An Unsuspecting Mugabe gets Grilled

Two questions Robert Mugabe probably rarely gets asked, mostly because he doesn’t give reporters a chance to ask them, are “Don’t you think it’s time to step down?” and “When will there be change in Zimbabwe?”

Well, plucky journalist Adeola Fayehun from SaharaTV asked Mugabe these probing – Uncle Bob probably would have called them downright nasty – questions in Lagos, Nigeria, where he was attending the inauguration of President Mohammadu Buhari. Democratically elected, Buhari ruled Nigeria once before, in the 80s, after leading a coup.

Mugabe, surrounded by a virtual cordon of guards and officials as he left the inauguration, looked stern and uncomfortable as Fayehun persisted with her questions.

She no doubt thought it the perfect place to ask about democracy, since Nigeria had just elected its first president through the ballot box.

“Will there be change in Zimbabwe just like there is in Nigeria?” she asked.

Fayehun’s performance drew the attention of international media. The video uploaded on Youtube of her repeatedly questioning Mugabe drew a tirade of criticism from many viewers, with comments such as “Disgraceful and utterly shameful” and “Buhari and Mugabe came from the same rotten apple trees. Both were put in power by the West. But only one was brave enough to treak the chains of colonialism…”

An argument broke out after Mugabe got back in his car, with the journalists and his men trading barbs. Fayehun, meanwhile, already had her sights on someone else…

“Is Jacob Zuma here?” she asked.

It was not an easy day for Mugabe in the media, as Saharareporters.com also posted a story with pictures of the 91-year-old sleeping during Buhari’s inauguration address.  (See here.)

Sahara Reporters is a website which encourages citizen journalists to report “ongoing corruption and government malfeasance in Africa.”