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Good morning. The dictatorship of Robert Mugabe seemed permanent, even eternal. Until this week, in response to a military coup – and after doing his damnedest to hold onto power – the 93-year-old president finally resigned. Now he faces something every dictator must dread: retirement. Mugabe is, like me, a Catholic, and I wonder if he is familiar with the lines in the Book of Job that say: “those who plow evil and those who sow trouble, [shall] reap it.” A dictator may look as if they lead a life of indulgence and ultimate freedom, yet they often live in a prison of their own construction. Robert Mugabe was respected by Africans for so long because he once led Zimbabwe from white supremacy to the promise of multiracial democracy. But he liked being president and thought it should be for life. Once a dictator uses corruption or violence to stay in power, they become even more reluctant to give it up. Why? Because they could face a trial or even the firing squad. And a part of them probably knows that even if they do manage to die peacefully in office, a reckoning will come. History will revile their memory. That obsession with legacy is one reason why so many regimes that call themselves revolutionary end up behaving like monarchies. Communist North Korea has now been ruled by the same family for three generations. Its first president, Kim il Sung, remained head of state for several years after he was dead. Those of us who are blessed to live in a democracy sometimes take the peaceful transference of power for granted. A prime minister can lose an election and retire to their garden shed to write a memoir. By contrast, a dictator like Mugabe rules by fear and so lives in fear of the warning contained in the Book of Job that, in time, even the roar of the loudest lion shall be broken. Job is a man who endures suffering with patience and faith, without changing his good character. And the Zimbabwean people have also shown a remarkable stoicism: their sense of hope, despite all their troubles, is palpable. Even now they know that democracy is not guaranteed. The man who has succeeded Mugabe has in the past been nicknamed “the crocodile” for his ability to scheme and survive. But if he wants to stay in power, he must be told that the best and most just way to do it is to break the cycle of repression – to satisfy the growing desire for freedom. Otherwise the same people who brought down the lion may choose to turn this crocodile into a pair of boots.