GREED. FORGIVENESS, AMBITIONS
Hon Mao was quoted in the Daily Monitor of January 25,
2016, to have said that he found an imperative to forgive Independent
Presidential Candidate, Amama Mbabazi for what might have gone wrong in
Northern Uganda while JPAM was still in government. This was at Kaunda Grounds,
in Gulu, while pitching for his preferred Candidates.
As a survivor of the Northern Uganda twenty years’ inferno,
I have utmost respect for Hon Nobert Mao for his contributions to the
prevailing peace in Northern Uganda. In fact, while President Museveni basks in
glee over the prevailing peace, unsung heroes like Hon. Mao, should be the ones
taking full credit. Mr. Museveni has always resisted peaceful means. Hon. Mao
with his colleagues organized around a strong voice, and became household names
in every Acholi home during the humiliating war of abrasion. He ably led a troop of non-combatants who
opposed the NRM’s planned annihilation of the people of Northern Uganda.
We all recall the miseries of the 90s, when an
articulate and vicious Mao challenged the regime with solid and candid
arguments over their plans to radically reduce the northern population by planting
a permanent war theatre there. Then Salim Saleh, with his Divinity Union, came
for our land, in the pretext that Acholi land could be transformed into “food
basket of Africa” amidst the war.
Apparently, they had marked the entire Amuru
to be owned in a long term arrangement by Divinity Union. There were murkier
plans than that. What we know now is that Amuru’s potential is not really just a
food basket. It is a highly valued oil well, with a rich ecosystem boasting of immense
wildlife – a potent for tourism in modern day Uganda. All that wealth, had it not
been for the likes of Hon. Mao, Hon Zachary Olum, Hon. Reagan Okumu and others,
Amuru would have become an exclusive private estate under the management of
Divinity Union as early as the 1990s. Forget that they have now managed to
sneak Madhvani in there!
Hon. Mao has fought many battles for peace. Not the
kind of wars that Museveni fights – wars of decimation, deportation of citizens
into concentration camps, and so forth. Mao fought the ideological wars that
eschewed the master plan of annihilation.
In essence, the surviving Acholi population owes their
very existence and prevailing peace to the efforts of the able generation of
the Mao’s. To many, they are rightfully
Acholi legends, and unsung national heros. They were the leaders that Acholi
needed the most, and they performed meticulously to their expectations.
Therefore, the clout that Hon. Mao carries himself with
is extraordinary. This explains why I was startled when I read that for all that
have passed under the feet of Mababzi while he was a decision maker in this
regime, Hon. Mao found forgivenessfor Mbabazi. For me, that is courageous of
Hon. Mao. The courage to confront the odious reality when one needed to press
the button for accountability, is indeed, statesmanship.
To me, it appears that all those who destroyed this
country, will never be made properly accountable. And, it is OK, if the
forgiveness, however premature, will get this country to another stage of unity.
The forgiveness from the legend, after-all, is a
trade-off, given that JPAM has taken a position as a transition one-term leader,
post Museveni era. Even then, I am only guessing from the cue in Hon. Mao’s
revelation that JPAM agreed to support his (Mao’s) candidature during the 2021
Presidential Elections.
In the that context, would Mao also forgive Gen. Museveni,
Gen. Biraaro, Gen.Kony, Ongwen and others, on my behalf? I mean, Gen. Biraaro,
like JPAM, have maintained their defence of the NRA atrocities in Northern
Uganda. Personally, I find it objectionable for such
denials, given that the narratives of the over two-decades of mayhem in
northern Uganda, are incomplete without an inquest.
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