This week, Burundi has hit headlines on account of their President Pierre Nkurunziza launched a bid to run for a third term in office for the next presidential election to be held on 26th June 2015. The bid has seen three people, including two police officers, being killed due to the political unrest in that country. With the launch of the third term bid, it is clear that he do everything in his powers to retain power. I assume even at the price of having unfortunate deaths such as the three people including two police officers. Already, reports are suggesting that at least seven people had been killed and 66 others wounded in a week of clashes between police and protesters in the capital. This, without a doubt recipe for lawlessness and impending divisions in a country that has had a very rickety political past.
Being a keen follower and commentator on International, African and local affairs, I must admit that President Nkurunziza is one President I least expected to attempt to chew the constitution and push for a third term bid especially taking into account the difficult circumstances under which he became President of Burundi.
It’s a pity that his grovelers are justifying the third term bid on account of discounting first five year term her served. This is the man who was seen as a rising star in the contemporary African Renaissance to the extent that in September 2010, the India–based Unity International Foundation honored him with the "Rising Star of Africa Award” because he was viewed as a role model in peace consolidation and development for the whole of Africa.
It is not a secret that Burundi has had a difficult political past right from the first President Colonel Jean-Baptiste Bagaza who was ousted in a coup by President Major Pierre Buyoya, all the way to President Sylvestre Ntibantunganya and Cyprien Ntaryamira who was President of Burundi from 5 February 1994 until the plane he was aboard together with Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down on 6 April 1994. The events that followed after the death of the two leaders were catastrophic as the world witnessed thousands of people being killed in the civil war along ethnic lines between the Hutu majority and minority Tutsis.
The world and African bodies such the African Union (AU), Member States of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region which Zambia is a member should impress upon the Burundi Government to respect the wishes of the majority and the constitutional provisions that limit the Presidential tenure to only two.
Zambia and Burundi share boarders through the great Lake Tanganyika which consequently there have been trade relations taking place between the two countries. Just in 2013, Zambia is reported to have exported a total of 40,000 metric tonnes of maize to Burundi as clear indication of the trade potential. For more trade relations to proliferate and fortified, Zambia should play an active role to ensure that Burundi remains politically stable.
In an event that the Burundi Constitutional Court rules that President Pierre Nkurunziza is eligible to run for a third term, the African Union and the International Community should impose sanctions Burundi to ensure that the will of the great majority is respected. The situation in Burundi is serious and African and the World at large cannot afford to be inconspicuous about it. It is very simple; President Pierre Nkurunziza must respect the constitution and the will of the people.
