Mao will never be anything bigger than Besigye
By Abbey K. Semuwemba
6th Dec 2010
We will never know if FDC’s Kizza Besigye lost or won the 2001 and 2006 elections because of the rigging that was reported in both elections. So it would be unfair for anyone to say that Besigye is a failure in politics unless they wanted him to fight his way to the top like Museveni did.
If Besigye had chosen that route, the same voices would end up accusing him of ascending to power using primitive means of violence. So what do these people want? A conference room and aeroplane politician like Norbert Mao, or the guy who bends it like Beckham!
Some Mao supporters have been telling us that he was born a leader and that’s why he has a story to tell. That it was not by mistake that he was Head Prefect at Namilyango and later Guild President at Makerere University. But the fact is that Norbert Mao’s story of leadership is one that can send people to sleep because it’s not extraordinary.
First, anyone with luck can easily become a Guild President at Makerere University or MP in Uganda. It’s not rocket science. Our MPs who go to parliament to sleep are the best example of what it requires to get to parliament.
I think many Ugandans are probably more qualified to be MPs in that parliament than the ladies and gentlemen there. So I don’t think there is any big deal about the fact that Mao was an MP. Besides, Mao only became Gulu Chairman with the help of FDC and UPC but he is too arrogant to admit it.
Uganda got its independence in 1962 and we have had more than six presidents. But none them was a former Guild President. This is because student politics is totally different from the national politics. That is why I was amazed to watch Mao on YouTube making his guild presidency a big deal at one of his rallies.
More importantly however, I don’t know of any politicians who became great world leaders because they were student leaders prior to that. At least I know that George Washington, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Churchill, Nyerere Julius, Nelson Mandela, Kenyatta, Milton Obote, Sir Edward Mutesa, Kwame Nkrumah, Fidel Castro, Gadaffi (Libya) and others were not student leaders.
Jan Bubenik was a student leader during the Velvet Revolution but he did not make it very far in Czech politics. Li Lu of China was a student leader but that did not bring him anywhere near the presidency of China.
Another famous former student leader in USA called Sam Brown was only instrumental in helping the Democrats presidential candidate John Kerry raise funds in California in 2004. In France, there was Daniel Cohn-Bendit who was a student leader of the May 1968 student protests in Paris. The best he managed was to become an MP for some party; not President of France.
As for having been Head Prefect, I don’t think Mao should even be mentioning this at his campaign rallies. There are lots of Head Prefects I know who are now grassing. On the other hand, President Museveni was said to be one of the most unrecognisable boys at Ntare Secondary School but he is now our President.
Milton Obote was a university drop-out but he became our president. In fact, he called “Doctor” Apollo Milton Obote. Peter Sematimba is a school drop-out too but he may become Kampala Mayor if Lukwago and Mabikke don’t sort things out.
So Mao should stop wasting time attacking Besigye because he will not become anything bigger than Besigye; at least not in the next 15 years, unless he decides to join NRM. END. Please log into www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
Mr. Abbey Semuwemba is a Ugandan living in the United Kingdom
