 In 1965 a little known Yoweri Museveni together with Zubairi Abubakari and a few other attacked the seat of Buganda power at Mengo in a demonstration of the Abawejjere Party against what they called unjust land ownership. The young fellows contested the 1900 agreement which placed land in the hands of the few landlords. In 1967 at the banning of Kingdoms by Dr. Obote, young Museveni approached the Omugabe of Nkore with an agenda to wage armed resistance against the Obote I regime.
The law abiding Omugabe brushed aside the idea and could have passed as a coward had he wrongly misjudged the strength of the national army to fight against a sophisticated enemy. By 1966, young Museveni had succesfully manged to mobilise peasants against land evictions by landlords in his Nyabushozi county. The next three years saw the political development of an intellectual that would become Uganda's longest serving ruler. His clamour for the limelight and power was manifested at an early age when he was devastated at his defeat in a prefectorial election during his school days at Ntare School.
In 1967 he rigorously campaigned to become the chairman of the newly founded University Students African Revolutionary Front at Dar- es- Salaam University. Today he has ruled the country for the last 23 years since his rebel outfit the NRA, a populist peasant militia took over power in January 1986 in what has been known as a people's protracted struggle. His guerilla war claimed the lives of over 800,000 Ugandans in the jungles of central Buganda which now remains as his biggest voting areas despite thriving in unspeakable poverty.
The jungles of Luweero have become his political Mecca where foreign journalists, diplomats and ordinary Ugandans are treated to a guided tour of well lined skulls to justify his hold on power under the veil of chasing bad rulers and manufacturing security. And like many African rulers who claim cult-status, his birth is shrouded in mystery and though unconfirmed data puts his birth around 1944 putting East Africa's longest serving ruler in the bracket of 64 years. He has been quoted to have alleged that he was born during a severe plague that rocked Nkore possibly in the early 1940's. The former economics teacher is an avowed tetooler as opposed to Dr. Obote whose exploits with distilled water have been recorded. The ex-leninist guerilla is a parent to a Sandhurst trained Major and 3 lovely daughters with a General for a brother and a Hon. MP for a wife.
One of his daughters required a jet to fly to Germany to have birth on tax payers money in a country when ministers have met their death due to state negligence of the national refferal Hospital. His son has been promptly promoted from a Local Defence Operative in 1994 to a decorated Major at the head of his fathers protection Army which has cast him in the league of Taban Amin, Joseph Kabila and Mobutu Kongolo. Many political analysts point to him as a succesor to his fathers political dynasty assuming the big man decided to relinquish responsibilities he has fought for almost for the biggest part of his life. With a son in the army, his wife in parliament, daughters in business, a couple of clan-mates and in-laws in cabinet, his hold on power is unsurmountable. He appoints members to the judicial bench and has of recent been a target of attacks for recruiting cadre jugdes.
The army which is a big decider in African politics has remained the exclusive reserve of his henchmen and it projects a highly personalised and semi-ethnic institution despite rhetoric to proffesionalise the army. Despite his populist attack against political pluralism, the pressure from his western funders forced him to open up political space and consequent elections in 1996,2001 and 2006 in what the country's supreme court has always called highly rigged elections. He has had a dwindling image despite 'landslide victories'. While his bush-war comrades have helped themselves to this country's resources, he has always exonerated them yet the public has not exonerated them.
With time he too has been implicated in influence peddling especially involving investors. His company Danze sometimes in the early 1990's was accused of tax evasion. His soldier-cum-businessman-cum politician brother has been involved in a couple of unsrupulous deals. Very recently a website projected the presidents wealth to a fortune of 11 bn and featured him prominently among Africa's richest men side by side with Robert Mugabe. An avowed Pan-Africanist who drew inspiration from Julius Nyerere and who often quotes Mao tse tung, Museveni at the same time is East Africa's leading neo-liberal flag holder. He has boasted that the only unprivatised institution is the Presidency.
His mixed economy policy is a bag of mixed contradictions and despite heavy grounding in socialist dogma, the ex-revolutionary has involved himself in securing land for foreign investors whom many analysts have branded 'quack investors' Unlike many leaders who enjoy time gambling, the Ugandan ruler spends quality time with his cows at his Rwakitura Country home which has become a pilgrimage site for beggars,politicians on Katebe, journalists and dignitaries. He currently projects the status of a black Santa Claus awarding a district here and there and pledging a road or school. His schedule involves commisioning water taps, meeting party cadres and lambasting religious and cultural leaders.
The popular president of 1986 whom one fellow called Luttamaguzi sacrificed his life for has started to live a shadow of his former self. The leader who castigated African rulers for trying to live like Gorbachev has recently been in the process of acquiring a new jet. The leader who accused African rulers of overstaying in power in 1986 has himself been in power for almost a quarter of a century. He now thrives on 'rented crowds' like those at Kololo on Uganda's 46th independence day celebrations where the rented participants had the audacity to cry foul over the party's failure to meet their 'participation fees'. The budget for his maintanance is bigger than the whole budget for the country's education system of a 34 miliion population. There are a few diehards who still mantain that Mr. Museveni with a fortune projected at 11 bn, is a dedicated nationalist and pro-peasant leader. Under his rule magistrates are reminded that the ruling party will interest itself in everything political withoput reserve.
Everything political is part of its domain. Since his ascencion to power his regime has shown little regard for the fundemental principles of western democracy and despite constitutional safeguards specifically designed to prevent it, the NRM government has taken taken more powers and has increasingly abrogated the liberties of the people both in theory and in practice. On the international scene , the Ugandan ruler is an aggressor of international repute with a prolific record of contribution to pacification and antagonism in the Great Lakes region. Now as he nears his retirement age, his name has become romanticised and has been accorded a cult-status just like Nkrumah the Osagyefo. A statute has been built during his lifetime and the history syllabus doctored to record his conribution to Ugandan history. His tittles have been romanticised to suit his diffrent times and purposes.
He is Nyarwino (the big red ant that digs deep into the victim's body) Ruhemba Ogw'enjura ( He who can sustain a fire during a heavy storm) Rwakahabura. His other name Museveni borrows from an appreciation of Ugandan Second World War combatants of the Seventh regiment named after him to emphasise his patriotic character. Party cadres call him Mzee not for his age (for they believe his is too young to retire) but for his wisdom associated with old age thus he is the arbiter of all conflicts and the main ideologue of the revolution. Moses Kalanzi The Uganda Citizen
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Looking for Mr Right (7)
