Vincent Nuwagaba
My friend Angela has been an ardent supporter of opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) and has together with her husband vigorously campaigned for Dr Besigye and Honourable Jack Sabiiti in all the three past elections. In a sudden twist of events, she met me today (Tuesday, November 15, 2010) and told me she has defected to the Museveni camp. She told me, “Mwaana nyowe nabiire owa Museveni; yayenda ategyeke, nomwana weye hamwe nomwijukuru” literally meaning that I have become Museveni’s supporter; let him reign and thereafter him his son and his grandson should takeover. Reason? She was exasperated by some elites from Buganda who travelled with her in a taxi and vowed to ruthlessly crush westerners should Museveni quit power. When she reportedly said she has never supported Museveni, the other passengers reportedly told her, twala eli, tubammanyi, mwenna mufanagana meaning shut up, we know you, you are all similar.
I understand Angela’s exasperation with the anti-Museveni camp especially those from outside western Uganda. I have personally been stigmatized, abused and suspected by the would-be my allies because I hail from Ankole. However, I told her “that’s the most important reason as to why you should strongly oppose Museveni and dissuade many people from supporting him”. She strongly refused to accept my reasoning and I said I will discuss with her further.
We are all losers
This is the gist of my article. To begin with, it’s amazing to note that despite the fact that the most acerbic critics of the NRM and Museveni are from the west, many non-westerners have not appreciated the fact that the west as a region has lost almost as much as the other regions during Museveni’s regime. During currency reform, all Ugandans lost 30% of their money; when banks were raided by the bush war fighters, all Ugandans lost; the adoption of SAPs and the botched privatisation exercise made all of us losers; and, when cooperatives died, the Banyankole Kweterana also died; when government sanctioned the increment of fees in public universities up to 126%, some Banyankole and Bakiga children lost out. We’ve people who naively think that when there are no drugs in the national referral hospital Mulago, western regional referral hospitals and other health centres in the west have drugs. That’s an illusion. There are people who naively think that all Bakiga and Banyankole (who by the way are like identical if not Siamese twins) have their children access statehouse scholarships; there are people who think that corruption is a project by the NRM aimed at enriching the westerners; there are also people who believe that all westerners that oppose Museveni are implanted into the opposition as spies and they call them ISO operatives. I know of some friends in UYD who used to think I was an ISO operative but I also know that many of the UYDs knew that I was genuinely opposed to injustice and that I cherished principles of truth and justice – principles espoused by the Democratic Party.
Yesterday Monday 14th November, I was discussing with Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesman Ibn Ssenkumbi and he told me, “as a person from Ankole, you even have a road paved up to your home; you went to Makerere University on government sponsorship; you are favoured and you shouldn’t criticize this government”. Sadly, that’s many Ugandans’ mentality. I never wanted to waste time refuting allegations that as westerners we are favoured. What I told him instead was that exactly, that’s the more reason as to why I criticise the ruling establishment because it has divided us rather than unite us. I said I cherish justice which entails social justice, economic justice and equal opportunity. I know as social scientist equality is an ideal that is impossible to realise. But equality among equals is an ideal, a value that we must cherish and fight to realise. Equality among equals means for instance, all Ugandans should have access to quality education, quality healthcare and decent standards of living; they should also be equal before the law and none should fail to get legal representation since they were all created by the same God and are all citizens. Equality among equals also means that if Nuwagaba, a son of peasants from Kanyabwanga and Bitereko in Bushenyi has a masters degree, he should stand equal chances of getting opportunities as say Francis Musinguzi Otafiire, a son of a minister. If they apply for a job, it should be given on meritocracy basis. If there are two people with similar credentials who put in similar efforts at work, they should be paid an equal amount of money regardless of what departments they work for – that’s equal pay for equal value of work. Equality among equals means that scholarships should also be given on the basis of merit and need. Shockingly, in Uganda scholarships are given to ministers’ children and foreigners. You well know that we have an ethnic group known as Banyarwanda in Uganda. When the Banyarwanda of Uganda go to Rwanda, they remain Banyarwanda and when those from Rwanda come to Uganda they become Ugandans. And, we have many Banyarwanda getting statehouse scholarships. Recently, a young man found me in some Makerere university professor’s house bragging of how he was not bothered with tuition because he was on statehouse scholarship. After his departure, the professor told me in Runyankole, “Mbwenu ebi nenki, kushanga imwe muremirwe fees, emishoro yaitu neshashurira abanyarwanda”. Literally translated to mean, “What is this that you people fail to raise fees when our taxes are used to pay fees for Rwandans? These developments annoy Banyankole, Bakiga, Banyoro, and Batooro as much as they annoy all other Ugandans. It’s morally repugnant that we westerners can be targeted for extermination just because we are westerners. In any case, we didn’t apply to be westerners.
Piece of advice
I have a word for those who make inflammatory statements about us that they will crush us. Please be reasonable. All Ugandans are very accommodative people and I must say the Baganda have accommodated all Ugandan ethnic groups including foreigners. The elites shouldn’t debase themselves by fanning ethnic cleansing. Kindly, advocate individual responsibility for individual actions. If President Museveni or my area MP Otafiire wronged any of you, what does it have to do with me? While studying the unification of Germany and Italy, I was taught that Germany and Italy had similar problems and had to adopt similar means to solve them. Likewise, Ugandans face similar problems of poverty, graduate unemployment, corruption, a collapsed healthcare system; a disoriented education system; meager wages for workers and general misery instead of general happiness. We can only solve them by focusing on things that unite us rather than those that disunite us. Let’s focus on things over which we have control such as ideological paradigms not those over which we cannot have control such as ethnicity. We must preach and practice love, unity, justice, transparency, honesty and brotherhood. Lyandro Komakech and Opobo Wilfred from Acholiland helped me so much while at campus; Asuman Basalirwa has always been there for me when the state attempts to dump in Luzira; Livingstone Sewanyana gave me a job that helped me pay my masters tuition. So many Acholi, Iteso, Karamajong, Baganda, and Basoga have been there for me. Likewise Banyankole, Bakiga, Batooro, Banyoro, etc have stood by me. I don’t think they do that because I am from their region but because I am a human being entitled to an inherent right to human dignity. We should harness our cultural and ethnic differences to enrich our society. Why can’t we advocate intermarriages so as to stop inbreeding and ensure producing real Ugandans? In fact, any God-fearing, beautiful and well-educated Iteso woman is a potential perfect match for me.
Finally, to Angela and all my brothers and sisters from Ankole, Kigezi, Mpororo, Tooro, Bunyoro and Bukonzo, if we support Museveni we will only postpone the danger but will make it real at any time. Accordingly, we should be the vanguards of opposing NRM’s injustices. I am sure, before Museveni, Uganda was not polarized along ethnic lines. We had many northerners and easterners study from the west, westerners study from the north, east and central and that enhanced social and political cohesion in spite of cultural diversity. From my own district Bushenyi during Obote II regime, we had five ministers – Edward Rurangaranga, Cris Rwakasiisi, Adonia Tiberondwa, Yonasani Kanyomozi, Ephraim Kamuntu and we had other key government figures. Tell me any single district outside western Uganda with three ministers. Surprisingly, those ministers hardly help us as westerners they only endanger us. When Obote lost power, the Luo suffered; when Amin lost power the Kakwa and Nubians reportedly suffered. We as westerners shouldn’t suffer after Museveni has lost power. We can forestall the suffering when we distance ourselves from him as his government commits atrocities. For God and my country!
Vincent Nuwagaba is a blogger at www.vnuwagaba.blogspot.com and can be reached via email at mpvessynuwagaba@gmail.co.ug
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