Seretse Khama (1st president of Botswana), his British wife, his Children, his grown son Ian who later became president of Botswana for 10 years and the capital of Botswana, Gaborone.
I keep saying that leadership is everything. You need just one good leader to transform a nation into a paradise.
Imagine if they had left Biafra alone since 1967 with men like Emeka Ojukwu, Dr Michael Okpara, Dr Akanu Ibiam and Barrister Samuel Onunaka Mbakwe in charge. I am one billion percent sure that Biafra would have done better than Nigeria.
At the time of independence from Great Britain in 1966, Botswana was the second poorest country in the world.
Note that Botswana is a landlocked country in Southern part of Africa.
Immediately after independence, Seretse Khama got to work.
Today, the GDP/per capita income of Botswana is a whooping 20 thousand US dollars ($20,000). Compare it with the per capita income of Nigeria which stands at a mere $2465. No wonder Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world.
Though landlocked, Botswana is blessed with large deposits of Diamonds, Gold, Uranium, Copper and Crude oil.
If access to the ocean/sea makes a country rich, then why are Nigeria, Cuba, Serria Leone, Togo, Benin Republic, Haiti etc very poor? Who ocean help?
The land size of Botswana is 582 square kilometers, however, 70% of it is the Kalahari desert. The land size of Nigeria is 923 square kilometers.
The population of Botswana is just 2 million. The population of Nigeria is 200 million. Who population help?
The official languages of Botswana are Setswana and English.
73% of the population of Botswana are Christians. Botswana has no single Muslim.
Botswana has 247 electricity and pipeline water in every household. Botswana generates its electricity mainly from coal. We have large deposits of coal in Enugu, Biafraland.
Botswana has the strongest currency in Africa. One US dollar = 12 Botswana Pula.
Healthcare and education are completely free in Botswana.
Since independence, Botswana has had one of the fastest growth rates in per capita income in the world.
Botswana has transformed itself from one of the poorest countries in the world to an upper middle-income country.
Botswana’s competitive banking system is one of Africa’s most advanced.
Botswana’s Orapa mine is the largest diamond mine in the world in terms of value and quantity of carats produced annually. Estimated to have produced over 11 million carats in 2013, with an average price of $145/carat, the Orapa mine was estimated to produce over $1.6 billion worth of diamonds in 2013.
Botswana has 971 kilometres (603 miles) of rail lines, 18,482 kilometres (11,484 miles) of tarred roads, and 92 airports, of which 12 have paved runways. 92 airports!!! Just imagine!
Sadly, the Nigerian government has made sure that no single International airport exists in Igboland since 1960. This is part of why IPOB are agitating. Instead of listening to them, Nigeria tagged them as terrorists. What a country!!!
Let me now discuss about the man who made all these possible.
Sir Seretse Goitsebeng Maphiri Khama, GCB, KBE (1 July 1921 – 13 July 1980) was the first President of Botswana, in office from 1966 to 1980.
Born into one of the most powerful African royal families of what was then the British Protectorate of Bechuanaland, he was educated abroad in neighboring South Africa and at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. Note that Emeka Ojukwu also studied at Oxford University.
He married a British woman, Ruth Williams, which as a union between a black man and a white woman was controversial, particularly with the National Party government in South Africa as well as among the British and the Bangwato. Khama led his country’s independence movement.
He founded the Botswana Democratic Party in 1962 and became Prime Minister in 1965. In 1966, Botswana gained independence and Khama was elected as its first president. During his presidency, the country underwent rapid economic and social progress.
For a number of years leading up to his death, Khama’s health deteriorated. He suffered from heart and kidney ailments. In 1960 he had been diagnosed with diabetes. In 1976, he underwent a heart operation in Johannesburg to install a pacemaker. From then on, he frequently flew to London for medical treatment.
In June 1980, he flew to London, where doctors diagnosed him with terminal pancreatic cancer. He returned home after it was determined that no cure was possible.
On 13 July 1980, Khama died of pancreatic cancer at age 59.
His son Serêtsê Khama Ian Khama born 27 February 1953 later became president of Botswana. He was a former military officer and served as the fourth President of the Republic of Botswana from 1 April 2008 to 1 April 2018.
