Who’s the real democrat, Uncle Bob or Museveni?

 

By Charles Onyango-Obbo
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With Amama Mbabazi having been axed as Uganda’s prime minister in September allegedly for coveting President Yoweri Museveni’s seat ahead of the 2016 election, steps are being taken to remove future temptations.

Mbabazi was also the ruling National Resistance Movement’s secretary-general, until a few weeks ago when Museveni allegedly twisted his arm and got him to “step aside” as a committee investigates his unwelcome political desires.

The conclusion seems to have been reached that being NRM secretary-general gives the occupant of the position a clear view of the presidential chair, and arouses in him an unpatriotic yearning to sit in it too.

The problem is going to be solved in a mid-December party conference in which it is expected the NRM will amend its constitution so that future secretaries-general are not elected by the membership, but handpicked by the president.

At this point it is not clear that Museveni will even select a new secretary-general, though. In October, the Daily Monitor reported that he had said he had studied the party constitution closely, and discovered something there that no one had seen before — that it allows him to “also do Amama’s job.”

So it is possible he will appoint himself to be his secretary-general, until after the February 2016 election.

Now Museveni has always had a complex love-hate relationship with another revolutionary African leader: Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe.

Sometimes they are all politically lovey-dovey, praising each other’s revolutionary and pan-African credentials, and at other times they are sniping at each other. Things were particularly bad between 1998 and 2001, when their armies were on opposite sides of the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ever since the external players in DRC made up, relations between Kampala and Harare have been very warm. And Mugabe, or “Uncle Bob” as he is known on the African street, is a crowd favourite in Uganda, as he is in Kenya and most places around the continent.

Many timid Africans live out their resentment of the West through Mugabe’s noisy and fearless anti-imperialist rhetoric.

It seems Uncle Bob has been watching Kampala, and felt Museveni was likely to steal his thunder.

First, he unleashed his wife Grace on a whirlwind tour of the country — with his Cabinet in tow — to make vicious and personal attacks against Vice President Joice Mujuru for committing the “Amama sin” — eyeing 90-year-old Uncle Bob’s job. Even Mujuru’s thighs were mentioned.

During the week, Mujuru went to present her papers for nomination to the Zanu-PF top leadership elections on December 3, and party officials rejected her.

Shortly after, however, news came that the congress will be asked to give Mugabe the powers to personally appoint people to all the positions in the party’s politburo.

At least Museveni is contemplating only handpicking the secretary-general. Uncle Bob wants everything. And because of him, by comparison, Museveni now looks like a democrat. Who would have bet on that?