{"id":8276,"date":"2022-06-07T13:09:56","date_gmt":"2022-06-07T13:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/udc-says-masisi-three-week-trip-sets-disgraceful-international-record"},"modified":"2022-06-07T15:06:42","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T15:06:42","slug":"udc-says-masisi-three-week-trip-sets-disgraceful-international-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/udc-says-masisi-three-week-trip-sets-disgraceful-international-record","title":{"rendered":"UDC says Masisi three-week trip sets disgraceful international record"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. <\/strong><\/span>The Umbrella for Democratic Change Head of Communications, Moeti Mohwasa, says that President Mokgweetsi Masisi\u2019s three-week absence in the country \u201cis a disgrace and highly despicable.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

Last month, Masisi left on an international trip that is expected to last three full weeks as he hops from country to country in western Europe. Mohwasa describes this trip as dereliction of duty on the president\u2019s part.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not only strange and disheartening for a president to be away for such a long time when there are so many political and economic crises in the country,\u201d says Mohwasa. \u201cIt is unheard of for a head of state and government to be outside the country officially for such a long time. It is a disgrace and highly despicable to say the least.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Masisi has described his visit in harmless terms. Speaking to reporters before boarding OK 1, the presidential jet, he said that \u201cI am about to leave on your behalf.\u201d In broader sense, \u201cyour\u201d referred to all Batswana. His itinerary covered Switzerland, Sweden and France.<\/p>\n

Mohwasa\u2019s point about a head of state being outside the country for as long as Masisi has being an international record appears to be valid. We ransacked the historical record and didn\u2019t come up with proof to the contrary. To be clear, visits by some African heads of state tend to subvert the norm but nothing approaches what Masisi did. In 2015, President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya spent 15 days in New York City during a visit that included making an address to the annual UN General Assembly. Some cases are understandable \u2013 as when President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria spent a 103-day medical leave in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

In one very important respect and against Africa\u2019s history, Masisi\u2019s three-week absence is a positive sign with regard to the national security situation. In the period of Masisi\u2019s youth and of his father service in the government of President Sir Seretse Khama, African leaders were typically toppled when they were outside the country. That began on January 15, 1966 when Nigeria\u2019s first president, Nnamdi Azikiwe, was removed from power in a military coup led that was by army officer called Kaduna Nzeogwu.<\/p>\n

Azikiwe had left the country in late 1965, first for Europe, then on a cruise to the Caribbean. The following month, a group of Ghanaian army officers removed President Kwame Nkrumah from power when he was visiting Vietnam. In the past, the Directorate of Intelligence Services and Security has alleged a plot to topple Masisi. The latter\u2019s three-week absence is clear evidence that such threat currently doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Botswana<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. The Umbrella for Democratic Change Head of Communications, Moeti Mohwasa, says that President Mokgweetsi Masisi\u2019s three-week absence in the country \u201cis a disgrace and highly despicable.\u201d Last month, Masisi left on an international trip that is expected to last three full weeks as he hops from country to country in western Europe. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":8275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12,16],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-8276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-botswana","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"\nUDC says Masisi three-week trip sets disgraceful international record - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Umbrella for Democratic Change Head of Communications, Moeti Mohwasa, says that President Mokgweetsi Masisi\u2019s thr ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/udc-says-masisi-three-week-trip-sets-disgraceful-international-record\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UDC says Masisi three-week trip sets disgraceful international record\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Umbrella for Democratic Change Head of Communications, Moeti Mohwasa, says that President Mokgweetsi Masisi\u2019s thr ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/udc-says-masisi-three-week-trip-sets-disgraceful-international-record\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Botswana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-07T13:09:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-07T15:06:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/06\/postQueueImg_26-629f696d5961b.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"464\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/udc-says-masisi-three-week-trip-sets-disgraceful-international-record#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/udc-says-masisi-three-week-trip-sets-disgraceful-international-record\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"UDC says Masisi three-week trip sets disgraceful international record\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-07T13:09:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-07T15:06:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/udc-says-masisi-three-week-trip-sets-disgraceful-international-record\"},\"wordCount\":460,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/udc-says-masisi-three-week-trip-sets-disgraceful-international-record#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/06\/postQueueImg_26-629f696d5961b.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Botswana\",\"Botswana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/udc-says-masisi-three-week-trip-sets-disgraceful-international-record#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/udc-says-masisi-three-week-trip-sets-disgraceful-international-record\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/udc-says-masisi-three-week-trip-sets-disgraceful-international-record\",\"name\":\"UDC says Masisi three-week trip sets disgraceful international record - 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