By M. Suleman

6^th June 2011: Just like Museveni’s swearing-in, the nomination of cabinet Ministers presented many Ugandans with nothing worth talking about.  The same privileged NRM members were the only ones who were gripped by anxiety and excitement, wondering which part of the carcass they would be given by Museveni the chief hunter.

As a people, Ugandans [and I mean true ordinary Ugandans] have never been as aloof from their government as they are today.  And quite understandably too!  Many Ugandans cannot be bothered about who has been appointed Minister because a Minister in Museveni’s government adds no value to the village he comes from; let alone the district or even country.

To begin with, the cabinet is extremely big.  Secondly, it is not a cabinet; it is a Choir in all aspects.  Even Nigeria with a population of over 100million people does not have such a cabinet.  Being appointed a Minister in Museveni’s government should therefore be a source of shame, not pride as I have seen among many.

While Mr Museveni has consistently emphasized that his principle criteria for appointing a Minister is who can vote and sing his praises the loudest, [which in itself devalues the Ministerial post] the government’s Spin Doctors have in the past advanced arguments of tribal, regional, and religious balance.

Unfortunately for them, after so many years in power, all these theories have been put to the test and it is now clear that it is all patronising window dressing.  In his first interview after he was dropped by Museveni from the Vice Presidency, Prof Gilbert Bukenya lamented about his experience in government.

When Bukenya was first appointed, the regime’s Spin Doctors went into painful labour in a desperate effort to try and point out to the gullible peasants that Buganda had eaten big.  Even Bukenya himself dared to believe that he was a true Vice President.  How wrong he was; he must be telling himself now.

Because as soon as he was dropped, Prof Bukenya painfully condemned the defilement of the Constitution and expressed his displeasure about the maltreatment of our traditional leaders!  But it’s not lost on us that he condemned all these things after leaving office.  If he really detested what was going on, then what, as Vice President, did he do about it?

It is even more sickening to know that in his heart of hearts, Professor Bukenya knew the importance of Agriculture to the economy and people of Uganda.  He also knew that he had no power whatsoever to influence agricultural policies in Uganda but still chose to remain in his job; only consoling himself the upland rice scheme.

It is also sad to note that Bukenya’s partial success in the upland rice scheme was in fact, with bitter irony, partly to blame for his eventual fall from grace; or is it disgrace!  While the Vice Presidency was always sold as a Buganda post, Bukenya’s failure and or inability to come to Buganda’s rescue in the Kingdom’s hour of need [when it faced a vicious assault from Museveni] show that it was all a big fat white lie.

On the contrary, history, with all its legendary unkindness, will most likely condemn Prof Bukenya as one of the spiteful accomplices who ganged up with the ‘enemies’ whose sole objective was to systematically undermine and humiliate an otherwise proud Kingdom and its beloved Kabaka.

But to be fair, Prof Bukenya must be judged alongside other Baganda who symbolically served in big positions in Museveni’s government.  Kintu Musoke was a Prime Minister for a long time.  But he did not make any contribution towards the interests of Buganda, or even to the interests of the tiny town of Lukaya.

Instead, by the time he left, the road from Lukaya to his village was worse than how he found it.  The only achievement was to provide his house with electricity for his own comfort.  In a nutshell, Museveni’s cabinet positions are nothing to be excited about.

I certainly wouldn’t want to be seated around the cabinet table with intellectual dwarfs like Ssebaggala and Janet Museveni.  That my friends, is the fundamental change that Museveni promised in 1986; a change where Ministers are appointed to sing praises for the great leader!

Surely, this can’t, and shouldn’t be allowed to go on for another five years.  Rise up my people.  Rise up and fight for your freedom now using whatever you deem most appropriate.  END.  Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.