In Nantaba, Museveni is hitting more than one cow with his stick

Being a Muganda girl from the provinces of Kayunga, she definitely has visited the bushes to pick firewood and fetch water. This invaluable experience teaches one to have a basic instinct - the sort that Nantaba displayed during the showdown with her detractors.

Finally, Ms Idah Erios Nantaba was sworn in as Minister of State for Lands. It is very long since a nominee for a Cabinet post received so much resistance, especially from the ruling party MPs.

It is even harder to remember when a nomination was surrounded with so much salacious gossip like this particular one. The whispering was premised on the fact that never has the President been so tenacious and unrelenting when his nominees were rejected in the past (the Hajji Sebagalas, Saleh Kambas, James Kakoozas), etc., as he did with this case of a young beautiful Muganda single mother from Kayunga.

At times being a columnist puts you in a privileged position to receive information from people who think they can influence you to put their view and stories across. They calculate that since you have ever called the President an ‘autocrat’, you can easily say what gross things they have heard on the grapevine. In the Nantaba affair, I have heard so much gossip to last me a life time. But whatever is said, Nantaba’s ministerial position works very well for Mr Museveni.

First, by bringing in this sort of young blood, the President is saying what he does not say in word. This is mainly that the time to go is inevitable but that if there is to be a ‘useful’ change, the one who takes over from him should ‘tower’ above those (s)he shall lead with.

If, for instance, as it is variously said, his son Muhoozi succeeds him, the ones who he leads with must be younger, less experienced and sophisticated than he is.

This group will look at the one who succeeds Museveni as a father and teacher and thankfully at Museveni as grandfather and headmaster. This is unlike what would happen if Museveni’s colleagues from the bush days were to work under a much younger person – they would not view him with reverence.

Then on the question of loyalty. When a relatively new comer and outsider is appointed, it makes those who thought they were very close to the President very uncomfortable and even depresses them.

In the end you have two likely scenarios. One, they fight the new comer as is the case of Nantaba and also fight so hard to catch the attention of the appointing authority.
Here the Machiavellian side of President Museveni is served so well as the focus on sensitive matters like the succession is blurred and becomes more perplexing.

Also, from the way she has come in with the visible protective hand of the appointing authority, Nantaba is likely to be a more audacious minister than those we have seen before. The most important person in her work plan will be the President who put everything, including his reputation on the line to ensure that she became a minister.

This, coupled with the fact that from the way she speaks and behaves she is like a person who has absorbed power right from its source and in the process received the sort of complete charge that runs from the feet, through the legs right up to the head.

Being a Muganda girl from the provinces of Kayunga, she definitely has visited the bushes to pick firewood and fetch water. This invaluable experience teaches one to have a basic instinct - the sort that Nantaba displayed during the showdown with her detractors. Such a person can be very zealous, enthusiastic and passionate.

With these characteristics, in Nantaba, President Museveni will enjoy having a minister who can be deployed to fearlessly fight all sorts of wars with friends and foes alike, especially those that touch the sensitive area of land. He may then come in to put in the finishing touches; to provide arbitration or consolation depending on what serves him for the sake of patronage.

So, whichever way one looks at it, by having Nantaba in the Cabinet, President Museveni is hitting more than one cow with his stick.

Mr Sengoba is a commentator on political and social issues. nicholassengoba@yahoo.com