MUSEVENI CANNOT “SECURE, THE FUTURE" THE REASON HE FEARS KYAGULANYI.

MUSEVENI CANNOT “SECURE, THE FUTURE" THE REASON HE FEARS KYAGULANYI.

Whereas dictator Museveni launched his high sounding nothing Manifesto, on Monday, today, he couldn’t stand the challenge of the launching of one made by a ghetto graduate.

Yet, Ugandans have been criticising Kyagulanyi for failing to articulate issues that justify his presidency; but they don’t ask why Museveni acts like a barbarian locked up in a cage, every time Hon. Kyagulanyi tries to talk to Ugandans.

The answer is simple; he fears the truth that comes from a true ghetto graduate who has no room for pretence, as many pretenders who help Museveni to stay in power through the talk of niceties, when they are suffering.

Many of us, have been misled to believe that Uganda’s problems are so complex and need very complex solutions; yet the solutions are embarrassingly simple.

And, to day, Hon. Kyagulanyi summarised this in his Manifesto, in very few words and real solutions that: “He is seeking for presidency not, because he knows it all, but because he simply happens to be the bravest”.

He went on to remind all Ugandans on how we are a Multination State, under an imperial state, by roll-calling each nation from West Nile, Acholi, Ankole, Karamoja, Lango, Teso, Sebei, Busoga, Bunyoro, Bugishu, Kigezi, Tooro and Rwenzori.

The message was clear; we need unity in diversity, and no single man or vision, or ethnic group can solve our problem as a country.

He doesn’t believe he is the best, or in the existence of unilateral models. In a way, refuting the blandness of singularity and rule by one man and one tribal elite.

This is something the Ugandans must interrogate. Distinct traditions and institutions compel the inhabitants of each country and culture to find their own path, a path that is not necessarily exportable, and if Uganda is to stabilise and progress, all nationalities must be listened too and must be in government of national unity. Kyagulanyi has been a walking people’s manifesto.

He acts it and lives it; he doesn’t need to print a huge glossy book that promises emptiness. Museveni fears exactly this: giving power back to the owners, because he survives in watering the tree of corruption, by promoting sectarianism.

Hon. Kyagulanyi and NUP appeal to many Ugandans more than other parties, especially Museveni’s NRA/M there because of:

i. The narrowing of the ideological divide between the old parties, meaning that the old politicians appear to lack vision and moral purpose, all of them looking the same and sounding the same is the problem.

ii. Hon. Kyagulanyi openly and without pretence associates with his national and fatherland identity. Nationalism is an ideology that takes the nation to be the central principle of political organisation; nationalism can never be wished away, or you just don’t blackmail it as sectarianism and win.

iii. Patriotism, literally, is the love of one’s fatherland; it is a psychological attachment and loyalty to one’s nation or economy, like Nationalism, Kyagulanyi’s first fatherland is Buganda, he respects and loves it; but again encourages other Ugandans to love and respect their nationalities. He is not selfish or sectarian, if you see right from the woman he married, the friends he has, workmates, and his national and global appeal tells it all.

iv. The flaw of electoral democracy forces our politicians to lie and promise what they don’t practice, promise what they cannot deliver. Museveni lies of not being sectarian, but he is the most corrupt and sectarian president in the history of Uganda, thus ensuring inevitable disaffection among voters.

v. The emergence of Kyagulanyi and People Power movement as a distinct political wave whose members have little experience which has been responded to with stigma from political elite class only unites peasants, the ghetto people and public intellectuals behind Hon.Kyagulanyi.

vi. The tendency of the elite controlled and dominated media to bread a climate of cynicism against Hon. Kyagulanyi by “hyping” political problems as crisis, due to “naivety”, in their attempt to bring him down, by way of stigmatising him and NUP members has clearly shown that the ordinary person is alone and must rise up and fight with Bobi, the brave in the lead. But central to all, the issue of nationhood has to be resolved first.

vii. And, the fact that, the increasingly complex society of Uganda is increasingly difficult to govern, because Museveni has deliberately expanded the power of corporate and other vested interests, opened our economy in a hostile globalised economy without protecting the youth and the power from the dangers of liberal capitalists who have ripped and ravaged the economy leaving many poor with no secure future. They only look at a person close to the as the real solution, and falling back to their traditional nationhood for security.

WHY NATIONHOOD?

Just go to Bunyoro, and you will realise what I mean. Banyoro are abandoning Museveni; and personally, if you asked me whom I would prefer voting for, the first thought would be my brother Joseph Kabuleta. This is because, for over 200 years, then nation has been regarded as the proper, indeed only legitimate, unit of political rule (Andrew Heywood, 2015).

Museveni has deliberately misled many Ugandans to believe that our country’s problem is poverty, which is not true. The big problem with Uganda is not poverty, but failure to address a system of broken national traditions and institutions, due to corruption induced dishonesty, greed and tribalism: some nations capturing others as hostage.

Ugandans can live simply, but with dignity if empowered to practice the principle of “Self-determinism” can access the basics like land rights, housing, food, health, education, and some control over the own future, through the principle of “self-determinism”. It is not Museveni, to secure our future, but us!

Therefore, any Manifesto presented for a better Uganda must rethink the issue of an imperial state, and the rather simplistic, linear, man-eat-man, egocentric competitive practices Museveni put in place, in the last 35 years, denying us nationhood, common humanity, natural diversity, while destroying the beautiful environment of our country.

Museveni’s high sounding nothing slogan of “Securing the future”, which preaches against “sectarianism”, as a hindrance to development is just a mockery, unless invites Ugandans to come on a round table to solve it.

The five components of his manifesto of: creating wealth and jobs, Delivering Education and Wealth, Ensuring justice and equity, Protecting life and Property and Achieving Regional and Political Integration, are not any different from what he has been singing for the last 35 years. He has only paraphrased it.

He knows very well that the problem of Uganda maybe historical, but right now he is the true symbol of the country’s problems. The corruption destroying our country also includes perceptions of the “capture” of the state of Uganda by NRA/M dominated by Banyankole-Rwandese and few Bakiga/Baganda military elites and private interests.

He wants openly and happily corrupt. He engages in bribery, extortion, blackmail, threat, violence, open terror, murder, cronyism, clientalism, nepotism, influence peddling, fraud, and embezzlement, like Museveni and his cronies’ do. When in government, people behave like that; the word to describe the system is kleptocracy.

“Kleptomaniacs” are people who can’t help themselves from stealing. And “cracy” – as in democracy- is about governing. So “kleptocracy” describes rulers who are so corrupt that no-one bothers to pretend they are innocent any more. No kleptomaniac can “Secure the future”. All Museveni can do is to secure his interests, not for Ugandans. Those who think Museveni will secure are deluded.

Uganda, under Museveni has totally failed to control corruption because it is Museveni’s official policy to be corrupt. Since 1996, the worldwide indicators score for corruption control have never been above 20%. The score for 2019 is only 11.05%.

Essentially, the private use of public office and resources, excluding many Ugandan nationalities, is the core definition of corruption, and the need to liberate the police, army, and all public institutions from private use of his leadership, tribesmen, friends and their capture by special interests foreigners is the greatest problem hindering the establishment of a modern Uganda.

At the moment, we are a failed state, not because there are no jobs, we are a failed state not because there are no schools, we are a failed state not because there no security, we are a failed stated not because, we have no Uganda Airlines, railways, Uganda Transport Corporation, Tourism, Import Substituting industries, good universities, and so on. We are failing because Museveni has privatised Uganda, we no longer have a common country called “republic” of Uganda, no education for common good, and no economy for the common good.

Museveni’s manifesto cannot “Secure the Future” for us, because it is no promise for the common good in reality. Economics for common good should be passionate for a country where nationals are helped to improve the shared of the lot of societies and humanity as a whole. Yet, his Manifesto doesn’t share insights on how a broad range of questions affecting will be answered. There is absolutely nothing in there to answer to evil of corruption that he heads; and its sister evil “sectarianism” he has created.

Our problem is heterarchy: a government by people who act like strangers. Literally, “rule by alien”, who have no feelings and human heart that cares for others, or “kakistorcracy” the government of a state by its worst citizens. Ugandans are simply tired of tribal elite imperial state over other nationalities. We must address this issue.

We all too frequently, confuse the term “nation” with the “country” or “state” of Uganda. And, it is quite evident, that in Uganda, the term “nationality” is used to indicate membership to the state of Uganda, which is mistaken for “citizenship”.

This same confusion is also found in the title of the United nation, and organisation that is clearly of states rather than nations or peoples. The UN should instead be the Unites States of the World (USW). It is such confusion that must end.

Nation, from Latin, “nasci”, meaning “to be born” is a complex natural-social formations that is shaped by a collection of cultural, political and psychological factors.

Politically, a nation is a group of people who regard themselves as a natural political community. Politics, from the work ‘polis’, is classically understood to imply the highest or most desirable form of organisation. Community “policy” another word from “polis” means official decisions made by the community/public/people; to ensure “out puts” from government. While “police” or “policing system” is the way community or a nation may agree on how to maintain law and order.

Hence, political practice is a way nations, ensure civic/community consciousness to promote their own welfare and security.

Psychologically, a nation is a group of people like Acholi, Alur, Iteso, and Karamojong, Baganda, Banyoro, Batoro, and so on, distinguish themselves by share loyalty, or affection in the form of patriotism and nationalism.

Nationalism is the true “ideology” that takes the nation to be the real central principle of political organisation; and nationalism can be associated with the ideals, goals and aspirations of a group of people called a nation; while, “patriotism” literally means, the love of one’s fatherland; a psychological attachment and loyalty to one’s nation.

The term “First Nation” is used in modern politics to refer to indigenous people in all parts of the world, so called “aboriginal”, “native”, or “tribal” peoples spread across 90 countries worldwide. In view of the diversity of indigenous peoples, no official definition of “indigenous” people is adopted by UN, but there has been a general reliance on the principle of “self-identification at both an individual and community level.

The idea various groups identifiable as “first” peoples or “nations” who came together to form a civic consensus that formed the country we call now “Uganda” cannot be wished away.

The first thing we must expect of an honest politician is to acknowledge this practical reality, that we are made up of the descendants of those people who inhabitated different geographical regions in pre-colonial Uganda, as people of Acholi, Ankole, Buganda, Bugisu, Bukedi, Busoga, Bunyoro, Lango, Tooro, Teso, Rwenzori, Karamoja, Kigezi, Madi, West Nile, Sebei.

To portray indigenous Uganda peoples as “nations” is to assert that they are, at some level, political entities that are entitled to rights that go beyond those associated with ethnic or cultural minorities who just need affirmative action from the central government. This is what Museveni’s Manifesto should have addressed, if he really meant to secure our future.

Suppressing national sentiments, bribing, or killing us will only worsen out problems. He should equally desist from blackmailing people who talk about their national identities as being sectarian. All nations in countries promote their national interest.

The Imperial British sudden capture different Ugandan nationalities, and just bundling us into one country, controlled form the centre, under a “police system” and an “army” all under one supreme leader, was a big mistake; and Museveni is even doing it worse that the colonialists.

The British pursued the “divide” and rule system to conquer and control us until independence. In politics and sociology, divide and rule is corrupt system of gaining and manipulating power by breaking up lager concentrations of power, identity and first nations into pieces that individually have less power than the one, either patron, Governor or President implementing the strategy. This is how Museveni has destroyed out country.

To solve these problems requires a Manifesto that will address the true problem of “self-identification” of Ugandans as “first nations” and implementing the first requirement of true democracy called “self-determinism” that ensures a system of “balance of power” among “first nations” , in pattern that promotes honest interaction amongst all Ugandans to check on this abuse of power.

The next secure Uganda can only be possible by giving back power to the nations or by reaching an agreement to share it with the “first nations”.

This is the point Museveni, is very angry about. The reason he fears Hon. Kyagulanyi rallying roll call to all nationalities to stand up against his imperial kleptocratic state that has totally no security for our future.

In the next article, I will tackle the solution to this problem.

Thank you for reading.