By
’Tunji Ajibade
It’s your newspaper that wrote that power grab is my response to Tunisia’s challenges, isn’t it? Well, now that you are here I may as well ask you who gave me the power? I can see you didn’t know that my people supported my new constitution with all their heart. You didn’t see me celebrate the result of the referendum among my beloved people, did you? I know the problem you have; you’ve been listening to coup plotters who don’t mean well for my nation. If you conducted your research well before this interview session with me, you would have taken note that my supporters drove cars in procession through central Tunis after the referendum, singing ‘We would sacrifice our souls and our blood for you, Saied!’
President Kais Saied, Tunisia
You see, my experience is that journalists don’t see anything good about Saied, the Tunisian. They don’t. Let me tell you, Tunisia has entered a new phase. My people love what is going on; there was a large crowd in the polling stations and the rate of voting in the referendum would have been higher if the vote took place over two days. That’s the reality, if you don’t listen to those coup plotters.
Don’t forget that I was a law professor before I landed this job. O yes, I was before I was voted in here with a landslide majority so I was a master at law. I know how to get the law to be on my side and to the benefit of my people. So don’t think you can come here and teach me which constitutional provision is good and which is not. And don’t ask me any questions yet because I won’t respond to– What? You say does it make any sense to me that only around a third of 9.3 million registered voters took part in the referendum? So what has that got to do with my victory? Approval is approval, and I got one from Tunisians.
Wait; what’s your name? Gerry. Fine. Let me lecture you. You see, it was the Electoral Board that accused the opposition party of falsifying the outcome of– Uww, what am I saying? I meant to say that it was the main opposition party that maliciously accused the Electoral Board of inflating numbers, adding that the result didn’t fit with what observers saw on the ground. It’s a lie from the streets of Tunis. You know many lies emanate from the streets these days. One of them was that I– What? You say what is my response to the allegation that I seized control of the Electoral Board, that I gave myself the authority to name three of the seven members of the Board including its chief? All I can say is that it’s mere allegation. What I give or don’t give is my business.
By the way, as you sit opposite me, uhm? As you sit looking at me in the course of this interview, let me ask you a question. If you were the president of this great nation, what would you give yourself? I mean what would you give yourself if not power? You are not answering me. Alright. Let me teach you this, and I’m qualified to because, as you know, I was once a teacher. You see it’s power you need to rule a nation such as this one. Now that I’m here I know power is everything. O yes, it is and– What? You say power is nothing without control? Well, that’s your own opinion from where you are seated. As for where I am seated, I see things differently.
Okay, which president won’t give himself power when he’s in a region where all his colleagues project strength? How many of them do you want me to count, starting from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf, all bedecked with power? So do you expect me to look like the soft doll among them? In any case, it wasn’t long ago that our neighbours across the Mediterranean Sea began to mouth democracy. Or, have you forgotten the persons in office from the Iberian Peninsula to the Aegean Sea. How many of them do you want me to mention, Mussolini to France? Now you expect things to change overnight on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea. Sweet dreams.
By the way, the report that I sacked parliament that time doesn’t mean anything. It was a weak nation we had then, now we will have a strong one on sound footing that– What? You say, am I turning this government from parliamentary into a presidential model, a strongman presidency like the one in the north-east of Europe? I don’t know what you are talking about, except that a nation such as Tunisia mustn’t be allowed to waver. I won’t allow it. Strong hands, you understand, strong hands are what we need at this time. Now, this is between you and I, and I expect you to edit it out before you broadcast. You see, with the new changes made to the constitution, I can hold my head high and appear among my colleagues in this region not fearful anymore that I would be called a sissy. It’s such a relief that I am now well respected among other strong–
What? You say do I worry that the new constitution will lock in presidential powers and tip Tunisia back into dictatorship? I’m in the now. It’s what it is about politics, why should I worry about tomorrow? Those who come tomorrow will worry about tomorrow. I have problems to solve so I need to take control of the army, appoint my government without parliamentary approval, and ensure no one can remove me from office. It’s not politically smart of any leader to allow himself to be removed from office. Do you see where such happens from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf? Nowhere. I can’t afford to be different, you know. If I am different it should be because of the vast constitutional power that I have, not less of it. It’s how this thing is done in this part, in case you don’t know. With so much power, I shall be admired by other leaders in the region. It’s what it is. Meanwhile, I also have power to present bills to parliament, and I still intend to grab more power, no, I mean I intend to have allocated to me enough power to make parliament give my bills priority attention.
What? The outcome of the referendum that gave me more powers? You say it generated shocking ripples across the region. What do you expect it to generate – laughing gas? Of course, leaders across the region are envious of me by now. They admire my audacity, more so as each of them is struggling to recoup powers they lost after that direct challenge to the foundations of autocracies in what some dubbed Arab Spring. Wait. Don’t ask me another question yet. You see the– What? You say the revolutions were overturned by military coup in Egypt, by Saudi intervention in Bahrain and by Gulf support for Syria’s government, and that Tunisia that was seen as the last hope has now been done in. That’s how you choose to read it, your perspective. I read it differently. Now Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates support me, and I must grab their precious support with both hands. In this region, we’re our brother’s keeper. In any case, I don’t want to be the laughing stock in a region of strong men. It’s what is.
Mind you, there’re challenges here and whoever says the region’s dynamics have changed for the worse eleven years after Arab Spring underestimates what we have to deal with. As for those who say we have a transactional relationship with the west, accusing the west of prioritizing oil and a narrow view of security must think we’re talking pie and coffee here. By the way, would you like some coffee? We have good coffee in Tunis although I doubt you know that, being so fixated as you are on the dangerous lies spread by coup plotters. And maybe you have been listening to the World Bank too. Well, all I can say is that the World Bank is our partner in progress, but they get it all upside down, wrong side up, sometimes. And I won’t blame them. Some coup plotters in Tunis have gone to the US to feed World Bank with malicious tales. I can only hope the World Bank doesn’t pause its talks with my government as it has threatened to do. If they follow through their threat it will make me scratch my head, and the timing will be wrong because as you can see I don’t have a single strand of hair.
What? Did I know about the message from the World Bank? Of course I did. But it’s all the outcome of a misunderstanding and I’m certain that the coup plotters in Tunis are behind the wicked rumour that led to this. In fact, there’s nothing in my comments to warrant any claims of racially motivated harassment and even violence on migrants, as the World Bank puts it. Nothing at all. The report that hundreds of migrants have flown home from Tunisia, fearful of a wave of attacks, shouldn’t be linked to my comments. There is no reason to do so. That I ordered officials to take urgent measures to tackle irregular migration is pretty routine. If anyone asserts that I claim a criminal plot is underway to change Tunisia’s demographic makeup by using migrants, it’s only a figment of their imagination, a disease I know is traceable to a lack of understanding of Tunisian anecdotes seasoned with oxymoron.
Look, I have since the incident announced measures by my government to protect and support migrants and refugees and I must be awarded a huge credit for such a most positive step. What? The African Union and the deep shock and concern it expressed over the incident? I heard about it too. It’s a matter I will take up with fellow African leaders; they are my brothers and I’m sure they’ll understand my point of view. After all, Tunisia isn’t the first country where a misguided few have caused xenophobic attacks to happen only to have such blamed on the president. Tunisia is open to all peoples like the palms of my hands as you can see. You see them, don’t you? Please, report that part very well in your newspaper. Give it prominence and shut out the voice of coup plotters.
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