He was heralded as a messiah.
As a rebel soldier, he fought and helped annihilate the brutal regimes of the notorious Milton Obote, and later, Idi Amin. When he finally grabbed power in 1986, Ugandans heaved a huge sigh of relief.
But the same Yoweri Museveni has since become an unpretentious hybrid of Obote and Amin.
Under him, the Ugandan economy has been raped to coma, human lives devalued, constitution bastardized.
Even the armed forces have become his personal killing gang.
His son heads the Special Forces which have been indicted in assassinations of activists, journalists, opposition politicians and vocal religious leaders.
It is an understatement to assert that desperate Museveni, who has a very high dictatorial libido, has reduced Uganda to a very stinking killing field.
Currently in his 5th term as president, Museveni sees Uganda as a private estate. When asked in 2015, why he masterminded the amendment of the Ugandan constitution to enable him run for as many terms as possible, he answered albeit rhetorically: “How can I go out of a banana plantation I have planted that has started bearing fruits?”
Currently Africa’s third most longest serving president, Museveni craves for more time on the presidential throne.
His decision to run for a sixth term has drawn rife condemnation from a good percentage of long-suffering Ugandans. After 35 years in power, he is willing to literally ride again to power on a lane painted with spilt blood of innocent Ugandans.
His usual tactics of politically-motivated killings and arrest of leaders and members of opposition parties are again in full swing. Opposition parties have been largely restricted from campaigning. The main opposition party, National Unity Platform (NUP), led by the fearless Bobi Wine, real name Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, who is the party’s presidential candidate, has already suffered huge human and material losses. Wine himself has survived countless assassination attempts.
Haunted and persecuted, Wine, in his 30s, wants to liberate his nation from a blood-drunk tyrant.
He is marching against the tanks and bullets of the highly compromised forces of the regime.
Ahead of the presidential election slated for January 14, the highly dubious Electoral Commission of Uganda usurped the role of the Health Ministry by banning campaigns in 11 Districts citing high prevalence of COVID-19 as reason.
Amidst the ban, same 11 Districts have, as at the time of penning this piece, played host to Museveni’s campaigns under the guise of town hall meetings and projects inauguration.
Most elections in Africa are stage-managed to favour the government in power. With the Electoral Commission firmly in President Museveni’s pocket, Bobi Wine and his hordes of supporters will have to dig deeper to snatch power from the veteran dictator.
Museveni’s macabre dance in Uganda underlines a rising concern for Africa’s fledgling democracy. At a time when the rest of the world is making giant leaps in all fields, a hardened African tyrant is running amok, unleashing doom upon his nation and continent.
A veteran tyrant in his mid 70s (unofficial sources say he is well above 80) must be stopped in his mad quest to further waste the lives and commonwealth of Ugandans.
Museveni would be remembered as a leader who fought so hard to rescue his nation from instability and bad governance, but later plunged same back to the abyss of bygone decades.
If not unseated via the ballot on January 14, he would eventually vacate office amidst an uprising.
The signs are glaring: Museveni’s bloody days in power are numbered.
No dictator has ever ended well.
Museveni is a bad student of history.
*This piece is borne out of strenuous research gleaned from first hand information. The opinion expressed here is totally mine.
(Ofonime Honesty sends in this piece from Nigeria, West Africa. +2348023314809 honestyofonime@yahoo.com)