were the same soldiers who he had dismissed as malcontents in 1996. When a cartel is presiding over a country that has an army with thousands of malcontents in its ranks, that cartel is bound to meet a terrible end.

The funniest thing is that Conte was painfully aware of his mortality, a coward that lived in absolute fear of death. His crime syndicate is proving to be just as cowardly. After Captain Camara seized power from the Conte crime syndicate, all the Conte Mafiosi were ordered to present themselves at Alpha Yaya Diallo barracks or risk hunted down like the rapacious wild animals they are. The consigliore of the cartel, Ahmed Tidiane Souare, tried to make some noise, probably from a cave in the Fouta Jallon mountains, to the effect that the Camara Junta was not in charge but the game was up. Yes sir, the once powerful crew is trooping its way into the Alpha Yaya Diallo barracks with tails tucked between legs.

Not only was Conte leading a pack of cowards but it is turning out they were more than that. They are a pathetic lot. Upon making his way into the camp, the previously vituperative prime minister is now singing a total different but very comical song. We have the circus clown, Ahmed Tidiane Souare, telling the previously unknown Captain Camara, and I quote; "We are at your complete disposal. We thank you once again for your wisdom, Mr President." When had Souare thanked Camara before? And, please pray tell while we are at it, what wisdom are we talking about here? Souare is begging for dear life, it seems. Anyway, it seems as if the army generals who had tried to puff out their chests in an act of defiance may have been put in their place by the no-nonsense young officers.

That is some remarkable transition for Captain Camara, id est moving from being part of an army previously derided as a pack of malcontents to a wise president. It is an equally massive climb down for the hapless Ahmed Tidiane Souare, who had insisted that he was in control. Of course, army tanks rumbling through the streets of Conakry and unbridled joy of the citizenry made a mockery of Souare's proclamations. It was just bluster. These are the cowards and clowns that were terrorizing the defenseless people of Guinea.

Africa is replete with these pests and the events in Conakry must make this festive season uncomfortable for the continent's other evil rulers and their acolytes. When the evil die, people will not mourn but flood into the streets to celebrate.

With all due respect and apologies to all the dogs, Conte's carcass deserves to be buried like that of a dog. Moreover, I do not wish his crew a merry Christmas. For only this one Yuletide, I gladly play the Grinch. No sane person will mourn if there is a summary chopping of the heads of all the Conte Junta fat-necked members who rigged elections and drove the country into half a century of poverty. It would send a very loud and clear message to all the continent's cowardly fat-necked criminals who live lavish life styles, gather funds to visit death upon the defenceless and consigning the living to breathing noxious air, drinking water teeming with cholera bacterium and eking out a miserable living through picking maize grain on roadsides.