The Guardians - Season 1 - Episode 20

5 years ago

The Guardians - Season 1 - Episode 20

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First the mining companies
wanted a reduction in the
revenue sharing formulas
between government and
companies and they got it.
There was also an agreement
to stop compensating the
people for damages to their
lands and this greatly affected
the farms and employment for
those who are notmine
workers. As the issues of
unemployment grew, crime
also grew and the country
had a problem on their hands.

The destruction of the
farmlands also made staying
back in the farming area
unattractive to those who
stayed there and this resulted
in rural-urban migrations
which saw populations in the
urban areas soar while the
mining companies used that
excuse to bring in more
expatriates who chose to live
above every other person in
the country. The locals saw
the way the foreigners lived
and they wanted that as they
suddenly realized that their
standards were lower than
that of the foreigners and
they strived for it but there
were no jobs as the mining
companies were not
employing. The western
countires also collected theirs
in form of finances as they
encouraged the country to
ignore its West African
neighbors and put its finances
in their countries more and
more.

By the time the first
democratic term was over, the
country was going down
economically and socially as
greed and envy grew. The
new leaders started amassing
wealth to themselves and kept
it abroad. Theyalso built
mansions back home which
were like rubbing their wealth
in the people’s facesas every
sector of the economy was
abandoned. The foreign
companies paid less and less
into government accounts as
they paid off accountants and
changed their records to
reflect what they paid in. the
government did not really care
as they were paid off and
corruption did not just grow
at the top, it simmered down
to the ordinary people.

Custom officials increased
taxes at the ports and borders
and so the prices of
goodsincreased without an
increase in the income of the
ordinary people. Poverty
which was previously a rare
thing in Tetuan became
common as firms closed up
and unemployment grew.

With that crime grew and the
youth grew frustrated. With
that frustration, they lashed
out at the people they could
which were the few among
them which still had jobs and
hate grew.

There were elections after 4
years and the same
government took power and
the circle continued but it
grew darker. Power failures
started as the government
had a shortage of funds and a
population shift from rural to
urban made the demand in
certain areas more than usual.

With all this problem, the
locally educated politicians
decided to fight back and they
started campaigns to take
backtheir country to what it
used to be but when the
government saw that it might
be kicked out and possibly
tried, they arrested the leaders
and accused them of plotting
to take over the government
and summarily hanged. The
hanging of the opposition
leaders’ sparked riots all over
the country as the poor
majority fought back burning
structures and setting up road
blocks but where fought back
by the same military that their
interest barely 8 years back.

The same rot in the country
had crept into the military and
that made they took the
sidesof the government but
they were those among them
who did not share the
corruption either because
they had commanders who
was too selfish to ensure that
everyone had a share or
because they refused and they
planned a coup against the
president. The coup failed and
a lot of them took to the
forest were they launched
attackson the government
from there. They took mines
from the companies and
bought weapons with the
funds as they fought the
government and the
government fought back. This
made the government put
more of its money into the
acquisition of weapons and
the western countries which
were too glad to sell guns did
not hesitate to take sides as
long as the money flowed.

Soon the officers which were
tagged rebels had enough
funds to also get weapons as
they struck deals with mining
companies which operated
the mines they controlled and
provided them with funds.

Soon, Tetuan the shining light
of the sub region was
engulfin a civil war that left no
one untouched
The war was fought on two
fronts; the mediaand the
battle fields. The government
had the backing of foreign
countries because of the
presence of the precious
stones and the mining
companies put pressure on
their government to support
the government forces even
though it was obvious that
they were not popular among
the citizenry. The government
had more funds and so had
more weapons which were
supplied by some western
countries but the rebels had
money from the mines they
held and could buy weapons
from China and Russia. The
fight went on just like any civil
war on the continent and lives
were lost as well as limbs.
The government knew it was
not popular and that a lot of
people were aligning with the
opposition forces and they
did all they could to get the
back on their side. This
included intimidation and
threats. It also included
making them fear as examples
weremade of people who
even showed signs of not
liking the government as they
were hanged in public places
without trial, their wives and
children taken to detention
camps where survival was
implausible and the chances
of escaping was not existing.

The government had hoped
that this would turn the
people against the opposition
and make them give up their
support but it made the
people hate the government
more and more.

After years of fighting and
tens of thousands of lives had
been lost, the African union
called both parties to a
meeting with the hops that
they would find a solution to
the problem but neither side
wanted to shift grounds. The
government demanded that
the opposition surrendered
and its army disbanded. The
opposition also wanted
something the government
did not want to give as they
asked that elections be held
but by a neutral body to
decide who rules the country.

The government forces knew
that elections would see it
being thrown out of office so
they turned it down and they
continued their confrontation
and fighting until something
happen which both sides did
not envisage.

The government during the
war started putting more and
more money in accounts
outside the country as they
saw that they might eventually
have to leave office and so the
principal officials decided to
gather as much as they could
and escaped if that ever
happened at that was at the
cost of weapons. While the
opposition used their funds to
make the areas they
controlled livable and also buy
weapons, the government
took their funds to private
accounts outside the
countryand neglected the
military and this lead to the
opposition gaining more
territories and the military
suffered the shame and also
losses inpersonnel as most of
them fought with insufficient
weapons and there were
times they lacked food which
affected their morale.

The military chiefs did not
really care about this as long
as they got their share of the
lootand they turn the other
way as their men were sent
out to die and most times
captured by the lesser trained
opposition army who were
better fed and had more
access to weapons and this
led to a mutiny. The junior
officers decided they had had
enough and they took over
the government. The junior
officers killed or jailed most of
the members of the previous
government and the
international community had
hoped that they will agree to
have elections but the
government led by Lucas
Radonsolema had seen it all
before. He feared that
elections would bring a
government which might be
as corrupt as the one they
overthrew and so he refused
asking that the opposition
forces dropped their weapons
and stop their campaign. He
demanded that the opposition
troops would be absolved into
the main army and their
leaders will be given top seats
in the government until the
country is stable and
infrastructure was good
enough to carryout elections
but Lucas had plans of his
own.

He said the African Union
brokered meetings were not
achieving results and he
asked that they meet in
Tetuan to discuss the
problems of the country as
they were the ones facing the
challenges and in his words,
“Know where the shoe bites”.

A venue was picked for the
meetings and all parties were
to come without arms as they
were just going to discuss the
issues faced by the country
but Lucas had paid a group of
mercenaries to attack the
venue and act like it was
something he did not know
about. As the meeting went
on, the building came under
attack and a lot of people both
on Lucas’s side and the
opposition were killed
including his own chiefs.