OPINION: The real highlights of 2021- Gen Otafiire on ‘Corruption’; Gen Tumwine on ‘Museveni’s retirement’

There is no better way to describe our individual experience in 2021, than by borrowing the words of our usual expert, William Shakespeare:

 “Well, if I be served such another trick, I’ll have my brains ta’en out and buttered, and give them to a dog for a New Year’s gift”, (The Merry Wives of Windsor).

Almost every one of the 44 million Ugandans will never forget a particular trick in life, which 2021 has served them. 

From winning an election to losing a seat; from the death of a loved one from Covid to making a billion from the same Covid; from buying a new car to the demise of a family member in a car accident; from acquiring land, or a new house to being evicted; from graduating from university to marking the tenth year of unemployment; and from the bliss of a wedding to the trauma of divorce. 

The list goes on, including the medical doctors and interns, who were seen on social media being humiliated by armed police simply because they had dared to ask for a bit more money and medical facilities.

However, we regard the comments by former bush war heroes, Gen Kahinda Otafiire on Corruption and Gen Eli Tumwine on Museveni’s retirement, as the climax of national highlights in 2021. 

This is not because the two men are our age mates, give or take a few years, meaning that we share a generational outlook on many issues, despite our political differences. After all, our different backgrounds notwithstanding, we are likely to have shared interest in the same girls at Bweranyangi, Namagunga, Maryhill, Gayaza, Nabisunsa or St Katherine in Lira where Hon Rebecca Kadaga went in the 1970s. 

We place their comments at the top of the highlight because their prophetic words are likely to reverberate, shaking this piece of Adam’s and Eve’s land to its foundation.

Let us elaborate.

According to Gen Otafiire, ‘This is not the NRM we started, brought to power’, (Nile Post, 24th September 2021).

“The NRM of 1986 and the NRM now are not the same. If the two were to meet, they wouldn’t recognize each other. You find profiteers and all sorts of characters including criminals wearing the NRM t-shirt. Many of these conduct business in the name of NRM but with their own selfish interests...

Sometimes I feel like not leaving the bed when I hear and read of stories in the press about corruption that has taken over our institutions. It is appalling that we can operate with manipulators who get money and start manipulating events so much that it becomes fashionable for everyone to be corrupt...”

Mark the salient point, ‘corruption has taken over our institutions”. 

In other words, the corrupt have staged a successful bloodless coup against the NRM of 1986, and are now in full control of the executive, judiciary and legislature!

Then he dropped a bomb-shell.

“Those of us in leadership have allowed these things to happen but soon the NRM will be like KANU in Kenya. We will soon end up like KANU, Mobutu’s MPR and the United Independence Party of Zambia.”

I couldn’t agree more with Gen Otafiire about the NRM of 1986, having been accorded a “VIP” arrest on the orders of the then Chief of Military Intelligence Commander Jim Muhwezi in 197, who then ordered my release two weeks later. 

Mine was a “VIP” arrest because I was never at any point handcuffed, blindfolded, kicked or verbally abused. 

Fast forward to the NRM of today, and you find even Museveni is so alarmed he was recently compelled to warn:

 “Nobody should be in the uniform of the army when they don’t respect the people of Uganda. When you’re in the army don’t bark at people, don’t beat people or even criminals..Every soldier and policeman listening to me and any Ugandan should know that is the position of the NRA and Constitution of Uganda. No one should be in the uniform of the army if you can’t respect the people of Uganda. Don’t bark at people.” (Suspects should never be beaten, tortured- says Museveni as he warns security agencies on human rights, Nile Post, 16th August 2021).

By a curious coincide, three months before Gen Otafiire warned about the future of the NRM, his former comrade-in-arms Gen Eli Tumwine, had told Ugandans and the world that ‘Museveni needs to prepare for a smooth transition of power’ (Nile Post, 24th June 2021)

 “As I take on my new advisory role, I will advise President Museveni to prepare for a smooth transition of power for the long-term stability of our country...You know it should be our duty to save him from being ‘ngamba nyenka’. The Banyankole have proverb ‘ngamba nyenka anyunka amarwa mabi’; That, the one who does not take advice brews some bad beer...

 But we should save the president that problem or we should save him from the disease diagnosed by political scientists and political psychologists that is called hubris syndrome. He has given this country his best and he deserves an honourable retirement.”

Incidentally, for the uninitiated, hubris syndrome is an 'acquired personality change', which is brought on over a period of time....people appear normal when achieve positions of leadership, but once in power seem to alter their behaviour’.

If I was Museveni, I would rather listen to Gen Otafiire, Gen Tumwine Gen and others with whom he was baptised at the bloody Altar of the bush war, than the Jonny-come-lately, typical fortune hunters dressed in Yellow.

These are the Zacharias Iscariot, seemingly holier than the Simon Peters, the first fishermen Gen Tumwine referred to in his handover statement.  

Why?

Having come on board last, the likes of Zacharias Iscariot will be the first to jump out, vehemently denouncing the NRM as they set on a new fortune-hunting trip.

In the end, Gen Otafiire and Gen Tumwine might be to Museveni what Chris Rwakasisi was to former president Obote. 

While the former Vice president Paulo Muwanga and other Congressmen and women joined the 1985 coup or fled, Rwakasisi risked his own life to make sure the president was safely out of Uganda. He spent the next 27 years in Luzira death row for his effort. 

 

Sam Akaki

Apach sub-county, Maruzi county