Sunday, March 9, 2014

Why Museveni deserves a Makerere University honorary PhD

  1. Initially published by the Uganda Record in 2009


    By Vincent Nuwagaba

    Many people have said before and some of us have written that President Museveni
    doesn't merit an honorary PhD from Makerere University. I have come to appreciate
    that the Makerere University senate acted wisely to give Museveni an honorary PhD.

    If it was given to a coward like [the former Tanzanian President Benjamin] Mkapa who served his country for a paltry ten years and left power for fear of cumbersome responsibilities before he was fully milked by his countrymen, why not award a leader who disregarded the calls by the "agents of disorientation" to serve only two terms but as a result of popular demand he facilitated MPs who might have frustrated the people's wishes to repeal a provision in that paper document that some of us mistakenly call a constitution so that we could maximally milk him?

    Remember during the heat of the debate on whether or not term limits should be repealed to allow us milk our vision monopolist, Mama Janet Museveni rightly wrote an article in the press titled "Museveni doesn't need a job, it is Uganda that needs liberation".

    She ably showed how Museveni was a Godsend. Although Jesus Christ sacrificed in his ministry for only three years, Museveni has sacrificed for a cool twenty four years!
    I am not intending to sound blasphemous, I am quite serious!

    Who of the past leaders has sacrificed longer than Museveni? None. Museveni is a
    genuine patriot and genuine patriots serve their societies until they drop dead!

    Those who retire – the Mandelas, Mkapas et al are not genuine patriots. While Obote
    attempted to bring on board many ethnic groups into government, Museveni ably
    understood that too many cooks spoil the broth.

    Thus, although the movement system under which Museveni sacrificed for twenty years was meant to be broad-based, he turned it blood-based because he knew not many would sacrifice. Had he not done that, his government would be long gone and Ugandans would be the losers.

    Some will argue that blood-basedness benefited a few people. They are wrong. The
    Banyankole-Bakiga say kabe kakye kagire obunuzi. What would it benefit the country if everyone grew rich? Where would we get people to work for others? We complain of traffic jams, what would the situation be if everyone had a vehicle?
  2. In my county Ruhinda [in Ankole] only [Maj. Gen. Kahinda] Otafiire has chewed big enough because he has to remain healthy in order to think for all of us. But also that shows Museveni rewards on the basis of meritocracy. Is it not only Otafiire that fought the bush war?

    We had too many inefficient parastatals, useless banks, Uganda Hotels, civil
    servants' houses, cooperative unions, marketing boards and idle public land. The
    visionary president gave them away.

    Don't ask for accountability because when you give away, you receive no money in return. If we had stayed with them, they would possibly enrich many people and cause fiscal and political instability. In order to have stability, money has to be in the hands of a few trusted individuals.

    The president is accused of fighting corruption selectively. But this is for the good of
    the nation. Wouldn't it be too bad if he sacrificed superb performers such as [Amama] Mbabazi and Otafiire in the name of fighting corruption?

    The president started UPE [Universal Primary Education] and USE [Universal Secondary Education] to separate wheat from chaff. How can the smelly
    children of peasants sit in the same class with ministers' children wearing fine
    perfumes?

    The solution to that was, start UPE so that the rich take their children to private schools and the poor occupy UPE schools. With UPE the poor will remain
    poor as they cannot go beyond UPE and the rich will grow richer.

    This is because our president is a devout Christian who follows the Bible in Mathew 25:29 which says, "Those who have, more will be added unto them; those who have not, even the little they have will be taken away". So what is this crass talk that the rich are growing richer and the poor growing poorer?

    Didn't God make some people to be heads and others to be tails? Museveni being the only visionary Ugandan knows this quite well and that's why he merits an honorary award.

    To the rural women whom Mrs Museveni said recently are the wretched of the earth, I would say that she is terribly wrong. At least now they can sleep. Before
    this regime, they were destabilised by the liberation war in the Luwero Triangle.

    Because now they are liberated, none can fight a senseless war to deprive the women
    of their sleep. Not even the hunger and excruciating poverty can deprive the rural
    folks of their sleep. While these people are asleep, the president sacrifices his
    sleep while planning and sometimes holding trans-night meetings all of which are
    aimed to maintain the status quo --- keep a few people with money to abide by Mathew 25:29.
  3. To the sons and daughters of the peasants who presumptuously go to Makerere
    University and other universities for degrees, the president has ably shown that
    they don't belong there. Because they accidentally and sometimes stubbornly go to
    universities, after graduation they cannot get jobs meant for graduates lest they
    mix with the privileged. The reason is: peasants' children are socially unclean.

    Accordingly, those who stick to morals go home and dig while those who choose to
    keep around opt to run coursework bureaus which in the long run help the rich to buy
    "degrees" at a cheap price and go to where they belong --- Uganda Revenue Authority, National Planning Authority, Uganda Investment Authority, National Social Security Fund, an a host of lucrative NGOs. This is good for it keeps money in the hands of those who already have.

    There are people who have accused the president of stopping the Kabaka's visit to
    Kayunga naively attributing the 10–12, September 2009 riots which claimed more than 30 lives and saw around 500 idlers in jail. This was good for social
    order.

    Those of us who naively argued that the Kabaka like any other person had a
    right to freedom of movement should know that the government was obligated to
    protect the Banyara's minority interests. But also the government had to protect the
    Kabaka Mutebi who risked being lynched.

    Museveni couldn't wait for such a horrible thing to happen to the man he loves so much that he risked all the blame from his lieutenants and had his (Mutebi's) kingdom restored in 1993. We need to remember how Brig. Noble Mayombo (RIP) defended his brother Maj. Okwir Rwabwoni when the latter risked traveling with the blacklisted Col. Besigye!

    Such brotherly love is the one that Museveni has for Kabaka Mutebi. While some of us argued that the best thing was for Museveni to give the Kabaka security guards, we were wrong. Who is the Kabaka to be guarded as though he is the president?

    Although the Kabaka's subjects pay huge taxes to the government, doesn't
    he know that the taxes are a preserve of a few visionary people to ensure their
    health and welfare for the good of the entire Uganda.

    Now the president has only 10,000 guards, did the Kabaka want to take off 2,000? This would definitely imperil the life of the president. Because the president has the foresight, that is why the Kabaka's visit was blocked. Certainly not because M (Museveni) hates M (Mutebi) after all they share similar initials.

    I hear many people ask where Museveni's tangible achievements are. Don't they have
    eyes to see the unprecedented levels of corruption which keeps a few people healthy
    so they can guard, guide and direct the trend for the rest of us mortals?

    Have they forgotten that a professor who happens to be a minister in this government once said corruption is an indicator of development? Who doesn't see the potholes? Who doesn't see that the increase in university fees is aimed to train a few but quality
    workforce?

    Giving the Ministry of Agriculture between two to three percent is no bad
    idea because it guards excess production which would make agricultural products'
    prices come down but also scarcity of agricultural products begets famine which
    would ultimately help curb our exploding population. Mr. President go, get your PhD.

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