As an unauthorized ruler, sitting unsteadily on the seat of power, and in a political climate as unpredictable as desert rain, how can you stay in control? Your situation is getting worse because your party’s economic mismanagement has led to stagnation, negative growth, and state paralysis. But the fear of political ruin and collapse doesn’t stop you from trying to keep your power.

As a ruler, you might use tactics that worked before. These are methods that fooled the people, making them think you were keeping power while you were actually exploiting them.

An example is taking land without following the law. This strategy worked before because it played on populist feelings. Even though it caused chaos and food insecurity, it gave the illusion of taking action. The land, which was very fertile, used to feed an entire continent but now can barely feed its own people.

Ironically, the lack of land for the people needed the corrupt ruling party to be realized. This became clear when a new opposition party formed in 1999. The opposition offered an alternative to the ruling party, which had ruined the economy. So, the ruling party used populism to hide their failures and keep support from moving to the opposition and unhappy war veterans.

The real danger was losing the status quo, which depended on keeping illegal power. The ruling party had lost the people’s trust, which isn’t surprising. The corrupt elite in the party felt their ability to be corrupt was threatened by this loss of faith. They pretended to care about the public’s welfare while tightening their grip on power to avoid losing it, which would stop their unchecked corruption.

Big ideas like “Vision 2030” and other populist strategies, such as the national recolonization program and the anti-transition destabilization program, are similar to the chaotic land seizures. These tactics appeal to the politically naive, offering empty promises. They allow the ruling party’s corrupt members to stay in power and continue their plundering, while pretending to care about the people.

In the big picture, these strategies are like balloons filled with hot air – distracting for a moment but empty inside. Their real purpose is not to bring meaningful change, but to buy time to keep the cycle of illegal power, corruption, and exploitation going.