[Ugnet] The West is Partly to Blame for African Instability

Rubbing shoulders with the big wigs in the NRM for sometime now, one person I have come to admire is Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu. He is now promoting a new party called Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) which I think will take quite a while to win appeal as a distinct brand in the market of politics.

Nowhere did Muntu's name feature in such saga as gassing Teso civilians to death at Mukura in the late 1980s, Operation North in which northern politicians were made to lie on their stomachs and caned like pupils or the junk helicopters.

His obviously refined demeanour notwithstanding, I think Muntu needs only 10 years in power to become a dictator. He accuses the NRM of dictatorship. African leaders started with some of the best, almost saintly intentions, for their countries. These include Kwame Nkrumah, Milton Obote, Robert Mugabe and Kamuzu Banda.

What happened to make them dictators? The answer is it is the global trading system which chains Africa to the bottom positions of international trade as billions of dollars are channelled to Africa every year to siphon off precious raw materials at shamefully low prices for conversion into products to satisfy the greed of western consumerism.

Two: it is non-conformity of African institutions of government to the law of natural stability as a result of the above and the parrot-like mimicry of Western institutions and political ideals, without adaptation to local realities.

One can trace Africa's problem to non-conformity to the natural law of stability. This law states that 'a constant must exist around which competing variables rotate for a state of stability to exist'. It is the evolution of this law in the western institutions of government which gives western governments and society its current stability.

It is western denial of Africa a constant in the economic system that partly explains Africa's instability - through the World Trade Organisation and Africa's trade relations with the EU based on the Cotonou Agreement.

If Muntu were to become Uganda's president, he would be like all other African leaders before him. They start at a very promising note then start rewarding cronies with posts and favours - mainly through award of state contracts. By the time they are a decade at the helm, they want to stay in office for ever! unfortunately they are mortals and cannot live for ever. This is the dilemma of African heads of state.

The writer is a freelance writer with the New Vision

[Ugnet] The West is Partly to Blame for African Instability

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