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| FRONT RUNNERS IN THE 2011 ELECTIONS - 28Aug10 |
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It is an inaccurate headline, if pertaining to the next Uganda presidential elections: “front runners” suggesting a number of athletic units, each striving to outdo the others. But how very exciting too! In Uganda, boringly for some, very pleasing to others, no such scenario realistically presents itself. The figures of the first three, as of last week’s polls, are, to take them in reverse order, at a 6% of the votes: Democratic Party’s Mao, a nice enough youngster, whom if I was still voting in 20 years’ time, even I might vote for, almost certainly having been taken to the voting booth on a stretcher, at 92 years of age! Next up was the inevitable, and inevitably constant loser, Lt Col (medical) Kizza Besigye, owner of the FDC party. When you have become a rather endearing object of pity than anger at moments like these, while standing for the highest office in the land, it is time to turn your face to the wall and await the final requiems. He garnered 16% of the vote and deserves a clap of modest proportions. He is eerily quiet these days, which must worry his nearest and dearest. But far in front, almost out of sight, was the current incumbent, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni who even a quarter of a century after taking power, continued to prove he is a long distance runner without parallel, at 52%. There were others, scoring 1% or less, where was to be found, disconcertingly, such as likeable Jaberi Bidandi Ssali, at one stage a foremost political tactician figure, proving, not for the first time in history, that within the mangled bodies forming the detritus of war, lie often those who were unwise to re-engage. Hemingway wrote: “The war was always there, but we never went to it any more”, which Scot Fitzgerald considered the best sentence ever written. As a poet put it: “Oh pity, the grey-haired, thin-shouldered once-warrior/ lying slain in his last unthreatening thrust!” Among the lower orders in this Ugandan poll, was to be found their non-frightening comical figure, at 3.14%, (yes, less than a thirtieth!): the cloyingly sweet-sounding UPC leader: step forward, Mr. Olara Otunnu, very close pal of UN Secretary Generals! It has to be added that only a person criminally insane would say, as Otunnu is reported to have said, “Mr. Museveni has now perfected certain methods of dealing with his perceived enemies. One is poisoning. The second method is staging road accidents. He has already tried that. And the third method is staging robbers and criminals to do outright shooting.” It was side-splitting to see his UPC Secretary General, renowned lawyer Joseph Bossa, listening to his boss’ actionable rant. How is the UPC to rid itself of this crank?
Verily the results of the presidential elections seem already emblazoned across the skies. Ditto for the winning Movement party, although with the latter it is even more because of the frailty of the Opposition, if indeed it can be dubbed that! When will it ever get out of bed? The Movement tries its best to tear itself apart, and the others watch it, mesmerised, unable, day on day, to upend it. There must be a name for this ailment. I dream often of the young people who revolutionised the Church of Uganda in the 1930s and 1940s by forming the breakaway Balokole (Born Again) Movement to wake up the calcifying Church. Where are their like to do the same for our beloved National Resistance Movement? Of course it will win the 2011 elections hands down, but then what?
There is also an interesting dilemma when it comes to the presidential elections. Hardly would anybody dispute the fact that President Museveni deserves his position in the polls to be well clear of the others. I would expect his percentage to be around 60% on the day. What’s more he deserves it. And if the people want you and you consider your job is not yet completed, how do you abandon them? When you talk to even young adults nearing 30, who have never known another president, they would say, why rock the boat? Above everything they see Museveni as a guarantor of security in this unsafe world; those older, who experienced terrible times under bad past governments would heartily agree. There is also the undoubted sincerity shown by the President as he crisscrosses the nation to meet people, garner votes, and to get them honestly, without rigging. There must also be some worry that without Museveni the Movement of which he is leader might not land the spoils. Your columnist continues to believe that all those arguments go down the road towards a Life Presidency, or near it. I yield to nobody in my sincere appreciation of what the President has done for this country, and the other way round. I regard him, as I regard Mandela and Nyerere, as Leaders who have taken their people towards the Promised Land. We are very lucky to have had them. While Nyerere lived, even after his departure from the presidency, he was, without question, the Father of the Nation; same with Mandela. Without hesitation, I fully expect Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to join these two giants. Let the nettle be grasped. END
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Sunday, September 05 2010
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