Uganda 2016 Campaign Memoire: Changing times and Acholi's Conscience

During this campaign period, I must say that the most frightening thing for me, was to chat with Acholi youths about post war recovery and the future of our Acholiland. I found a lot of gaps, voids that was not filled with facts. One such, is the loss of vocabulary:

I pained excessively to inform them that if a man raped your mothers, aunties, sisters, etc, such a criminal cannot not be referred to as a benevolent rapist or the able husbands of those he raped. That if a man humiliated your father, massacred your father and their brothers, he cannot be treated as a war hero.

Nicolo Machiavelli in the Prince, wrote: a man will sooner forget the death of his father than the loss of his inheritance" But he also observed that people are so gullible and so caught up with immediate concerns that a conman will always find someone ready to be conned". Interestingly, Machiavelli agrees that "men will always be out to trick you unless you force them to be honest". In these regards, I found the Acholi Youths to be victims of the Museveni con-artistry and yet they have no means to force any of his agents to speak with honesty!

Second such is changing times:

Time have changed and the period of time that Acholi lived in camps, indeed, changed the Acholi people tremendously. Maybe that is what Museveni meant when he said he wanted to tame the backward chauvinist northerners since 1990s. But that aside, one youth informed me gladly that they were born in camps and that they are grateful for Mu7 who brought peace and development because what they are seeing now is different from the camps. I said, good. Did your father also tell you that Mu7 created those camps, deported you there, and allowed degrading conditions to fetter there such that you are alive by a matter of providence?

Third such is uncertainty:

Then the other youths tell me that they are confused because Mu7 is violent and that if Mu7 is defeated, Acholi region would return to war. I am like, dude, all wars in Uganda have been to remove Mu7 from decomposing upon us! People will celebrate once he is removed peacefully by the ballot, duh! Then another told me that Museveni brought a lot of development in Gulu. Then I asked, what kind of development did Mu7 bring to Pader, Lamwo, and Agago? I reflected on the teachings of Machievelli, when he wrote that since men are a sad lot, gratitude is forgotten the moment it's inconvenient. Where would Gulu be without Hon. Reagan, Hon. Olum, Hon. Okello Okello, Hon. Mao, Acholi Religious groups? Weren't these youths just biological substances only 5years ago?

Only one youth shocked me the most: that while in the camp, Mu7 gave acholi people Lutumbere (meaning African Aphrodisiac believed to drive erotic fanaticism), and trapped them onto the wall for another round (rap).

It is indeed painful to hear mature adults offering unsolicited support to Museveni, in a rather blank check sort of thing instead of allowing Mu7 to run for his money. Look, the Jews came together after the Holocaust into one formidable group to ensure that they will never be subject to annihilation. Acholi now runs to the wide embrace of their Hitler and lavish him with unsolicited love.

Change Narratives:

In my views, times have changed tremendously. There is some absence of gunshots and systematic state-inspired killings or kidnaps in Acholi. But insecurity is widespread. Poverty, destitution, mental health, disease, illiteracy... I strongly believe that honesty is devoid in the Northern Uganda political narratives. The real deal is that whatever development, or no development that our people vaguely speak about, their strange support for Mu7 only attest to the apathy and deep sense of loss leading to prolonged grief. I know inside them, they want doom to visit Mu7 eternally.

Acholi people need to understand that Acholiland was much more developed and resourced before 1986 than it is today. Second, whatever is there, has been because Acholi leaders and elders put Museveni to account for his atrocities in the North. The North has opposed Mu7 for so long on principles and a lot of those issues still remain unresolved to this date. For instance, the theft of livestock, and the land grab issues have not been resolved. Malcolm X reminds us that the number one cause of revolutions in around the world, have been sparked by land grabs. Whatever solution that have been presented to these problems, are inadequate and honestly, some are objectionable. Look at the breed of cows that is distributed for compensation. I insist, this cow looks miserable, truly appalling. It is like the poorest breed between a Fox and a Donkey.

That said, there is no evidence anywhere which shows a direct correlation between Voting for Mu7 and Development. Places where Mu7 traditionally scores +80% of votes have not developed more than those places that have opposed him - Bunyoro, Busoga, Tooro, Kisoro etc are there to show for my assertions. In any case, places where opposition is fierce, tends to attract mundane ideas - the testing and purification of fine ideas that lead to development.

Conclusion or Confusion:

However, admitting, it has been very painful to speak to the youths of Acholiland about. Their hero is the mastermind of their suffering. the rule of opposites prevails; their truth is the untruth!

I wish you all the best in your new found loving. I know that you Acholi people love passionately, until disaster derails you, then you hate passionately until some appeasement befalls you - and the cycle continues. It is my respect. But heed to my unsolicited caution: Museveni has never been a friend to anyone, not even to himself. His natural ideas are horribly dark and deeply rooted in societal violence, absolute domination, enslaving, conquering etc. I lived through those horrendous years when he found pleasure in bashing Northerners as Backward, Chauvinist, Killers, Insects, etc and his scorn at efforts to pacify northern Uganda. I must admit. Time has changed, and I have not!

End.

* REASONS WHY YOU ARE BROKE" WHILE THE RICH KEEP GETTING RICHER"

NRM Ideology is Incomplete without Duplicity, Militarism and Violence

FALSE IDEOLOGY

Last week, I was treated to one of the best feature stories in a long while. The Daily Monitor on January 30^th, 2016 ran an article titled “What political ideology does NRM stand for?” I found that article very insightful and thought provoking. It incisively unpacked the falsification of what has been promoted as NRM ideology, whereas it is not.

A series by senior Congressman, Amb. Harold Acemah in which he meticulously offered an insightful review of Yoga Adhola’s book had pre-occupied me with the DM. In reading this article about NRM ideology, I reflected very deeply on the various presentations, speeches, short writings and books written by Mr. Museveni and that of Yoga Adhola.

When one reads and interacts with Mzee Yoga Adhola, two parallels emerge; first, in the discourse of explaining ideology, only a true understanding of the deceptions in NRM's ideology emerge as a clutter of ideas. It reveals that Ugandans are not ideologically disorientation, in-fact, the reverse is true. Second, it is easily deducible from the many writings of Mzee Yoga Adhola, Kajabangu ka-Rusoke and Harold Acemah, et al., that the NRM’s central ideology is incomplete without a mention of duplicity, militarism and violence.

In December 2015, President Museveni made a long speech that was carried by many Dailies, titled, “Every political organization must have an ideology”. In that speech, the President defined ideology as the diagnosis of society’s problems and the prescriptions for the cure of those problems. Mr. Museveni claimed that the NRM ideology emerged from the questions: What are the factors that can lead our society, our tribes, our clams, our families, to prosperity in the context of the modern world characterized as it is by the money nexus? And; What are the factors that can lead these component parts of society to security? Accordingly, the answer to these two questions are Prosperity and Security - these became the cornerstones of the so-called NRM ideology.

The search for Prosperity is indeed complimentary to matters of security. Every wealthy member of community, clan, family or individual needs security for his wealth and himself. I found the explanation of NRM ideology as search for Prosperity and Security to be contradictory - either an intellectual fallacy or a dissonance. Look, the history of Uganda is littered with the domineering presence of Mr. Museveni as the active ingredient of violence and insecurity.

Nonetheless, Africa as a continent has many of its own problems. One of such, is intellectual dishonesty, and dishonesty generally. It is imbued in the cultures and conflicting identities of the elite and middle class people who are torn between their Eurocentric conceptualization of the world and their Afrocentric realities.

Any ideology that searches desperately for prosperity and maximization of profit, is obviously capitalistic. The afflictions of capitalism are all well known to society, but the grinding depravity it creates in society is the mainstay of societal conflicts, pitting the wealthy exploiters against the exploited majority. In Capitalist societies, the exploiters are vicious, building towards the so-called 1% who control all the means of production, while the impoverished 99% are left to vend their labour, alienated from the product of it and live perpetually in the shadows of Prosperity. 

The clamour for security by Mr. Museveni therefore signifies the ever increasing inequities in society, where his cronies and foreign investors, the coveted 1%, own nearly 99% of wealth in this country. This makes security becomes a necessity for that group's sustained status quo. 

The real challenge then, is that the, NRM constantly evades its own ideological problems. The NRM was built on reactionary philosophies and dominant pre-independent political thoughts of 1950s and 60s. Mostly liberation sentimentalism from Regis Debray, Franz Fanon et cetra, most of which were, in turn, grounded in Marxism. Unfortunately, the NRM never actually outgrew these mentalities in practice once they became state actors. As such, they are stuck with a contradicting persona, a Marxist spirit with a Capitalist intent.

The Army and the core NRM doctrines remains fiercely Marxist, camouflaged as Pan Africanism. And yet, its policies espouse mindless pursuit of prosperity. The NRM has become diametrically a vicious capitalist.

At the end of it all, Mr. Museveni must liberate himself from self-deceit so as to reconcile his conflicting ideological issues that is causing conflict in society. It is these contradictions that have seen the country split between a terribly impoverished population, and extremely wealthy few. The steady decline and decay of Public facilities and social services reflect the poor judgement and misdiagnosis of the real problems of Uganda. At least, Uganda is not an experiment.

END

Unresolved apathy and chronic skepticism on integrity of Ugandan elections

ELECTION INTEGRITY

A couple of days ago, both the Daily Monitor and the Observer wrote moving editorials highlighting the paradoxes shrouding the integrity of the 2016 elections. In both editorials, the papers questioned the intended silence of the Electoral Commission at the time when all the three leading contenders for the Presidential race are pointing fingers at each other for planning to rig elections.

The history of elections in Uganda is fraught with allegations of vote rigging, and instances where election fraud and all sorts of malpractices have been profound. And yet, somehow, the EC, whose primacy is to provide a legitimate and credible elections seems unfazed by these staggering concerns.

This silence, either by omission or commission, has compounded on the unresolved apathy or escalated the chronic skepticism that electorates have developed towards elections in Uganda.

That aside, since 2001, the Opposition candidates have complained that rigging of elections have been done to the benefit of the incumbent. At various stages, both independent Presidential candidates, Hon. Amama Mbabazi and Prof Venasius Baryamureeba have attested that vote rigging takes place in computers in Kampala. In fact, Gen David Sejusa, who himself was part of the vote rigging system attested while in London that a coterie of intelligence operatives alter vote results in computers from a designated operation rooms at Basiima House, in Kampala.

While in Mbale, Hon. Amama Mbabazi assured his mammoth audience that they should not be worried much about election rigging in Kampala. He directed them to ensure that they cast their ballots and protect the votes to ensure that they were correctly counted and transmitted. Mr. Mbabazi is on record, assuring his audience that they should let him, Hon Mbabazi, take care of what transpires in the computers in Kampala. Anyone can review these utterances on YouTube for confirmation.

This, precisely, is the reason that the country and those who watched the first televised Presidential Campaigns, where utterly shocked at the contradiction of Mr. Mbabazi in denying any knowledge or practices of vote rigging. When the FDC flag bearer, and Presidential Candidate, Col (Rtd). Dr. Kiiza Besigye posed the question whether Mr. Mbabazi was aware of vote rigging and what he thought about it, to our consternation, Mr. Mbabazi flatly denied any knowledge of such practices!

This incidence is of utmost importance for those who are running around the country preaching that Hon. Mbabazi is a reliable person whereas he is not. For me, he failed my test by contradicting himself on such an obvious and yet also a very crucial determinant of the credibility of NRM organized elections.

Mr. Mbabazi has been aloof on many fronts and he finds no remorse in acting innocent. Take for instance when he was confronted by the lived reality of two ordinary Ugandan families in Bwiita-Nakabale Village in Namutamba District. All that Mr. Mbabazi could ask was “Is this how people live?” (Observer, Jan 20, 2016).

It is such traits of dishonesty which worries me that when entrusted with power, Mr. Mbabazi will continue with the same duplicitousness, characteristic of the NRM. They have lied to themselves and to the nation so much that they act shocked when confronted with reality. I only wish that President Museveni could get off his high horse to be confronted by the sorry state of the common man in villages and rural communities as it was with Mr. Mbabazi.

So, when a section of the elite population accuse Dr Besigye of not being able to effectively protect his votes so as to transform the mass support he enjoys in the country side into victory, the answer is obvious. Dealing with mindlessly dishonest operators of the State is a complex affairs. However, vote rigging and the integrity of elections in this country have become even a complex phenomenon that Dr. Besigye alone cannot solve. The defiance noncompliance campaign is asking all of you to come out in large numbers to do your part.

It is your part which is lacking!

END