“In the past few days, there has been lots of talk about the issue of running of presidential nomination,” said Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in a celebration for the students of the military academy and institutes. The general looked weary as he explained that he was not free to talk since he held the office of defense minister, but reassured people that he could not turn his back on something that the “majority of Egyptians want.” The crowd cheered, but their excitement did not translate itself on the general’s face. The man who reveled in the crowd’s adoration a few months ago, when he asked them to authorize him to fight terrorism, was gone; the man replacing him, as one Twitter user put it, almost looked as scared at the prospect of ruling Egypt as we are of having him as our ruler.
The reason behind his fatigue is understandable; after all, the countdown for official presidential nomination is drawing nigh, which means he has to leave his position as defense minister — which the new constitution secures for the next eight years — and campaign for the worst job in Egypt. He has to sell himself as a “civilian savior” while dealing with national embarrassments such as the military’s miracle AIDS-curing machine, a continuing insurgency in Sinai, a government that is all but broke and power cuts that are becoming a regular, daily feature in every Egyptian home — and it's not even summer yet.
