Dear Prof Gilbert Bukenya, Suppose President Museveni Endorses You For Presidency, Will You Disagree With Him? | By Churchill Lokoroi
I read an article on social media titled ‘Former Vice President Advises Buganda to Support Bobi Wine for Presidency, Gives His Own Reasons for not Supporting Muhoozi.’
For the start, advising Buganda to support Hon Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu for Presidency, right there is a problem. Why? The Presidency serves the national agenda, aims and general aspirations of Ugandans. Any eligible Ugandan who aspires to be President of Uganda should seek support, not only from where he/she comes from, but from the entire Country.
The former Vice President, Prof Gilbert Bukenya’s advice to Buganda makes him profess a tribal card and therefore, fanning drums of tribalism. This is not good for the stability of the Country and it is not even good for Hon. Kyagulanyi since it reduces him to only Buganda. Therefore, such statements that attempt to divide the Country along tribal lines, must be rejected and condemned in the strongest terms possible.
In an attempt to drum up support for Hon. Kyagulanyi, the former Vice President, Prof Gilbert Bukenya is quoted to have said that no politician in Uganda can stay in the frontline while bypassing bullets and that it is only that young man (in reference to Hon. Kyagulanyi) who was recently attacked in the campaign as the police shot bullets towards him and that on the following day, he came back to the campaign trail, and that he is such a brave young man. Again I find this very defective and at the same time petty.
Hon. Kyagulanyi, the former Vice President, Prof Gilbert Bukenya may not have been aware, used to move in a long convoy of cars and with a slightly larger team compared to most of the other Presidential Candidates. If really bullets were shot by Police towards Hon. Kyagulanyi as the professor is quoted to have said, would Hon. Kyagulanyi and his team have come back to the campaign trial? Does the professor really know or even imagine what it means by bullets (not even a bullet) being shot towards someone? I come from Karamoja. When a bullet (I am not talking of bullets) leaves the gun chamber towards someone, the chances of that person living for the next microsecond are minimal. Now, imagine Police shooting bullets towards Hon. Kyagulanyi during the campaign trail as the former Vice President is alleging, wouldn’t the worst have happened? Therefore, to say that Hon. Kyagulanyi was in the frontline while bypassing bullets shot towards him by Police is a double faced lie which shouldn’t have been advanced by the Former Vice President while drumming support for his future candidate.
Are Presidential election campaigns in Uganda a frontline as the Vice President Prof Gilbert Bukenya is quoted to have said? NO. A frontline, in the military speak, is a military line formed by the most advanced combat unit (s). It is also an area where fighting armies face each other. A frontline is part of the army that is closest to the enemy. Therefore, reading through this, you simply see a failed and futile attempt to portray and cast elections in Uganda in bad light.
Let me remind the former Vice President that the Police, who used to escort him while he was the Vice President and even now as former Vice President I guess, has a constitutional mandate of keeping law and order and it uses reasonable means to keep law and order. Being a Presidential Candidate should not make any one think that he/she is above the law. He/she should not use underhand methods during campaigns to provoke Police and think that because of being a Presidential candidate, he/she can get away with it. Instead, He/she should even be exemplary and play within the confines of the law.
Talking about frontline and bypassing bullets that the Former Vice President uses as a yardstick to measure one’s courage and braveness, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, whom the Vice President won’t support if he is seconded by President Museveni has lived and still living the life of being at the frontline and bullets. He is the Commander of Land Forces. He has been in the real frontline and bypassing bullets in Garamba, he has been in Somalia fighting Al-Shabaab and in Northern Uganda during the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency. Therefore, if the former Vice President is using being in the frontline and bypassing bullets as a measure of courage and bravery, then Gen. Muhoozi fits the bill and so, he is the right person the former Vice President, Prof Gilbert Bukenya should root for.
I also find it opportunistic for the former Vice President to say that he is currently supporting and agree on different matters with President Museveni but that the day he will retire, he won’t agree with him. Does the former Vice President know when President Museveni will retire? I guess he does not know. it is normal to disagree on principle and such people who disagree with the President on principle don’t have to wait for him to retire. But again, why should the former Vice President have to wait for the President to retire and then disagree with him? Are there freebies that the former Vice President is stuck with or expecting such that if he disagrees with President Museveni now, such benefits, real or expected, may be withheld? Henry Ford ones remarked thus, “whenever two people always agree, one of them is unnecessary.”
The same article also quotes the former Vice President saying that the day President Museveni will retire, he won’t agree with him if he seconds someone for the seat, not even his son Muhoozi. So for now, President Museveni has a constitutional mandate and he is dispensing it ably well. The former Vice President knows that President Museveni’s stay in power is by design and by accident. He has mastered and understands power and its dynamics and therefore, he surely knows how to exercise it. When he retires, given his experience, he will second to his party a person whom he thinks possesses what it takes to lead the Country and his party structures will play a critical role and he doesn’t necessarily have to be supported by the former Vice President, Prof Gilbert Bukenya. Just in the neighbourhood Kenya, President Uhuru endorsed Rt. Hon. Raila Amolo Odinga in the coming elections and not his Vice President, who is also in the race.
In leadership, there is an adage that many are called and few are chosen. Uganda has 42 million people but a few with right competencies for the Presidency will be emerge as rightful ones to lead.
Churchill Lokoroi writes from Amudat
