Overstay has painted Museveni darker than Obote, Amin There was a time when ideas were debated on their merit and whenever President Museveni held a rally, people turned out in droves to listen to his new ideas. The man was brimming with ‘ideas’. He condemned and characterised the past leaders as swine who could not tell pearls from chuff. He abhorred expensive European merchandise and unnecessary government spending. After taking the presidential oath in 1986, he declared that he was not personally interested in staying in power. He just wanted to organise the country and then go away to do private things. He has a passion for looking after cows, so he often says. He later inked this disgust for overstaying in power by African leaders in his book What Is Africa’s Problem? This book’s foreword was written by former Tanzanian President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere (RIP). In November 1985, Nyerere had relinquished power to President Ali Hassan Mwinyi after 23 years in power. And in 1990, he even gave up the chairmanship of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi – the revolutionary party (Tanzania then was a one-party state). Several self-seekers close to him had urged Nyerere to carry on the mantle but he ridiculed and answered back: “I do not think I can make in five years what I could not achieve in 24 years.” He also admitted mistakes and in a farewell speech at Dar es Salaam on November 4, 1985, Nyerere said: “You have forgiven even if you have not forgotten my many mistakes of commission and omission”. Such humility from especially African leaders is unheard of today. Many leaders prefer to attribute their mistakes to the party or their subordinates. For them, the leader is infallible! Strange! In Uganda, for instance, President Museveni prefers to express himself in a singular personal pronoun. He often says: “it is me who gave you peace. It’s is me who chased dictators Amin and Obote…”He has also amended his statement about overstaying in power. He now says: “it is wrong for leaders to remain in power without people’s mandate.” He has not imposed himself on Ugandans – so he claims now – because he has been voted again and again into office. The last 29 years of Museveni’s stewardship of the country have been instructive. In the early days of assumption of power, it was fashionable to condemn past leaders as dictators and the listeners would respond with a thunderous applause. The unfortunate thing is that because Museveni has monopolised power longer than the past presidents, he has been exposed as not so different from those who came before him. In some cases he has done worse than his predecessors. It just goes to confirm that absolute power corrupts absolutely. In the past, Museveni ridiculed his predecessors for chasing people off the roads whenever they passed. “You find a leader with loud sirens chasing people off the roads he passes as if he is a lion,” he would say. Today, the president’s heralding cars and escorts chase other road users off the streets or highway as the big man passes. We have also witnessed a steady fusion between the ruling party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM), and the state. The president was recently telling people to vote for the NRM candidate for the Busia LC-V chairmanship because the former is the owner of the money in the entire country. He suggested that Busia people were likely to miss services if they voted for the opposition candidate! What the president forgot to remind his listeners is that all kinds of people, be it opposition or NRM supporters, pay taxes. In that regard, they have a right to enjoy all services that the government offers in a particular locality. Indeed, the people of Busia seem to have been persuaded by the president’s statement, because the NRM candidate, Steven Wanyama Oundo, won the race. In 1986, President Museveni would never have made such disturbing statements. There is a complete breakdown of state institutions. Only those institutions that the president wants to function are working; the rest are dead. We have often seen the president carrying sacks of money and distributing it to youth and other groups. Right now there is a conflict between the ministry of education and the national teachers union. Why? Because the teachers were given Shs 10bn for their Saccos but was not hand-delivered by the president. The money ended up on the accounts of the Microfinance Support Centre, and the teachers are protesting. Today, every ministry has more than three ministers running it. As if that is not bad enough, every ministry has a parallel office or officer in the president’s office. And these officers wield more powers than ministers or the relevant bureaucrats. As a result, every sector wants to have a monitoring committee in the president’s office. If I were asked what the proudest achievement of NRM in the last 29 years has been, I would confidently say it has managed to give corruption a human face. This vice has become a career and an industry. It is through untrammelled corruption that we have seen the rise of expensive private schools, for example. And because of corruption, these schools are assured of being filled with students. The parents have to continue embezzling funds in order to feed their insatiable appetites. A privileged group has emerged from the political leaders and bureaucrats who have been poor but are now beginning to use their positions in NRM and government to enrich themselves! This kind of development has estranged the leadership from the people. Development has ceased to be about people and become a preserve of a privileged minority. Even if we have a leadership code, the code of conduct for our leaders is never enforced. It would take more than forty years to clear the mess that the NRM has created. He has also amended his statement about overstaying in power. He now says: “it is wrong for leaders to remain in power without people’s mandate.”
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 06:12:05 +0000
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