What next for Bobi Wine?
Looking at NUP president Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine’s, recent gimmicks, one can’t help but think of the Peter Principle, which suggests that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to their level of incompetence.
People are promoted based on their success in previous jobs until they reach a level where they are no longer competent because the skills in one job do not necessarily translate to another.
Having brought his friends into another career, promising immediate results, Bobi Wine now finds himself stranded.
He mocked former FDC president Kizza Besigye and claimed democracy [in Uganda] works and that President Museveni could easily be defeated in an election.
Fast forward, Museveni is still President, and instead of rejoicing at the State House, Bobi Wine’s friends are languishing in prison, their families devastated.
Glaringly, Bobi Wine can’t help! All he does is inform us of what we already know. Then, he throws the problem back to us, yet he told us to hand over all our concerns to him.
His recent publicity stunts, including the petition to the UN, have all not borne fruit. On the contrary, his friends from Europe came out and said they wouldn’t support a ‘Plan B’.
(Ed. Note, Plan B is the brainchild of Dr Kizza Besigye)
To his credit, Bobi Wine remained defiant. “We are removing a dictator!” he yelled, this time barely believing his words.
A week earlier, a US naval ship had docked in Mombasa, Kenya, with many in NUP thinking it had come to help the ‘ghetto gladiator’ remove ‘the dictator.’ This wasn’t the case.
The US navy soon clarified that it always has a presence in the Indian Ocean, and its focus is piracy and coastal terrorism.
That did not dissuade Bobi Wine. He picked inspiration from the millions of Ugandans who call him president and moved to his next trick – mocking the Judiciary.
Never mind that the Judiciary had previously ruled in his favour on several occasions. Recently, it had declared his continued house arrest illegal and ordered security forces to vacate his residence.
But now, Bobi Wine’s team (like former US president Donald Trump’s) stood before the Supreme Court alleging election malpractice, albeit with little substantial evidence.
Recognising his petition’s futility, Bobi Wine demanded the Chief Justice’s recusal, an unreasonable demand even for his standards.
When the Chief Justice stood his ground, Bobi Wine decided to move his petition to a less competent court, where judges aren’t required to have prior training or work experience.
So, on February 23, Bobi Wine appointed me chief justice, along with 44 million other Ugandans, including babies, the bedridden, and those who simply don’t care (i.e., those who didn’t turn out to vote).
He did not give us a deadline for delivering our judgment. He merely joked that all power belonged to us. I say joked because all we achieved as justices of the people’s court was drive up sales of bathing sponges, which adorned our heads. Otherwise, Museveni is still President!
Bobi Wine now wants us to pour ourselves on the streets to carry out peaceful protests. Has he forgotten that the ‘peaceful’ in ‘peaceful protest’ is silent for Uganda police?
That they will beat us and possibly shoot us dead? Why send us on a suicide mission when all he will do afterward is make ‘points of information’ on social media?
Perhaps what is more heart-breaking is, as commander, he is more concerned with showbiz than the wellbeing of his soldiers. In the midst of a struggle, his soldiers bleeding, dying, or languishing in prison, Bobi Wine managed to run off with his boo to indulge in Valentine’s Day celebrations on “elyaato lyakabenje”.
Mr Kibudde is a socio-political thinker
[email protected] Twitter: @kkaboggoza
