Student Chancellor

23 March 2005



Sam Nujoma Retires as Namibian President to Become Geology Student

South West Africa was the name of a German colony taken over the Britain at the end of the World War I, and a protectorate of the apartheid regime of South Africa. Sam Nujoma was the leader of the South West Africa People's Organization [SWAPO], which fought for independence, and when successful, he became the president of the renamed Namibia. While no Nelson Mandela (the human race is entitled only to one of these a generation), he isn't a Robert Mugabe either (too many of them). He has left office after 15 years but will have an active retirement, as a student at the University of Namibia, known locally as UNAM.

As president of his country, Mr. Nujoma has set the tone for all future Namibian leaders, as General Washington did for American presidents. By leaving office before dying, and ensuring a peaceful hand over of power (albeit to a friend and ally rather than a rival), he has created a precedent that is all too lacking in Africa (and elsewhere) -- the idea that power isn't forever. His people have access to running water and electricity, which is one up on some of Namibia's neighbors, and illiteracy is not a huge problem. While he has associated himself with Mr. Mugabe's seizure of white-owned farms, he has avoided the policy of forced land reform. Throughout his administration, Namibia has kept to a policy of willing-buyers working with willing-sellers. His successor, Hifikepunye Pohamba, will have to do more in the area of land reform, but so far, no disaster has befallen Namibia on the matter.

At 75 years old, Mr. Nujoma could live out his retirement comfortably. His golden handshake includes a tax-free pension, a house in Windhoek (the capital city) and government cars and drivers. He also gets cooks, secretaries and personal assistants at government expense. The people have even thrown in an office with all the usual phone and computer equipment. If nothing else, it would provide him with a place to operate as UNAM's chancellor, to which post he has recently been appointed to a second six-year term.

It seems, though, that Mr. Nujoma wants more than that. He will be a university student as well, studying geology. he is convinced there is even more mineral wealth in Namibia than the country currently is mining. There are allegations that the rules were bent to let him in -- he doesn't have the traditional qualifications of a geology student. His honorary degrees from universities in Russian, the US and Nigeria don't really count. But if no other student is being denied a place, then it is hard to see this as a form of corruption. There is just one question, though. How does a professor mark an exam done by the chancellor of the university? One hopes the quality of Mr. Nujoma's work makes it a moot point. And one further hopes that other 75-year-olds decide that they are not too old to learn something new either.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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