Museveni's Precarious Political Background
M7 frantic pursuit of Kisanja, a fifth term, is much more out of desperation and frustration for miserably failing to achieve a "living" legacy status like some leading personalities have been able to do so, to wit, Nelson Mandela, Julius Nyerere, Manhattan Gandhi, Mao De sung, Martin Luther King Jr., Kwame Nkurumah and a handful of others These are men who turned the period of their leadership into iconic epochs while they lived.
The demise of communism/socialism at the beginning of the past decade witnessed the dissipation of M7's megalomaniac dreams of turning into an iconic revolutionary on our continent and beyond.
Overnight the man found himself with the tough choice of embracing the winning Western ideology which, espouses a relatively more open democracy than the discredited socialism/communism to which M7 had bargained all his formative years in a bid to master the art of this ideology. This was the ideology of revolutionaries at the time when a young and an over ambitious M7 was arming himself with the tools of leadership.
Thus, an energetic M7 in the late 60's entered the Ugandan political scene from Dar es Salaam, a center priding itself of churning out fire brand socialists at the time, confident of doing even better than his mentor Julius Nyerere.
But, considering that M7 is a Ugandan by naturalization and given the strong socialist dogma he was pursuing with unmitigated zeal, the man would rudely discover in the immediate post-Amin era that he could not survive in a fully fledged Western democracy, in Uganda.
Firstly, Ugandans, just like any community, detest to be ruled by individuals of recent adoption to their country. Their dislike of immigrant rulers can not be considered misplaced because such leaders would have little or no regard to our endeared national, as well as, community values and interests. And M7 is still around to vindicate these fears.
Secondly, and equally important, socialism failed, miserably, to find a home in Uganda.
Therefore, as early as 1980, a year after M7's dramatic debut on the Ugandan political scene at very high level, just a level below the Presidency, he embarrassingly failed a basic test of Western democracy. The above mentioned limitations in M7's political designs impacted an indelible toll to his political career when M7 lost in a Parliamentary election which is likely to be the only fair and free election the man shall ever participate in.
Understandably, M7 took the lessons of that debacle very serious and since then it is now apparent that he vowed never to gamble his political fortunes along honest democratic principles.
Museveni's Distortion of Western Democracy
So, upon the universal collapse, 4 years after M7's ascension to power in 1986, of the ideology he had hoped would propel him to the pinnacle of his dreams, M7's embrace of the Western democracy became inevitable.
But, in order to survive long enough to fulfill his wild dreams of gaining international recognition and stature as that of the likes of the Mandelas, the man has had to distort Western democracy to literally unrecognizable forms. Thus, he engineered this awkward brand of politics, the Movement politics. But, the passage of time has unmasked this political fraud, exposing its totalitarian tendencies such that its practice is no longer tenable. Unsurprisingly, therefore, we are witnessing the drama of its inevitable death.
This loss of the Movement political cloak is laying bare M7 vulnerability to true democratic practices and the signs of desperation, characterized by misjudgments, particularly, as the need to shifts allies becomes imperative and urgent; unbridled threats of his opponents; crude manipulation of the vestiges of democracy to be found in the country; and the repudiation from his erstwhile staunch supporters and allies are becoming increasingly prominent and common.
The much orchestrated crowning of opinion leaders/chiefs as "kings" within a particular established Kingdom notably Buganda, is an impulsive reaction from a man losing very fast the political base on which he has built his veiled dictatorship for the past 20 years.
M7 seems intent on punishing Buganda, his misused base since his guerrilla days, by trying to undermine its "sovereignty" through whipping the susceptible emotions of diversity found in this region. Apparently, the Baganda, a vital base for any political establishment in the country, have had enough of M7's lies and deceptions.
Significantly, Buganda happens to be the vanguard and pillar of the Federal agitation in the country for reasons they have persistently and competently urged. Yet, M7 wouldn't support Federalism in Uganda or any part of it because this is the only form of governance that strengthens democracy at all tiers of governance in the country.
Taking a leaf from the socialist leaders of yester years M7's has known it all along that the survival of any form dictatorship depends on an overwhelming central power to which grass root democracy and development becomes subservient.
Way Forward for the Federal Agitators
To any honest politician in Uganda it shouldn't be difficult to appreciate that our country's problems do not lie only in who is at the helm of leadership but that there is real need now for a fundamental change in the institutional form of governance.
Uganda has had 7 presidents since independence in 1962!!
During this period, even several methods of change of governments have had their fair share of trial in our country, from coup detats to massive rigging of elections.
What our country has not had the opportunity to enjoy or try,, as we seek peace, stability and prosperity for our people is a federal form of governance for the whole country. Yet, for over 4 decades Unitarism and its possible variations has been practiced but, hardly yielding any substantive progress for us.
Isn't it sensible, therefore, for the majority of ordinary folks, to demand that we try a political system which, has been proven to work well in so many countries, big and small, as we seek, further, for solutions to redeem our country?
Aren't we justified to be suspicious of that part of our political elite who have opted for a lukewarm attitude about Federalism, particularly, if they have been bed fellows with M7 until recently.
There shouldn't be any doubt that it is only those political groupings/parties which unequivocally adopt a well articulated Federal policy for Uganda and have the political will to actively sell it to the masses, that shall attract a massive following during this so-called period of transition.
Fortunately, however, for Federal agitators, Buganda continues to steadfastly pursue her goal of a Federal Buganda within a Federo Uganda. Federo agitators must rally with all Ugandans wherever they may be who are sincere enough to support the Federal cause in one way or another.
At the same, the struggle to convince the Federo detractors and doubters needs to remain relentless through the use of whatever resource, at our disposal.
We should remain committed believers that patriotism shall eventually triumph over selfishness, egoism and personal greed amongst our politicians.
Moses Wafula
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