Power is just as addictive as drugs: citizens should curtail a leader’s craving for authority rather than encourage it

Tendai Ruben Mbofana

For years, neuroscientists and behavioral psychologists have explored a compelling parallel between drug addiction and the pursuit of political dominance.

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When an individual achieves high office, the brain’s reward circuitry lights up with a surge of dopamine, releasing the same neural reinforcement triggered by narcotics such as crystal meth or mbanje.

This biological response creates a powerful feedback loop.

The initial euphoria of control eventually fades, leaving behind a neurological deficit that compels the individual to seek escalating measures of authority just to recapture that first high.

​This mirrors the exact trap of drug addiction, where tolerance forces the abuser to demand larger doses simply to function at baseline.

​When that authority is challenged, the resulting distress mimics the frantic agitation of withdrawal.

​Just as a severe drug dependency triggers raw, unhinged panic the moment the next dose is withheld, the brain reacts to any interruption with violent agitation.

We are currently watching this exact pathology play out on a national scale in Zimbabwe, where the political machinery has been repurposed entirely to feed an insatiable executive habit.

The enactment of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Number 3 Act on July 7, 2026, serves as a prime example of this protective institutional engineering.

By extending term limits and replacing direct popular mandates with a controlled parliamentary model, the president systematically eliminates every barrier to total control.

Much like an addict building a secure environment to safeguard an uninterrupted supply, the architects of this legislation have insulated the presidency from the natural terminus of public oversight.

This neurochemical compulsion does not stop at the boundaries of the state; it infiltrates internal party structures with equal force.

Within ZANU-PF, the coordinated push by provincial branches and auxiliary groups to amend the party constitution is designed to achieve absolute internal immunity.

By seeking to bypass the scheduled elective congress and freeze leadership positions straight through to 2030, the party leadership is preemptively shutting down any platform for succession or internal dissent.

An absolute ruler cannot tolerate internal friction, just as an addict cannot risk interruption.

The party machinery has thus been flattened into a delivery system for prolonged tenure, silencing delegates and neutralizing potential rivals long before any democratic contest can take place.

Every addiction relies on an enabling environment to survive, and political authoritarianism is no different.

The active participation of compromised, co-opted opposition factions provides a crucial veneer of legitimacy to these authoritarian maneuvers.

By engaging in sanitized parliamentary theater and offering token pluralism, these complicit actors help rubber-stamp the rewriting of the nation’s foundational rules.

They create the comforting illusion of a normal democratic marketplace while quietly ensuring that the autocratic outcome remains undisturbed.

Their cooperation acts as the silent enabler, shielding the ruling establishment from the full moral weight of its domestic subversion.

History teaches us that individuals suffering from advanced power addiction—much like a severe drug dependency—rarely possess the internal capacity for self-restraint.

The neurological loop driving their ambition only grows more demanding over time, requiring total submission from the society around it.

Today it is 2030, tomorrow it will be 2037, and next it is a monarchy.

When leaders view state authority as a personal entitlement rather than a temporary public trust, the responsibility falls squarely upon the citizenry to act as an interventionist force.

Citizens must recognize that complacency, silence, and praise for political longevity only accelerate the destruction of constitutional safeguards.

A healthy democracy relies on unyielding boundaries, independent judicial oversight, and strict term limits designed specifically to protect a nation from human weakness.

When a political class bends the law to satisfy a personal craving for absolute control, the public must reject that accommodation.

Restraining executive ambition is not merely a political preference.

It is an urgent moral duty required to preserve human dignity and national freedom.

• *Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to contact him on +263715667700 or *

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