The overtly disintegrating political opposition is in search for an authentic leader who can be trusted to lead a honest and formidable challenge against President Yoweri Museveni and the National Resistance Movement (NRM).
Prof. Gilbert Bukenya
I hope they are not about to be conned! Like the proverbial drowning man, they are holding on to clutch – and with Professor Bukenya, surely they will sink. This is partly because; Bukenya’s record on siding with principled positions is sketchy. At almost all political junctions in Uganda’s drive to democracy – Bukenya always sided with expediency. I will delve into this subject in future. Today I will look at the things he talks about in his latest interview.
On, August 11, 2013, Bukenya gave an interview to Sunday Monitor’s Richard Wanambwa where he projected himself as a convener and savior of political opposition including the Democratic Party (DP), Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Conservative Party (CP) – and to a certain limit the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC). Is Professor Gilbert Bukenya trying to breathe life into the defunct, moribund and scattered Inter Party Cooperation (IPC)? I am sure career opposition politicians are looking at him with suspicion – for he is a man neither the opposition or the NRM can trust. His use of cognitive biases and appeal to shallow sentimentalism as tactic to placate the opposition and persuadefence sitters is a nonstarter. These are old and stale political maneuvers. I will be surprised if the opposition gets duped by Prof. Bukenya’s latest antics – for they have also used the same tactics and failed to uproot President Museveni and the NRM.
For example, Prof. Bukeya makes a cartel of grand accusations against the government wherehe not so long ago has been a member of the mainstream as the Uganda’s Vice President. He now seems, with straight face, to suggest that once he left- things went wrong and off beam! He even, without any sense of indignityaccuses government of constant torture, useof bullets against civilians and extra judicial killings. Really? How can a leader – who- even rose to the second most powerful position in this land accuse his government of extra judicial killings without offering detailed or even iota of evidence? Of course, Bukenya is not the first politician to seek political capital by way of peddling lies, subterfuge and to pander uncouth allegations against the NRM government – many have done so and have nothing to show for it. The citizenry have just ignored them and continued to vote massively for the NRM and President Museveni. Prof.Bukenya says he is still a member of NRM- why can’t he raise his claims with the party organsresponsible or compel the relevant party organ to call for a deliberate inquiry into his claims. As a person who has won and lost some cases in Uganda’s courts of law, surely Bukenya knows that rule of law is abundantly present in this country. Why can’t he litigate extra judicial killings in Uganda’s courts of law? If he has grown suspicious of our Courts, why can’t he go the East African Court?
You see, wanting to engage in political contestation at any level is okay. It is Prof. Bukenya’s solemn right to offer himself before the people of Uganda for any office- including that of President. But to use outright blackmail and smear tactics for political advantage instead of articulating an alternative credible and concrete agendais trivial, hypocritical and counterproductive. This is taking Ugandan’s for granted.Could it be that Prof. Bukenya is searching for attention and limelight – but rather doing so recklessly – as he is known to have done before? I know Ugandans remember his ‘mafia’ claims in one of the daily’s that did not come to pass- Ugandans also recall his graphic and romantic stunts in one of Uganda’s leading tabloids. So, is Prof. Bukenya Back?
In the interview, Bukenya made another strangeand outlandish allegation by claiming that government has neglected the poor and it pains him! Isn’t this probably the highest mode of political hypocrisy? While he was Vice President, Bukenya crisscrossed the country, aided by tax payers’ money to spread the upland rice scheme gospel. He has also, lately, been talking about poverty eradication projects in his Busiro North Constituency. The questions lingering on the minds of some of us who read his interview – are; was promoting upland rice scheme, as a Vice President in the NRM government a show of neglect for the poor? Did poverty eradication programs stop when he left the position of the Vice President? Is poverty in his Busiro North constituency below the national poverty scale – to perhaps show he is doing well and therefore his efforts have potential to be replicated nationally? Those, who know Busiro North Constituency, are aware that a lot will have to be done to contain and eliminate poverty there. Leaders there will have to pitch in more and making things happen.
You see, when it comes to poverty, Prof. Bukenya knows he is being economical with the truth. With his experience in government, he is aware that the battle and war against poverty is slowly being worn. Why can he be honest and authentic? Ugandans have the ability to discern authenticleaders from counterfeit leaders that are mushrooming all over the place. It is for instance no longer a secret that poverty in Uganda is reducing at a rate faster than our sister countries in Eastern Africa. Indeed according to the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) Global Monitoring Report 2013, Kenya’s poverty head count stands at 43.37 per cent against Uganda’s 38.01 per cent using the poverty cut-off point of $1.25 per person. Tanzania stands at 67.87 per cent; Rwanda poverty stands at 63.17 per cent while in Burundi it is at 81.32 per cent. The poverty level scoring was based on the number of people living below $1.25 a day. Previous studies have used $1 daily but that has since been replaced with the higher amount. With the latest Bukenya’s grand show of hypocrisy- if these statistics were published by a Ugandan agency, he would claim that they were cooked and President Museveni bribed the agencies to give Uganda a better score. With the foregoing numbers, we cannot at all celebrate or relax, but rather we have to work extra harder as a people to get everybody out of poverty. This is a herculean task but achievable.
Those countries we often talk about as the developed and wealthy are also still grappling with this ‘animal’ called poverty. For example, in 2012, the United States Census Bureau reported that 46.2 million people were living in poverty in the United States in 2011- the largest number of persons counted as poor in the 53 years of poverty measurements.The poverty rate in United States is at 15 percent. Things are not easier with China- where a whopping 128 million people were below the poverty line as of 2011. Although this is 13.4% of the population, this really shows that the entire world need create new ways of eradicating poverty, spreading wealth and deepening inclusive growth. It’s not an excuse for us to be despondent but a reality. I am waiting for Prof. Bukenya’s back pocket alternative ideas that he kept secret when he was Uganda’s vice President. Over to you Prof. Bukenya.
Morrison Rwakakamba
Special Presidential Assistant – Research and Information
