Mogae: The president who was beyond protocol

Botswana is quieter this week. Not because its people are silent, but because a statesman who carried the weight of a nation has gone to rest. The passing of former President Festus Gontebanye Mogae reminds us that true leadership does not need to shout to be heard. It speaks, and its echo travels far. I […]

Botswana is quieter this week. Not because its people are silent, but because a statesman who carried the weight of a nation has gone to rest. The passing of former President Festus Gontebanye Mogae reminds us that true leadership does not need to shout to be heard. It speaks, and its echo travels far.

I first met former President Mogae in January 2013, and within minutes I understood why he was a leader beyond protocol. 

Media Trust Limited, publisher of Daily Trust, Aminiya, and Teen Trust, and owner of Trust TV and Trust Radio, had invited him to Abuja to chair its 12th annual Daily Trust Dialogue. As the coordinator of the Dialogue since 2008, I had a clear mandate: to bring to the table voices that could speak to Africa’s conscience and stretch its imagination of what was possible.

In early 2012, the Dialogue’s planning committee, chaired by Malam Kabiru Yusuf, the chairman of Media Trust, began selecting special guests. Once we settled on President Mogae, the challenge was reaching him quickly. That connection came through Lt. Gen. L.M. Fisher (retd), then High Commissioner of Botswana to Nigeria, whose support proved invaluable. 

He introduced me to President Mogae’s private secretary, Mr O. Rhee Hetanang—a diligent diplomat whose courtesy seemed to flow directly from his principal. From that first exchange, I knew I was dealing with an office where substance mattered more than ceremony.

Over the next months, Rhee and I planned the trip with meticulous detail until he was satisfied that nothing had been left to chance.

President Mogae flew South African Airways via Johannesburg to Lagos. I flew to Lagos to receive him personally at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport. It was on that tarmac that the idea of a “president beyond protocol” became real.

We had arranged diplomatic courtesies through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Department of State Services. Yet when he stepped off the aircraft, he carried his own luggage without a trace of the airs of a global statesman.

It was an anticlimax in the best sense. Here was the third president of Botswana and the inaugural Mo Ibrahim Prize laureate, exchanging pleasantries with the protocol team as though we were old acquaintances.

We flew to Abuja the next morning. On January 23, he presided over the Daily Trust Dialogue with the calm authority of a man who had governed with restraint and foresight. The quiet humility I saw at Lagos airport stayed with him. It shaped his keynote address—measured and unafraid. He did not come to flatter Africa. He came to challenge it, speaking plainly about the cost of corruption, the dignity of democracy, and the courage required to say no to power when it turns corrosive.

The day after the Dialogue, I accompanied him back to Lagos for his return to Gaborone. Even in transit, his standing was evident. While we waited in the airport lounge, I asked how he was coping with life after the presidency. Smiling faintly, he unzipped his leather folder and handed me his itinerary logbook—a ten-page booklet mapping engagements from January to December 2013 across the continent and beyond. I wondered, almost aloud, when he found time to rest.

That first encounter set the tone for everything that followed. I had expected the walls of protocol. What I met was a man unburdened by the vanity of office. I did not realise then how quickly a warm rapport and mutual respect had taken root. When I bade him farewell at the boarding gate in Lagos, he held my hand firmly as he expressed deep satisfaction with the arrangements. I apologised in advance for any shortfall in our handling of his visit. He waved it aside with another round of commendation, reiterating his appreciation for everything Daily Trust had done as host. From then on, our relationship deepened. 

In 2016, we began the search for Dr Salim Ahmed Salim’s successor as he wound up his tenure as chairman of the Prize Committee for the “Daily Trust African of the Year” —a pan-African award supported by the United Bank for Africa (UBA).

As the committee’s secretary for eight years under Dr Salim, I knew the choice would not be easy. Our search turned naturally to President Mogae, whose record in and out of office made him the most suitable statesman to succeed Dr Salim. Coincidentally, his name had featured among the nominees since 2014.

Reaching him was not a challenge. Directors of Media Trust were visiting Gaborone for the Board retreat, so we delivered the letter in person. He accepted without hesitation, citing his regard for Media Trust’s reputation and professional integrity. He formally assumed the chairmanship at a meeting in Dar es Salaam on November 13, 2017—a gathering that also served as a sendoff for Dr Salim. Present were Kabiru Yusuf, representing Daily Trust; Ambassador Mona Omar of Egypt; Mahtar Amadou Ba of Senegal and Ms Gwen Lister of Namibia.

Our closeness endured beyond the formalities of office. Even after I took early voluntary retirement from Daily Trust in 2018, he insisted I be present whenever he visited Abuja for the award ceremony or other engagements. That was the measure of the man: attentive to relationships, not just to roles.

Africa and the world have indeed lost a gem. After leaving office, President Mogae did not retreat into quiet comfort. He became a global voice for good governance, serving on the Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s Prize Committee and advising on anti-corruption across the continent. As the chairman of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission for South Sudan, he gave his energy, time and personal safety to the pursuit of peace in a fractured nation. He believed that Africa deserved better than excuses, and he said so without malice but with the moral authority of a man who had governed cleanly.

For many who listened to him at the Daily Trust Dialogue in Abuja in 2013, his message lingered long after the applause. He reminded us that institutions matter more than individuals, that a free press is not an adversary but a guardrail, and that leadership is stewardship, not ownership.

While Botswana mourns a son, Africa mourns a rare example. Former President Mogae, who passed away on May 8, 2026, aged 86, will be sorely missed by everyone he met and inspired. Here was a man who proved that power can be held without being intoxicated by it. As they say in Setswana, “Dikgosi di a tsamaya, setshaba se sala.” Chiefs may pass, but the nation remains. May his example outlive him.

Akoshile, publisher/editor-in-chief of NatureNews, writes from Abuja