Confrontation with Museveni is now a must
By Bernard Ddumba
29th Nov 2010
In my article in Uganda Correspondent last week, [see: Youth must rise up before Muhoozi takes over], I urged our youth to take the struggle for democracy in Uganda in their hands and get rid of President Museveni now before he hands over power to his son Muhoozi.
Very soon thereafter, Museveni himself, through his own cries of desperation in the face of growing opposition gains in his former strongholds, gave Ugandans an even better reason to get rid of him immediately at all costs.
While on the campaign trail last week, Museveni sent a chilling message to all unrealistically optimistic Ugandans who still have any hope that he will retire soon. In a message addressed to his arch political rival Dr. Kizza Besigye, he said he is not ready to go home.
“…Besigye’s dream is to see me fail in the coming elections. My time for going home has not yet matured and it will not mature at all”, Gen. Museveni declared. In other words, retirement is not an option except on his terms! What this means is that even if he lost the 2011 election, he still wouldn’t hand over power.
It really can’t get any clearer than that. I would be very disappointed if our top opposition leaders didn’t pick up the grave implication for our young democracy contained in Museveni’s bullish message. He is effectively telling Ugandans that he does not believe in democracy.
In his own words, he says, he “went through a furnace” to get to power. Again, the inherent message therein is very clear: “If you want political power, you too must go through a furnace like I did in Luwero; no shortcuts”.
In fact in the same message to Besigye last week, Museveni said something even more instructive that I think Ugandans would be very stupid to ignore. “…Besigye has no chance of ruling this country because he didn’t do much during the fight in the bush”, Museveni said.
Which then begs the question: Why are our very intelligent opposition leaders wasting their valuable time and humongous amounts of money participating in Museveni’s nonsensical elections when they know that he will never hand over power to them even if they win?
The will of the people, however emphatically expressed through the ballot, will never be respected by Museveni. That is just the nature of the man. To him, an election is merely a Public Relations exercise that he must do every now and then to please the donor community that bankrolls his dictatorship.
So what should democracy loving Ugandans do in the face of such bullishness from Museveni? The “inconvenient truth” is that most Ugandans, although silent now, know beyond doubt that the only way to put Uganda back on a democratic path is through some sort of confrontation with Museveni.
The form and degree of that confrontation may be debatable but confrontation it must be. It’s not that Ugandans love confrontation, but rather, that Museveni has left Ugandans with no option but to engage him in the only language he understands and respects; and that is through a violent uprising.
But the challenge doesn’t only rest on the doors of opposition political leaders. Every single Ugandan, especially the youth who want to see democracy flourish in Uganda must either take the initiative themselves, or join hands with others who are willing to put their lives on the line to liberate Uganda.
“…Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”, US President John F. Kennedy once said. That is the patriotic message that should be ringing loud in the minds of our youth every single day until they find an “avenue” through which to organise themselves to liberate Uganda.
There may be no such “avenue” at the moment, but someone has to the take the initiative now; and that someone is you; you the Ugandan who is craving for and deserve to enjoy your full democratic rights within an atmosphere of tolerance and civility.
The social injustices that Museveni has visited on Uganda are so grave that they must not, under any circumstances whatsoever, be allowed to continue for another five years. As UPC President Dr. Olara Otunnu has been saying since he came back to Uganda, “Uganda is our land” and we must reclaim it now from the Museveni dynasty.
It is not up to, and we must never allow Museveni and his family to the exclusive right and privilege to decide the political destiny of our country. We are equal stakeholders in “Uganda PLC”. That means we must do everything possible in our power to force Museveni out now.
Any attempt to get rid of Museveni through a simple ballot is quite frankly a big hoax. The sooner Ugandans realise that, the better for Uganda. END. Please log into www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
