President Yoweri Museveni claims he appointed his wife as
state minister for Karamoja because ‘elites’ were rejecting the job (never mind
only one person, Tom Butiime, turned it down). He also justified the
appointment of his family members, e.g. his brother, Salim Saleh, to government
positions as a sign of sacrifice, not privilege.
These statements are a product of both ignorance and
arrogance: Ignorance because the president cannot see a clear case of conflict
of interest, i.e. that he cannot be an objective or impartial judge of the
managerial competences of his wife; arrogant because he places himself above
human nature ‘ as a kind of god ‘ who can make judgements on people, including
his family members, without bias.
Museveni claims he has spent almost 40 years in the
‘struggle’ for Uganda’s ’emancipation’. How come he has been unable to
cultivate people who can ‘help’ him develop Karamoja in a nation of 30 million
souls? What special attribute does his wife, who has no professional
accomplishments, possess that other Ugandans lack which makes her best suited
to ‘develop’ Karamoja? And how can God/nature be so mean to Uganda as to give
these attributes to only his wife?
The recurrent theme of projecting himself and his brother as
the only people who sacrificed during the struggle in Luwero is insulting. But
it is this sign of self obsession that is responsible for the gross nepotism we
see in the country today. Many people participated in the struggle, thousands
lost their lives and many lost their limbs (Elly Tumwine lost an eye, Mugisha
Muntu got bullets in his chest, Henry Tumukunde almost lost a leg, etc). Yet
Museveni continually points only to his brother.
Many people who participated in the struggle would agree
that Saleh was a courageous and brilliant commander. I personally find Saleh a
man of extraordinary good naturedness ‘ kind, generous, modest, empathetic with
a quick and brilliant mind. But Museveni’s attempt to accord his own brother a
special status in the struggle at the expense of everyone else creates
suspicion on both his intentions and the validity of his claims. It also
betrays how strong the president’s instinct for nepotism is.
The entire Museveni family have no accomplishments of their
own which can form a basis for anyone to make independent judgements on their
abilities. None of them has gone to Cambridge or Oxford, Yale, Harvard, MIT,
Stanford or Princeton (not even Makerere University) and gotten a PhD in
computer science, solid mechanics or bio technology and then proceeded to
become a successful software engineer in the Silicon Valley, a cutting edge
designer at Rolls Royce or patented a micro chip that can diagnose diseases in
the human body. Without exception ‘ his wife, brother, son, daughters ‘ all of
them live off his patronage.
There is no doubt that Museveni is a man of exceptional
qualities and ability. His has been an improbable journey from a family of poor
illiterate itinerant peasants to president. His decision to launch a protracted
armed-struggle to capture power is a statement of his strategic foresight. That
he succeeded without much foreign assistance is evidence of his extraordinary
organisational ability. His success at stabilising the political dispensation
in a country that had literally fallen apart is a critical indicator of his
exceptional leadership qualities. His decision to liberalise the economy that
launched Uganda on two decades of sustained growth is evidence of his
pragmatism. Finally, his initial success in projecting himself to Africa and
the world as an enlightened leader has been impressive.
Yet, over the years, Museveni has also exposed the poverty
of his personality and the parochial nature of his vision. By indulging in
family rule, plundering national assets, stealing elections, destroying the
institutional integrity of the state and spoiling our common patrimony, he has
demonstrated that he is no better than other African dictators of old like
Mobutu of Zaire, Omar Bongo of Gabon and Nassingbe Eyadema of Togo. His claims
of sacrifice sound more ridiculous.
If Bill Gates successfully sought the presidency of the
United States, he could legitimately claim to have sacrificed his iconic
computer software business that has made him the richest man in the world to
serve the American people. My friend Fred Balagadde (only 26 years) can claim
that for his PhD, he developed a micro chip that can diagnose any disease in
the human body, thus making obsolete the role of a doctor in human life. With a
promising career ahead in a high-tech research firm in the Silicon Valley, he
could claim sacrifice if he quit to come and serve as president of Uganda.
How about Museveni? He had accomplished almost nothing
professionally or materially before coming to power to justify his claim that
he is sacrificing by being President. His CV tells it all: Kyamate Primary
School, Mbarara High School, Ntare School, Dar Es Salaam University (graduated
with a pass degree), six months as a junior officer in the President’s office
in 1970, a teacher in a rural cooperative school in Tanzania, one and a half
years as a Minister in a chaotic UNLF government, war lord (he prefers to refer
to it as ‘freedom fighter’), then President of the republic. Almost all his
wealth has been accumulated while he has been in power.
Therefore, we have no evidence whatsoever that Museveni and
his family could have lived a better lifestyle out of the presidency to justify
this claim to sacrifice. Yet for whatsoever little sacrifice he may have gone
through, Museveni demands exaggerated entitlements ‘ a residence that cost US$
93m, an executive jet that costs US$ 8m per year to maintain and which he uses
to fly his daughters to deliver babies in Germany, etc.
Lately, Museveni has justified his refusal to leave power on
the grounds that Uganda still has serious problems which only he can solve.
This is not a sign of self confidence. Instead, it reveals a deep seated complex
born of fear that a successor may do a superior job and thus expose the myth of
his greatness. It is this fear that has driven him to turn his family into
cannon fodder in his reckless pursuit of power.
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