If you want to poison a leader, say “step down”

If you want a leader to die as early as today, mix ‘step down’ in a cupful of water and give it to him to drink, he will die gradually. Assuming you have been given that poison to the president. Within 30 minutes, he will call all the security apparatus to have a meeting with and in that meeting, an emergency budget will be approved for keeping an eye on that thug who dissolved ‘step down’ to poison the leader.

A meeting with the cabinet follows to make them aware that somebody has asked us to step down. How dare could he do that? Let’s unite and eliminate him sooner than later. The president then informs his western allies to help him detoxifying the poison in his body.

Worries never give him a break! He thinks over losing power and what may follow! He thinks of the atrocities he committed and an equivalent punishment awaiting him when he loses his immunity. He thinks of the assets he corruptly acquired and how they will be confiscated after he loses power.

He thinks of the privileges he has been enjoying and how his gonna miss them. He thinks of the motorcades and how jealous he would become if someone, not him, would be escorted so. He thinks of how fat his bank accounts grow every day and how they would be forced to starve if he loses power.

He remembers how a certain leader who had ruled the same way he’s ruling was exiled, and when he died, the remains were rejected to be buried in his own country. He thinks of how a certain leader who sacrificed people to stay in power was also sacrificed by his successor to stay in power.

He thinks of how his children would suffer the consequences of his bad governance. He thinks of how a high profile in his person would share a prison cell with some of the people he was ordered to be arrested.

He thinks of how his cohorts would reveal everything about him. He thinks of how a cancer disease is treated with chemotherapy or removal of the surrounding tissues, which tells him that he, his family and friends would be surgically removed to allow the new regime to move on smoothly.

He thinks of his plans which the poison will cut off and no other person would pursue them. Finally, he thinks of how his, according to him, rich legacy would get tinted like that just in a day.

The leader becomes worrisome, thoughtful and very wild to an extent that, if you tell him ‘God bless you’, he will hear it like you have said God thunder you into 15 pieces. His health begins to worsen. He loses weight and appetite. If you force him to step into a weighing scale, you could find that his weight has dropped drastically.

Why is ‘step down’ a poison to leaders?  Step down is a poison because it deprives them of their corruptly acquired wealth. A leader who wants to rule for life dies as early as today when poisoned with ‘step down’. However, the same step-down which leaders deem a poison is a cure to some leaders whose countries are pulled by democracy and pushed by good governance.

The author is a medical student, University of Juba.