Ugandans are scared of their past, hate the present and fear the future
I have spent this month running a marathon tour around the country. Needless to say, the travel has had a toll on my 50-plus aged body.
In the first leg, I did Masaka, Mbarara, Kabale, Kisoro, Rukungiri, Bushenyi, Kasese and Fort Portal. The second leg took me to Jinja, Iganga, Mbale, Nakapiririt, Moroto, Lira, Gulu and Arua.
I am writing this from a hotel room in Arua, the capital city of West Nile: The land that gave Uganda the pride of Onduparaka and the counter-culture of celebrity politicians in Evelyn Anite and Ibrahim Abiriga.
Most Ugandans I met on this marathon itinerary don’t seem to appreciate the very possible reality of a Uganda without Mr Museveni.
In Gulu, I was told that (in early 1980s) president Milton Obote set up a commission of inquiry into human rights violations during the regime of military ruler Idi Amin.
I am more familiar with the one set up by Mr Museveni in 1987 or thereabouts. It is noteworthy that the findings of the two commissions of inquiry were never published.
Ugandans are so scared of their past that all attempts to review and reflect on this dirty past has amounted to nothing.
Mr Museveni has ruled Uganda since 1986; quite a long period if you asked me. But of course Ugandans love him so much, do they not? First, they voted for his project Luwero Effort. And then they have continued with the love by supporting his subsequent efforts at the ballot box. God bless Museveni!
Yet in spite of the love for Mr Museveni’s Luwero Effort and the regular extension of his rule via popular vote, there is palpable discontent among the population over his overstay. Yes, Ugandans hate their dreary present.
But the question is always, who will take over from Mr Museveni? This, of course, is a silly question to say the least.
Don’t those people who ask such a question know that the Constitution of Ugandan has elaborate provisions on how Ugandans get a president?
Yet this is a legitimate question (silly as it may be). Ugandans, who have no experience of a formal peaceful transfer of power from one leader to another, are justified to express anxiety over a Uganda without long-serving Mr Museveni.
Gen Mugisha Muntu of FDC always challenges service chiefs (in the military and civil intelligence) to start profiling scenarios in the unfortunate (and unlikely?) event that Museveni left power.
Maybe if Ugandans could just talk to each other, they could design and formulate the Uganda they want. A Uganda that owns her dirty past, accepts her not-so-clean present and a future shaped by her people.
But Ugandans talk, do they not? ‘Yes, they do but instead of talking ‘to’ each other, they have been talking ‘at’ each other,’ says Former Principal Judge James Ogoola.
That’s why I support efforts of the Inter-religious Council of Uganda (and other partners) to hold a national dialogue at which Ugandans are expected to boldly look at their dirty past, dreary present and a Uganda they want. Yes, that Uganda you always dream of.
Mr Bisiika is the executive editor of East African Flagpost.
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