Uganda’s Democratic Tyranny

By Mobolaji Sanusi

“Rebellion against tyranny is obedience to God.” — Thomas Jefferson

Uganda is indeed on my mind this week simply because any empathy filled Pan-African black man anywhere with a flair for liberty must show concern for the citizens of any country where democracy is being cannibalised. The repressive governance disguised as democracy in Uganda is regrettably of contagious effect on the African continent with curious immodel specimen from the world’s number one democratic country under President Donald Trump’s leadership in far away United States.

‘Competitive authoritarianism’ robed in democratic costume, particularly in Africa, rather than abate, is fast spreading like a virus. We need antidotal vaccine to stem this ugly tide.

Instinctively, many might be wondering why Uganda, despite the myriads of issues demanding serious analytical commentary in Nigeria. My response is captured by the resonating words of that globally renowned irrepressible martyr of liberty and freedom, Martin Luther King Jr. where he said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Truly, democratic injustice, though has historical antecedents, is sadly becoming more ingrained in contemporary polity with no jurisdictional limitations.

In the African continent, the latest mal-example of distorted values of representative democracy is Uganda under the repressive government of Yoweri Museveni. The democracy envisioned by Abraham Lincoln in Gettysburg, United States, in November 19, 1863, has through the democratic shenanigan of leaders like Museveni and others, now given birth to a political coinage that is globally known as ‘competitive authoritarianism.’ This is a redefinition that is completely antithetical to everything that real democracy stands for.

Currently in Africa, Museveni epitomizes the deplorable wind of competitive authoritarianism that is fast gaining momentum amongst leaders, especially in the developing world of which Africa is a prominent part.

Museveni gained power through a populist rebellion but regrettably now represents everything he condemned in the government he toppled. A brief historical excursion suffices: Museveni captured Kampala, his country’s capital after staging a five-year armed rebellion against the government of Tito Okello on January 26, 1986. He was sworn-in on January 29 of same year. Forty years after, at age 81, and currently serving a contentious seventh term as president of Uganda after his transmutation from military to civilian president in his pioneer ‘democratic’ election in 1996. So far, Museveni and his son have been projecting that country as truly one of the most repressed nations in Africa and the world

Museveni started as a rebel with a cause but is now affirmatively a tyrant in democratic robes. He is indubitably not a shining model of democratic ideals. In his country today, hopelessly helpless Ugandans have taken his stay-put in office as more of a fait accompli. Added to their political grief is the murderous antics of his biological son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who for decades has been the Chief of Defence Forces in his father’s government.

Kainerugaba has been the brutal force behind his father’s hold on power. His father is reputed to have relatively stablised his country’s $65 billion economy. Museveni’s noteworthy stance against homosexual activity is equally well known. But these two accomplishments have been dwarfed by Museveni and son’s political monstrosity of pocketing the media, and scrapping of presidential term limits in 2005 and age limits in 2017 through dubious constitutional amendments. These undemocratic changes were designed to perpetually keep him in power till death.

The above have been confirmed by his recently held presidential election and the disputed results that proclaimed him as the odious winner. That election’s surrounding happenings also affirmed Museveni’s son as being above the law. His son routinely made fiery and insensitive late night social media posts. As the engine room of his father’s tenacious hold on power, he is reputed to routinely order crackdown on political opponents and even known to have masterminded the infamous four-day internet blackout meant to prevent the world from knowing the political atrocities of his father’s regime during the recently held elections.

Museveni, despite having a Vice President has turned his son as his alternate-president. The son’s brutish approach is replete with, but not limited to, his reportedly boasting that 30 “terrorists” from the opposition Bob Wine’s National Unity Platform party had been killed while his self-branded two thousand “hooligans” from same Wine’s party had, on his instructions, been arrested and tortured. He routinely ordered the brutalization of opposition supporters and disrupted their political rallies.

At a point, Museveni’s son’s uncurtailed monstrosity saw him threatened to behead Bobi Wine who is Uganda’s most potent opposition leader at the moment. This abysmal Ugandan situation of a president’s son holding the entire country captive is vividly depicted by Wine who is Museveni’s opposition nightmare to wit: “Nobody is safe again in Uganda where a military general will consume his whisky and wish somebody death.”

Due to his tyrannical traits, Museveni’s ruling party has been cleansed of truth sayers. He has destroyed military discipline and cohesion because he’s fond of summarily retiring rival military officers while he uses pecuniary lucre and undeserved promotions to secure soldiers’ loyalty. Museveni looks the other way while this is ongoing.

It would be apt to ask whether Kainerugaba actually passed through Britain’s prestigious Sandhurst Military Academy where values of finesse are believed to be taught. He defied his global exposures of civilised Swedish conduct and other countries. He lived and grew up in these countries while his father was a guerrilla commander of the National Resistance Movement/Army against Milton Obote after disputing the 1980 results of a general election in which his father contested to lead Uganda on the platform of Uganda Patriotic Movement. Museveni commenced the Ugandan Bush War in the aftermath of this electoral disputations.

Father and son are now tormenting the spirits of Ugandans through the Special Forces Command, an elite unit often described as an ‍army within the army. Museveni’s son eagerly wants to succeed his father and was reportedly caught on tape in 2023 complaining about his being bored of waiting to achieve this goal. This is despite his knowing that even if Museveni dies in office, the Vice-President is constitutionally empowered to take over temporarily, pending when a fresh election takes place. With Museveni’s son’s leadership inordinate mindset, the ruling National Resistance Movement party of his father has an uphill battle ahead.

Time is however tickling and Museveni should thoughtfully halt his, and son’s repressive governance model. If in the eighties, he launched a guerrilla warfare that removed a constitutional government in his country, let him be reminded that such is still possible today; if not against him but against his inordinately ambitious son. Any leader aspiring or currently ruminating over the possibility of emulating the Museveni model should jettison the idea and embrace leadership integrity that’ll engrave their names in the pantheon of democratic greatness.

Ugandans living within and outside their country need not be told that Museveni and his son have become law unto themselves and when a situation like this arises, Thomas Jefferson once scribbled some words to guide victims’ remedial actions where he said: “When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes a duty.”

•Sanusi, former MD/CEO of Lagos State Signage & Advertisement Agency is currently managing partner at AMS RELIABLE SOLICITORS(SMS Only To: 07011117777).