Nile Post
  • News
    • 2021 Elections Watch
      • The Election Podcast
    • Education
    • Exclusive
    • Investigations
    • Security
  • Business
  • Opinions
    • Columns
      • Parting Shot
      • Two Sides of a Coin
      • Bazanye’s Quick Shots
      • But this Year!
  • Global
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • The Americas
  • East Africa
    • Kenya
    • Rwanda
    • South Sudan
  • Lifestyle
    • Entertainment
    • Health
      • Coronavirus outbreak
    • Tour & Travel
    • Love Therapist
    • Homes
    • Reviews
  • Tech
  • Special Reports
    • Kabaka Mutebi’s 25th Coronation Series
    • Focus on Somalia
    • Sino-Africa
    • Uganda at 56
    • Anti-Corruption Fight
    • Age Limit Map
    • Tuve Ku Kaveera
  • Sports
    • Place-It
    • StarTimes Uganda Premier League
    • Bundesliga
    • World Cup
  • Jobs
  • Archives
  • Live
No Results Found
View All Results
  • News
    • 2021 Elections Watch
      • The Election Podcast
    • Education
    • Exclusive
    • Investigations
    • Security
  • Business
  • Opinions
    • Columns
      • Parting Shot
      • Two Sides of a Coin
      • Bazanye’s Quick Shots
      • But this Year!
  • Global
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • The Americas
  • East Africa
    • Kenya
    • Rwanda
    • South Sudan
  • Lifestyle
    • Entertainment
    • Health
      • Coronavirus outbreak
    • Tour & Travel
    • Love Therapist
    • Homes
    • Reviews
  • Tech
  • Special Reports
    • Kabaka Mutebi’s 25th Coronation Series
    • Focus on Somalia
    • Sino-Africa
    • Uganda at 56
    • Anti-Corruption Fight
    • Age Limit Map
    • Tuve Ku Kaveera
  • Sports
    • Place-It
    • StarTimes Uganda Premier League
    • Bundesliga
    • World Cup
  • Jobs
  • Archives
  • Live
No Results Found
View All Results
Nile Post
No Results Found
View All Results

Opinion: Why President Museveni, the West loathe but need each other

NP admin by NP admin
January 28, 2021 at 11:50 am
in Opinions, Politics
Museveni receives credentials for six new envoys to Uganda
By Henry K. Otafiire
In the early 1990s, the buzzword was a new breed of African leaders who had been anointed by the west and heralded to transform their countries. President Museveni was a poster boy for this wave of euphoria that was sweeping across the continent. After several decades in power, there is an extraordinary consensus that has sharply divided opinion in the West.
Over the past few years, a section of academia, human rights and lobby groups in the West have presented a damning indictment against President Museveni’s government: autocratic and totalitarian rule of an individual who has maintained a tight grip on power by poking a few eyes and bloodying a few disjointed noses.
So why has the West put up with President Museveni whose once-promising and rosy characterisation has morphed far from that in their very eyes? President Museveni and the West are like a married couple who cannot live happily together yet cannot live apart. Their marriage is sustained and nourished by mutual interests rather than a romantic attachment. It’s akin to a relationship between two partners who are incompatible in many respects yet are welded indissolubly together.
In this way, the interests of the West and President Museveni have become inextricably intertwined. The West has overlooked the faults on his governance scorecard as long as he kept safeguarding her interests in the Great Lakes region. And so, it has always been a relationship contingent on interests rather than high ideals of democracy. Over the years, President Museveni has cemented himself as a hegemon and a bulwark of stability of the African Great Lakes – a volatile region that remains important on the radar of geopolitics and foreign policy of the West.
President Museveni has fairly pacified Somalia by contributing the bulk of troops for the African Union peacekeeping Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and in return, the US has bankrolled his army.
He has saved President Salva Kiir government from collapse and created a semblance of order necessary to end the political deadlock that had the potential to make the region a conflict hot spot. He negotiated the behind the scenes deal of Democratic Republic of Congo’s peaceful change of government and above all positioned Uganda as a haven and role model for refugees even when in some circles, he is increasingly viewed as more of an arsonist than a firefighter.
It’s this odd sort of relationship that the West frequently maintains with President Museveni and recognizes that they need each other for key priorities, and cooperation on a wide variety of foreign-policy issues stretching from the South Sudan question to the Al-Shabab to the stability of the Great Lakes region.
But at the same time, they deeply hate each other, reprimand and admonish each other publicly, and fight bitterly. The West scolds his government over the shrinking of political and civic space, harassment of the opposition and generally abuse of civil liberties. President Museveni chastises the West for meddling in the internal politics of a sovereign nation.
Despite being a relationship built on many contradictions, President Museveni has skilfully maintained it to his advantage while at the same time aiding the West to expand its foreign policy tentacles without resorting to gunboat diplomacy. So, the West gives Uganda a staggering amount of money to finance its budget deficits and stock its arsenal. The US alone, Uganda’s most important donor with total budget assistance exceeding $970 million per year.
The west harangues President Museveni with sermonizing lectures on human rights and presenting a litany of sins by his government while at the same time remaining his biggest benefactor. The EU and US embassy will issue condemnatory platitudes on irregularities in the recently held elections but will be quick to endorse his Presidency and move forward.
There seems to be a trade-off. The West overlooks President Museveni’s human rights record and continue to see him as a tool in its larger geo-political chess game rather than an unpopular leader at home. It is likely that this relationship is will remain intact as long as President Museveni is still a too important, too strategic, and too consequential ally to the West.
President Museveni thinks he is indispensable for the West creating the assumption of a certain level of West’s obsession with him. He knows he will ditch the West for Russia and China the moment bad blood starts to manifest in this marriage. And the West knows reprimanding him may force him to look further to the East (Russia and China).
What is clear now, is that, as long as the West still view him as the only person to guarantee their perennial interests, President Museveni’s craftsmanship to delicately balance these interests and navigate the intricacies of this relationship won’t lose its appeal and persuasive power.
The author Henry K. Otafiire is a political observer in Uganda

The author Henry K. Otafiire is a political observer in Uganda

Tags: AfricaAfrican interestsMuseveni geopoliticsMuseveni strategyUS Africa interestsusaidYoweri Museveni

Related Posts

Museveni: “We should halt creation of new districts to save money”
2021 Elections Watch

Opinion: Mr President, Your next term must be about the Youth

by Michael Kanaabi Dollar
March 3, 2021
0

Your Excellency Mr. President, First of all congratulations on steering the country through the election seasonsuccessfully. While a few election...

Read more
FDC says they won’t attend Friday’s IPOD summit because it is hosted by Museveni

FDC says they won’t attend Friday’s IPOD summit because it is hosted by Museveni

March 2, 2021

Opinion: Why we won’t move on; A response to Samson Kasumba’s debrief

March 1, 2021
US has no right to ‘lecture’ Uganda over elections

US has no right to ‘lecture’ Uganda over elections

February 26, 2021
African designers open Milan Fashion Week

African designers open Milan Fashion Week

February 25, 2021

Discussion about this post

Follow Us

  • 179.2k Fans
  • 159.2k Followers
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement

Latest

Mukono residents worried as natural springs run dry

Mukono residents worried as natural springs run dry

March 7, 2021
Rapper Taks set to drop “The Run” Album

Rapper Taks set to drop “The Run” Album

March 7, 2021
Kyagulanyi petition: Lawyers to be given only 30 minutes to make their case

The turns and twists in Bobi Wine’s poll petition

March 7, 2021
Bobi Wine refutes claims of foreign funding

Bobi Wine consoles supporters from Western Uganda, tells them to continue with the struggle

March 7, 2021
Kayondo uses social media to make tourism exciting for the youth

Kayondo uses social media to make tourism exciting for the youth

March 7, 2021
cocacola-ad-safebodacocacola-ad-safebodacocacola-ad-safeboda

Featured

Kyagulanyi petition: Lawyers to be given only 30 minutes to make their case
2021 Elections Watch

The turns and twists in Bobi Wine’s poll petition

by Kenneth Kazibwe
March 7, 2021
0

The Supreme Court on Friday allowed National Unity...

With Shs 3 million, a teacher started a phone shop in Hoima. Now he’s earning profit of Shs 40 million per year

With Shs 3 million, a teacher started a phone shop in Hoima. Now he’s earning profit of Shs 40 million per year

March 7, 2021
Bobi Wine deletes social media posts of virtual meeting with USA ‘puppet’ Juan Guaido after backlash

Bobi Wine deletes social media posts of virtual meeting with USA ‘puppet’ Juan Guaido after backlash

March 6, 2021
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
Call us: +256-417-720-101

© 2020 Nile Post Uganda Ltd. - A Next Media Services Company.

No Results Found
View All Results
  • News
    • 2021 Elections Watch
      • The Election Podcast
    • Education
    • Exclusive
    • Investigations
    • Security
  • Business
  • Opinions
    • Columns
      • Parting Shot
      • Two Sides of a Coin
      • Bazanye’s Quick Shots
      • But this Year!
  • Global
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • The Americas
  • East Africa
    • Kenya
    • Rwanda
    • South Sudan
  • Lifestyle
    • Entertainment
    • Health
      • Coronavirus outbreak
    • Tour & Travel
    • Love Therapist
    • Homes
    • Reviews
  • Tech
  • Special Reports
    • Kabaka Mutebi’s 25th Coronation Series
    • Focus on Somalia
    • Sino-Africa
    • Uganda at 56
    • Anti-Corruption Fight
    • Age Limit Map
    • Tuve Ku Kaveera
  • Sports
    • Place-It
    • StarTimes Uganda Premier League
    • Bundesliga
    • World Cup
  • Jobs
  • Archives
  • Live

© 2020 Nile Post Uganda Ltd. - A Next Media Services Company.