The Grim Reaper has taken away Burundi's healthy-looking and all-powerful President Pierre Nkurunziza just as he was to hand over power to the ruling CNDD-FDD party's 2020 election victor Evariste Ndayishimiye.

President Nkurunziza was, to all intents and purposes, not a democrat.

Gen Ndayishimiye, Nkurunziza's presumptive successor, must seize the moment to institute a new order.

Though handpicked by Nkurunziza, he must quickly shake off his predecessor's shadow and change the course of the country that has known little peace and progress since independence from the Belgians in 1962.

In the immediate run, he must wholeheartedly join the war against the Covid-19 pandemic, over which President Nkurunziza duelled with the World Health Organization, having earlier pulled Burundi out of the International Criminal Court.