Some reflections on Liberation Day, 2013

Uganda is now at a critical crossroads. One road, which is wide and teeming with people who appear to bury their heads in the sand, leads to destruction in a dark and bottomless pit. The other road, which is narrow and bumpy, leads to a destination where there is real peace, justice and where nobody lives in constant fear.

January 26, 2013,marked the 27th anniversary of the NRA- led military coup d’etat, which overthrew the military regime of Gen. Tito Okello Lutwa. The official celebrations were postponed to Wednesday, January 30, and according to “Radio Katwe”, this was done on the advice of a resident witchdoctor of a senior NRM cadre.

For the vast majority of Ugandans it is hoped that this will be the last time wananchi are reminded of another day of infamy in the annals of the history of Uganda. After 27 years of tyranny, violence, incompetence and corruption on a humongous scale most Ugandans feel that wananchi deserve freedom at last from gross misrule and bondage!

For those with a sense of history, 65 years ago, on January 30, 1948, one of the icons of the 20th century, Mahatma Gandhi, was assassinated by a Hindu nationalist in New Delhi. Indian Prime Minister Jawarharlal Nehru announced the tragic news as follows: “Friends and comrades, the light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere. I do not know what to tell you and how to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu, as we called him, the father of the nation is no more!”

In the church calendar, January 26, 2013 was celebrated as the feast of St. Timothy and St. Titus, but in Uganda it is marked as “Liberation Day”, a misnomer which, with the benefit of hindsight, feels more like “Bondage Day”! January 25, 1986 was the actual date on which the guerilla National Resistance Army (NRA) overthrew Gen. Okello Lutwa’s military government. But since that date coincides with another infamous day on which Gen. Idi Amin Dada staged a military coup in 1971, which overthrew the first UPC administration, the leaders of the NRA craftily decided to postpone the date of their coup by one day.

That shameless trick fooled nobody because the more things have changed since 1986; the more things have remained the same. What a classic irony of history! The peace allegedly ushered in by the NRA on January 25, 1986 after shedding rivers of blood in Uganda for six years has been more of an illusion than a fact. As a renowned Japanese writer has correctly observed, “If peace can only come through killing someone, (let alone thousands of innocent citizens), then I don’t want it.” It is the height of deception and hypocrisy to pretend to be a patriot and a peacemaker through violence, oppression and wholesale plunder of the resources of Uganda!

The NRM claims to be “a multi- ideological party”, which sounds strange, if not, weird. I have not yet come across another party with an “ideology” similar to that of the NRM, but the record of the party reveals the traits of a fascist organisation rooted in hatred for sections of the Ugandan community. Some of its leaders who openly and routinely practise witchcraft appear to be driven by some evil forces! Such men are always restless and lack self- control; they cannot be still and tend to speak before they think. It is self-evident that the incredible amount of innocent blood they have shed over a period of at least 30 years is haunting them. As I have argued before, the struggle Ugandans have been waging for several years is fundamentally spiritual in nature; it is between the forces of good and those of evil and darkness, which is taking place everywhere.

One of the enduring and painful legacies of the NRM regime is that right from the days of the infamous “bush war”, it has deliberately and systematically poisoned the minds of our people, especially the minds of impressionable young people from southern and western Uganda about northern Ugandans, in general, but Nilotics, in particular.
For many years the leaders of the NRM portrayed northerners as “backward, primitive and uncivilised” people to justify the scotched-earth policy the regime unleashed on the region for two decades! In 1986, the NRM regime appointed a “minister for Northern Pacification”! What a gross insult to millions of human beings created by God in His own image. May the LORD have mercy! I believe that the leaders of the NRM owe the people of northern Uganda an apology, which I hope will be made in public during this year of the golden jubilee.

The enormous damage which the leaders of the NRM have done to north-south relations in Uganda will take many years to heal. It is a tragedy of monumental proportions, but by the grace of God there is always healing for the broken-hearted, if and when there is genuine repentance by the perpetrators of evil deeds.

Uganda is now at a critical crossroads. One road, which is wide and teeming with people who appear to bury their heads in the sand, leads to destruction in a dark and bottomless pit. The other road, which is narrow and bumpy, leads to a destination where there is real peace, justice and where nobody lives in constant fear. I hope Ugandans have now learnt to choose wisely.

Mr Acemah is a political scientist,
consultant and a retired career diplomat. hacemah@gmail.com