NRM campaigns, Iculi, brave men, cowards and freedom

Saturday night’s shocking news of the brutal gunning down of popular Ugandan blogger or vlogger Ibrahim Tusuubira Lubega (44), aka Isma Olaxess, aka Jajja Iculi, carries a lot of significance. Among others, it highlights the evolution of NRM campaign strategies in the recent past in relation to the changing times and technology.

Iculi rose to prominence about three years ago as an unapologetic supporter of the ruling NRM party. This was during the run up to the 2021 General Election. Opposition party candidate, 38-year-old Robert Kyagulanyi, a.k.a. Bobi Wine, or the Ghetto President, was making waves. As a popular Afro Reggae musician with a lot of protest music in his discography he appealed to the majority of Uganda’s population, almost 80 percent of whom are under 40 years.
The ruling NRM party and its Septuagenarian leader, President Yoweri Museveni, then in power for over three decades were put on notice. They had to  urgently come up with a message to appeal to this group. Because it was an election in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, the campaigns were to be carried out ‘scientifically’ on social media - which is the abode of the youth.

NRM assembled a team that was youthful and understood the ways of the young. There was special focus on their social and economic concerns that determined their political choices. The team was suited for ghetto-like debates. Here the order of the day was liberal casting of aspersions, making asinine remarks, complete with insults and all manner of invectives. The likes of Catherine Kusasiira, Mark Bugembe a.k.a. Buchaman, and Jennifer Namutebi Nakangubi, aka Full Figure, were ‘appointed’ Presidential Advisors. But the battlefield would be won and lost online.
That is how the Uganda Bloggers Association became eminent. Iculi was voted its president. Their job was mainly to counter the messages that opposition put out on social media mainly, Tik Tok, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Twitter. 
It is notable that NRM had in the mid 2000s suffered a bloody nose when an opposition leaning website called Radio Katwe joined the campaign trail. Same happened years later when Tom Volitaire Okwalinga took on NRM on Facebook. This time they were adequately prepared and equipped.

Social media with no standard rules on  decency and civil engagement saw the spewing of all manner of propaganda, conjecture, innuendo, character assassination, and outright lies, from all sides. Sharing of photos and unrelated events to prove a point like the numbers of people who attended a rally or grisly images of people who had been shot or beaten became the order of the day.
No one, including Museveni, was saved from abuse and counter abuse. The only advantage that the bloggers of the NRM had over the opposition was the state. It could easily slap charges and jail on opposition social media campaigners for computer misuse and cyber bullying.
In the mix, Facebook blocked some NRM bloggers leading to the official shut down of the platform in Uganda. Many including government officials now access it using VPNs and the government also plans to tax the business transacted therein despite it being illegal in Uganda at the moment.

Before that you had the Uganda Media Callers Association when campaigns were done on radio because of its vast reach. Paid callers would phone in to talk shows to debate, defend, disrupt, divert and at times make preposterous comments for their sides. It was also common and still is to block the opposition from appearing on Radio and television for shows that they had paid for. Preceding radio and television were the dramatic, in person, on sight campaigns. The police and security agents and outfits like the Kalangala Action Plan group of Maj. Roland Kakooza Mutale would easily disrupt these with stone throwing, beating, shooting and jailing to disrupt and instill fear in the opposition. Tearing of campaign posters was also on the menu. Armies of hooligans would have to be employed to keep this strategy up to speed. They were untouchable as they served the cause of the perpetuation of the ruling government.

So the Iculis were not a new phenomenon, they came in as grand children in the trade in a different forum. Like their predecessors they benefited from impunity as they carried out their duties of defending the status quo. They had to put up a spirited fight against similar characters like Turkey based Fred Lumbuye of the opposition NUP party. So Iculi and company could say anything to anyone as they knew they had backing.
The trouble with hired guns in Ugandan politics is that they can only make hay when the sun is up -during the general election. The money and all manner of privileges flows thick and fast at this time. After, there is a five year wait.
Most of the people brought into the picture to fight for NRM now complain about NRM being very selfish and opportunistic. One Maj. Gen. Proscovia Nalwesyiso counselled them to understand NRM politics. That the party has money during election time because that is when the President’s friends -the investors- fund the party for that purpose. Otherwise the rest of the service is based on patriotism. That explanation does not bring bread on the table. It elicits anger.

Unfortunately for Iculi his anger or disappointment with the NRM got the better of him and he made it known. He went into overdrive, shooting randomly from the hip. He didn’t spare the hand that made him. One of his last Tik Tok recordings was a vile attack on the late Minister Charles Engola who was ironically gunned down in the same neighbourhood as Iculi.
Ironically that made pupular Iculi especially among the Opposition and circles which harbour people who have an axe to grind with the NRM. He was now like the village drunk paid to say the unspeakable against those who the community wanted to insult but felt it was indecent to do so publically or kept mum out of fear. That swelled his following for he was doing the dirty work for many angry people.
He made a hero and brave men. But as the Igbo say, the coward lives long to show the brave man’s children where their father was buried.
It is hard to tell who killed Iculi but he will be talked about for many years to come by many who will never dare to talk like him.

Twitter: @nsengoba