Power, Glory and Downfall of Leaders
…the gospel of Brazil’s Bolsonaro
Anthony Mukwita Saturday reflections
6th December 2025
In the grand opera of 21st century politics, Jair Messias Bolsonaro, once President of Brazil, strutted onto the stage like a conquering General.
Chest out, chin high, eyes sparkling with the intoxicating perfume of power — that rare cologne that convinces leaders they are immortal, irreplaceable, even divine.
But history has a cruel Landlord. Power is never freehold; it is rental. Even gods, when they overstay, receive eviction notices.
Bolsonaro basked in Presidential sunlight and glow, his alliance with POTUS Donald Trump shining like a bromance carved by Michelangelo.
He thundered, Trump applauded, and democracy trembled like a poorly fastened stage prop. For a while, the script worked. Then came the plot twist: elections.
In democracies, elections sneak up like assassins. Losing to Lula da Silva was, for Bolsonaro, the cosmic equivalent of slipping on a banana peel on live television. Instead of bowing out gracefully, he declared the peel illegal, the floor rigged, and gravity a leftist invention.
Cue the attempted power grab, the fleeing rumours, the beeping ankle monitor, and — the ultimate humiliation — a 27 year court ordered sabbatical in a Brazilian cell. A fall so spectacular even Shakespeare would rise from his grave to applaud.
Yet Bolsonaro’s descent is hardly original. It is a remix of hubris choreographed across continents.
Take Mobutu Sese Seko, the leopard skin demigod of Zaire, the King of kleptocracy. Once so powerful his PR claimed he could make rivers change direction, he ended up fleeing with a shrinking entourage, a collapsing kingdom, and sunglasses no longer able to mask despair.
Or Nicolas Sarkozy, full French regalia intact, once strutting through the Élysée Palace like a hyperactive Napoleon.
Today he is entangled in convictions for corruption and influence peddling, proving that even in the land of fine cheese, Champaign and finer revolutions, karma has a taste for former Presidents.
Africa, too, offers a buffet of cautionary tales. In Guinea Bissau, a leader who strutted with the swagger of destiny fled when the system he commanded decided exile suited him better than office.
In Madagascar, another tone deaf president recently discovered that citizens, like volcanoes, erupt when ignored. He fled too, leaving behind the ashes of a once imperial ego.
The pattern is clear. When power whispers sweet nothings into the ears of Presidents, they develop selective hearing. Voters become peasants. Opponents become enemies. Constitutions become optional. Accountability? A myth reserved for Scandinavian textbooks.
But here’s the newsflash: karma is not just real — it keeps receipts. Ask Bolsonaro. Ask Mobutu. Ask Sarkozy. Ask any leader who believed they were Jupiter reincarnate.
The lesson? When you orbit high above the people, remember to look down — not in contempt, but in humility.
The same voters who lift a leader to the clouds can, with one tick of a ballot, send them tumbling back to earth faster than the November rain on an Abuja or Gauteng afternoon.
So to every leader intoxicated by authority, here is your satirical sobriety test: be kind, be humble, greet your opponents and voters politely. You will meet them again on your way down.
As the French remind us: Rien ne dure éternellement. Nothing lasts forever — especially not borrowed power.
Amb. Anthony Mukwita
Author & International Relations Analyst
Yes, like Mr. Lungu and his PF. They thought they were untouchable and above the law, plundering with impunity until the voters said enough is enough. Not only were they tone deaf, they were also totally blind to their atrocities.
The rest, like they say, is history.