The NRM’s Attorney General, Mr. Peter Nyombi has moved swiftly to outlaw the A4C (Activities for Change) political pressure group and all their activities. By doing this, Mr. Nyombi has scaled the Ugandan regime to a full blown Military autocracy. For the A4C, they have been personified and elevated in profile to the popularity of ANC in Apartheid South Africa. What transpires from here onwards will define the political future of Uganda and perhaps, challenge the sustainability of so-called political stability in the country.
The NRMO regime has been masquerading as a government which promotes democracy and rule of law. No democratic government bans the political activities of its opposition and that of civil society. The regime has abrogated many provisions of the 1998 Constitution of Uganda; most notable are provisions in Chapter 4 (Protection and promotion of fundamental and other rights and freedoms)
By creating an environment that promotes discrimination based on ethnicity in national resource distribution, the imbalances in distribution of public officers has become alarming. The regime has specialized in arbitrary arrests, detention and torture of Ugandans; it has promoted corruption and exemplified it throughout the society. The regime’s monopoly on power and organizing of phony elections has deprived it of any democratic credentials. Museveni now relies on brutality and invocation of ancient colonial rules to subdue the opposition.
Our history shows that the Ugandan society is a dynamic one that will constantly evolve through innovative ways to oppose and remove dictatorship. If Uganda is to consolidate some of its so-called economic gains, the current leadership must embrace dialogue.
We cannot celebrate lopsided economy skewed to one region and to cronies. Uganda as a whole deserves a fair share of national resources at every level of participation and decision making. This is not happening. We witness senseless extra-judicial killings and humiliation of innocent Ugandans daily. The continued use of White Boers machineries to suppress Ugandans is very heartbreaking. It reveals that the regime has adopted colonial modes of repressions and dehumanization of Ugandans.
This reprehensible brutality should enrage the international community and neo-liberal ideologues who have continued to invest in sustaining these brutes. Good governance is a requisite condition for sustaining economic growth and social development. We have learnt from many situations that when the pillars of society collapse, that society literally decays and takes longer to rebuild. We could avert such dangers through dialogue, accepting civility and humility by treating opposition groups with due respect.
President Museveni has become staunch regional collaborator and agent of neo-liberalism. His government has reneged on all its obligation to provide services to the population in preference for enriching few of his cronies. Our institutions have collapsed because of incompetence, deliberate negligence and corruption perpetuated by the very establishment.
Ugandans have been deprived of their rights to enjoy a reasonable standard of living because their souls have been sold to the capitalists. The luxuries that President Museveni enjoys are derived from mortgaging Ugandans and their assets. The moneys that he lavishes to his cronies and those stashed away in foreign capitals are the price money for the heads and property of Ugandans.
In return, the space for expression has become narrower by the day as the militarized Police unleash terror on Ugandans. The situation is pushing many Ugandans underground, to a place where they have to make tough decisions; whether to accept living under servitude or move towards liberation to once again free our besieged country and our commodified people.
Banning A4C pressure group and prohibiting their activities only points to the direction that this government has no intentions to end its impunity. Our history is overloaded with examples of regimes that lasted for many years by subduing its’ people but eventually collapsed. The Kampala regime is worse than Kamuzu Banda’s and Mobutu’s Sse seko’s regimes combined. But Ugandans are very resilient and resolute: as you close one door, they will struggle graciously to open the next door of optimism.
What I fail to understand is why we never really learn from our tragic history. This regime has decayed and degenerated such that conceptualizing an alternative shade is inevitable!
END!
