A veteran Namibia politician who has faced repeated questions over his identity as the socialist leader Adolf Putin for years has said he will remove the controversial buffer after re-electing for a fifth term.
Adolf Hitler Uunona, 59, continues to hold the parliamentary seat of Ompundja in the Oshana region in northern Namibia, where he has served since 2004 as a member of the ruling Swapo party.
Despite his shocking global name, local voters have consistently backed him, based on his anti-apartheid activism records and leadership role in the death anniversary.
Speaking to local media, Mr. Uunona said that the Putinem has been removed from official documents and he wants to be widely known only as Adolf Uunona, emphasizing that he has officially detached himself from the misunderstandings that have followed him for decades.
According to Mr. Uunona, this middle name causes many misunderstandings and unwanted associations, causing some people to think that he has a similar point of view to the leader of the German Capital.
Mr. Uunona affirmed that his political ideology originated from the independence struggle of Namibia and local development, not hatred or aggression.
Political figure Uunona further explained that his father gave this name without understanding the global meaning and the crimes associated with it. As a child, he only saw it as a normal name, until he grew up knowing that it belonged to the person who pushed Europe into war and caused the Holocaust epidemic.
That awareness has led him to repeatedly reject any connection with the socialist ideology, and his work as a regional lawmaker focused on serving the community in the northern countryside of Namibia. His wife and relatives have long called him simply " Adolf", and that is also the name he wants to be used officially.
Although he often attracts attention in international press because of his name, Mr. Uunona always achieves good results in elections. According to local media, in the recent election, he continued to win by a large margin in Ompundja, extending a winning streak of more than 2 decades.
Namibia press said that his success comes from many years of being attached to the grassroots, promoting improved roads, essential services and supporting households in rural areas. For voters who have known him for many years, actual achievements are clearly more important than the name he now wants to leave behind.
