Advertisement

If the Museveni of today met Yoweri the revolutionary, they'd shoot each other

Tuesday August 28 2018
unrest
By JENERALI ULIMWENGU

As Yoweri Museveni of Uganda was busy bludgeoning those telling him he has overstayed his welcome (an understatement) a word of wisdom came his way from a former rebel leader in the Republic of Congo.

Still, no one expected Uganda’s long-term ruler – himself a former rebel – to pay heed to the words of his soul-mate.

Many of those who knew Yoweri as a revolutionary student leader at the University of Dar es Salaam look at the man he has become and wonder what would happen if the two Yoweris were ever to meet.

“They would shoot each other,” quipped an acquaintance from the 1960s and 70s. The flip-flops of politicians that we are witnessing today are nothing compared with the greatest flip-flop of all times in our region.

As he continues to bash the heads of those who dare challenge him, even he may begin to read the writing on the wall that says, simply, Go! You are no longer wanted, and if you do not go voluntarily we shall find a way to rid ourselves of you.

It is ironic that the crystallising moment for this sentiment should be the incarceration of musician-cum-legislator known as Bobi Wine, who has reportedly been badly tortured, because he is accused of having committed “treason,” which I suppose means he said Yoweri must go.

Advertisement

It is a charge that Yoweri himself faced back in 1980, when he decided to take up arms against a drunken – literally – government headed by Milton Obote, which rigged an election so transparently that many of us agreed that rebellion was not only justified but necessary.

I do not know the details of what Bobi Wine said or sang – I suspect the treason charges are spurious – but the rebellion he seems to have whipped up is justified.

Back in 1980, Yoweri did not even wait for the election to be manifestly fraudulent before heading to the bush. He simply declared, before the vote, that if he did not win he would wage war.

In 1986, in a moment of euphoria, he took power after six years of brutal war in the so-called Luwero Triangle that exacted a massive civilian death toll.

The early promise that this power transfer represented soon evaporated, and a new despotism emerged as Yoweri took measures to entrench himself in power through bribery, ethnic manoeuvring and brute military force. He has not even pretended to hold fair elections.

His perennial opponent, Kizza Besigye, has been made to understand by now that to stand against Yoweri is to lose before the first ballot is cast.

Now he has to face up to a young man who sings and moves mountains, which is not very hard in a situation where the economic situation is dire, youth unemployment is rising and the noose of poverty is tightening around the people’s necks. But still Yoweri is gloriously clueless as to what to do about anything except that he must remain in power, no matter what.

He may take a cue from a country that has known far worse trouble than Uganda has had to deal with in the past quarter-century and more of Yoweri’s rule.

The Republic of Congo – aka Congo-Brazzaville – has witnessed decades of intermittent warfare between violent militias, but last year managed to negotiate a peace deal between the government and the so-called Ninjas, a militia group. The agreement calls for the laying down of the former combatants’ arms.

Last week, the head of the Ninjas agreed to effect the agreement but warned the government in Brazzaville that the laying down of arms alone would not help the peace process, if the underlying causes of the conflict were not addressed.

This was the message from Frederick Bintsamou, head of the Ninjas. “One can lay down a weapon, but the situation that prompts all of us to take up a weapon has to be resolved,” said Bintsamou, also known as Pastor Ntumi.

Though the situation in Uganda is far from what the Republic of Congo has suffered, it would be wise for Yoweri to look back at his rule over the past 30 years and recognise “the situation that prompts all of us to take up arms,” with a view to resolving it.

It is better than clobbering Bobi Wine.

This should constitute PS 101(introduction to Political Science) for former revolutionary Yoweri.

Jenerali Ulimwengu is chairman of the board of the Raia Mwema newspaper and an advocate of the High Court in Dar es Salaam. E-mail: [email protected]

Advertisement