Beverly Bizeki
As battle lines have been drawn for August 23 election, Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) Bikita South aspiring Member of Parliament Barney Nyika says he has his shoes laced up and ready to take on his rival Energy Mutodi of ZANU PF.
Born in 1981, Nyika says he has a history in opposition politics making him a diehard CCC member having been a member of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by the late Morgan Tsvangirai at a very tender age.
Nyika hails from Nyahunda village, he did his primary at Nyahunda Primary School before enrolling at Tagona Secondary School, then Mashoko High School so he says he is getting into the race as a community member who is willing to address the challenges they are facing as a community.
“I was born and bred in Bikita South and the area has never really been represented by someone from the community. I am coming to address my grievances, the pains at my heart as we had to live with pain. Year in year out we watched the road from Makuvaza to Mashoko hoping it will be tarred but it has remained a dream and we have been disappointed for 43 years,”
“A child growing up in Bikita South would actually need a trip to see what a tarred road looks like so I am promising to raise awareness and make it known in and outside parliament that there is an area in Zimbabwe which does not have an inch of tarred road. Despite the poverty, the area has rivers draining down in Bikita right into Save and into the Indian ocean without having done anything for the people of Bikita, it is unthinkable. We have Siya dam and only fisherman benefit from that dam which makes Bikita’s story incomplete. We need to raise awareness of the idle resources. We don’t have a booster, we rely on substations from Zaka and Bikita West.
“Our people have got a lot to contribute towards development but they have not been given a voice. So I need to give them a voice and have feedback meetings, taking their contributions and with them even involving them in governance,” Said Nyika.
He says he witnessed Zanu PF reign of terror in Bikita in early 2001 up until 2008 playing a crucial role in relaying massages and warning to fellow opposition members during that time and that makes him a perfect candidate for the constituency.
“I was there when ZANU PF, after realizing that its grip on power was slithering away, launched a blitz of violence that saw opposition sympathizers facing violence, intimidation, abductions, persecution and prosecution in 2001 onwards. We were messengers to and from the opposition base at Bonnie Pakai`s homestead as we relayed messages from the Ngorima, Moza and Nyarumwe corridor during perhaps the most violent episode in the history of independent Zimbabwe in Bikita.
At age the 24, Nyika says he volunteered to be a polling agent in 2005, a duty that was not for the faint hearted owing to the political situation of the day.
“In 2005 elections, I volunteered to stand as a polling agent at Dungu Primary School in then Bikita West and that was only done by courageous people like me,”
“As the economy took a nasty dive in 2007, I left for exile where I took up jobs in the private sector and subsequently the third sector. At the same time, I continued to revive my academic dream that had been shattered by a collapsing and hyperinflationary economy during the first decade into the new millennium,” said Nyika.
Nyika, who is currently working as a finance consultant for a number of donor agencies and a former employee of UNDP and World Vision, is a holder of an honours degree in Accounting, two Masters degrees in Accounting Sciences and has just submitted a PhD thesis in Accounting Sciences researching on Accountability. He is also a member of the Chattered Accountancy and Governance Institute of Zimbabwe (CGI).
The 42 year old will square off with ZANU PF aspiring member former Information Deputy Minister Energy Mutodi who recently relocated to Masvingo from Goromonzi West.
“I am based in Bikita but I have been working in Beira and have relocated for now to Bikita given the task at hand,” he said.
Nyika also says he is targeting to work towards getting closure for victims of previous violence in his constituency.
“On another note, I having been close to the goings on in the democratic struggle from the early 2000s, we have people who lost livestock, got injured while some died by ZANU PF and haven’t even got closure, some to date are denied food aide, government or non-governmental aide and being a representative of Bikita South I will attempt to solve the issue of closure for such victims,” said Nyika.
