Don’t let Pohamba’s tears over Nujoma’s death go to waste

A mother’s tears are not those of weakness, but when a father cries, something big would have happened because fathers are known to hold back tears and act strong.

Wonder Guchu

Tears mean different things to different people. Tears also represent different emotions at different times.

A mother’s tears are easy to accommodate even when they are tears of pain. Traditionally and biologically, mothers are known to shed tears on different occasions.

A mother’s tears are not those of weakness, but when a father cries, something big would have happened because fathers are known to hold back tears and act strong.

And former president Hifikepunye Pohamba cried.

He cried openly after viewing the late Founding President Sam Nujoma’s remains at State House on Thursday, 20 February 2025.

Nujoma, who became Namibia’s first president in 1990 until 2005, died in Windhoek on 8 February 2025.

His remains were brought to State House in Windhoek early Thursday morning before they were flown around the country for memorial services.

That image of Pohamba crying brought home the sad reality in which Namibia finds itself after Nujoma’s death.

In his address to the mourners gathered at Nujoma’s village at Etunda in Okahao, Omusati Region, Pohamba said he has lost a good friend, a leader of the Namibian Nation and founding president.

Most importantly, Pohamba appealed to the people to work towards building a Namibian nation that Nujoma envisioned.

Pohamba’s exact words: Death came to Nujoma, and we are no longer going to see him, but we have to look at what Nujoma has done from his childhood up to the time he left office.

What is Nujoma’s vision?

The biggest question is: What do we do with Nujoma’s ideas? How will Namibia use Nujoma’s vision to shape the future?

For example, what has Namibia done with Vision 2030? Have we forgotten Nujoma’s statement to the Cabinet in January 1998, when he urged Cabinet members to be clear about where we are, where we want to go from here, and over what time frame?

Have we also forgotten his plea to the Cabinet to deliberate on a vision that will take Namibia from the present into the future? 

His exact words: A vision that will guide us to make deliberate efforts to improve the quality of life of our people to the level of their counterparts in the developed world by the year 2030.

It has been 27 years since Nujoma appealed to leaders for a clear vision. The question is: Do those who took over from him provide such a clear vision to map the future? Has the nation been on the path which Nujoma charted?

Another example. In 2004, Nujoma laid the rails from Tsumeb to Oshikango. And this happened. Yet that vision has not been taken up to extend the railway from Grootfontein to Katima Mulilo despite the heavy cargo from Zambia to Walvis Bay.

Nujoma shared his vision of the railway from Tsumeb reaching the town of Opuwo and connecting to a new port he envisioned to be built at Cape Fria.

He spoke of factories and steel and copper being produced to create 10,000 jobs (direct and indirect). He saw an Utopia of prosperity and Ubuntu, made possible by the minerals of the Kunene Region.

In his maiden speech on May 15, 1990, Nujoma said: We cannot be proud as a nation when the majority of our fellow countrymen and women live under squalid conditions.

As part of this vision, Nujoma’s administration formed the National Housing Enterprise in 1993 to provide avoidable houses.

Once again, the question is: How have we been able to use the vision that led to the formation of NHE to eradicate the shacks? We have continued as if nothing matters while shacks multiply and engulf Windhoek and all the towns across the country.

Nujoma lived his time and provided a vision. He led the way and indicated the direction of the future to us. We should, therefore, ask ourselves if his death means the end of an era or if it is us whose eyes and minds are dead to Nujoma’s vision.

It is scary when people speak about a visionary’s death as an end to an era. It is like closing doors to possibilities which such visionaries open for us.

What Nujoma’s death should mean to us is the need for honest and truthful introspection about Namibia.

His death should be a wake-up call not only to our leaders but the generalty as to what role each can play to make this country a better place.

If having Nujoma alive sent us to sleep, his death should be like the rising sun that inspires the creation of new beginnings.

Another question, however, is whether there are men and women tutored by Nujoma who have carried the torch from him and are brave enough to lead.

The true meaning of Pohamba’s tears

Pohamba could have cried because he lost a friend of 63 years. The two met in Angola in 1962, and the last time Pohamba saw Nujoma alive was when he visited him in a hospital in Windhoek.

But again, Pohamba’s tears could be a realisation that with death, Nujoma’s dreams and visions may never be realised. Already, years before Nujoma’s death, Vision 2030 is derailed and extended by two years.

The extension means that Namibia will not be industrialised as Nujoma had envisioned it five years from now. Without industrialisation and mineral beneficiation, the dream of creating jobs and making every Namibia’s life worth living may take longer.

These tears could also mean that the unity Nujoma spoke so much about may not be realised, especially with rising unemployment and poverty rates.

But Pohamba’s tears should be a wake-up call to action for the youthful leaders to take the baton and realise Nujoma’s dreams and visions.

Nujoma’s death should not mark the end of an era but the beginning of a new one that can thrive and benefit from a foundation already laid.

Indeed, such foundations may not fit these times, which means whoever has the same guts as Nujoma’s should build something meaningful for the nation from the existing ideas.

Bearing in mind that no one is perfect, the worst that can happen is to allow whatever anger some people have to cloud out whatever good Nujoma did.

And just do not let Pohamba’s tears go to waste.

*Wonder Guchu is the manager for news at Namibia Future Media Holdings