Something unprecedented is about to happen in Uganda! President Museveni and the opposition leaders are reported to be in plans for a meeting. The meeting is said to be arranged by a forum of all political parties. It is unprecedented because this would be the first time that Mr. Museveni will be meeting his strongest challengers to the presidency in such an arrangement, particularly, Norbert Mao and Kiiza Besigye. The meeting, though a little of a surprise, is something that would have been expected sooner or later.
Mr. Museveni is not oblivious of several factors.
1. The government is wary of the revolution fever that has swept North Africa and the Middle East, and that is seemingly spreading its reach to Sub Saharan Africa. The government of Museveni has openly confessed to this fear, and they have taken every opportunity to verbally and physically threaten any uprising which isn’t working.
2. Mr. Museveni, himself having taken over an oppressive regime by rallying hundreds of thousand of discontented Ugandans knows only too well that what goes round comes around. His stance to open up space for discussion with the opposition groups may reflect cognizance of this fact and a little retrospect on his part.
3. Almost 50% of voting age Ugandans did not cast their vote in the concluded elections! Why? We could speculate all we want, but the writing is on the wall. A lot of Ugandans have lost credibility in the electoral process, while massive bribery and abuse of institutional power discredited the election on its part. Moreover, we know Mubarak had won his election with 90%, while Gbagbo….
4. The religious leaders, diplomats and perhaps members in his own party have all expressed dismay at which legitimate issues raised by #Walk2Work activism has been quelled. It could be that president Museveni fears being isolated, or better still, is getting his act together.
5. Mr. Museveni is only too aware of the failure on his part and his government to address even the minor of challenges such as fixing fuel reserves, stronger agricultural policies and other common sense things. Corruption scandals that have gone on unpunished are creating an untamable anger among the population that once it breaks loose would be so hard to contain. It is the kind of anger that we have seen in other revolutions; the American revolution, the French Revolution, the Bolshevik Revolution, etc.
What Will They Talk About?
The news report indicated that the president would be talking on issues such as “oil and security and not power sharing.” I am very certain that nobody in the opposition would be interested in talking power sharing at this initial meeting. I am sure the top concerns of the opposition, independents like myself, and some members of the NRM party are real issues such as runaway corruption, lack of a coherent plan or National Security Strategy, oil and fuel, leadership and governance. The opposition has already hinted that their demands include a fresh election and re-instating presidential term limits. Whether these are reasonable demands, especially on the fresh election one, I am not really sure. As for presidential term limits, it is ridiculous that they were removed and that human beings participated in that plan.
As I conclude, I am really curios on how this meeting will unfold, and what it will achieve in general. I am so psyched that President Museveni can begin opening up himself to dialogue with his opponents, who I believe love Uganda. The president has been accustomed to chiding his ministers and party officials around, the kind of bull that I reckon FDC and DP wont sit around and take. I really want to see dialogue between these groups but real debate as well. I would like to see sanity and unity in our politics, and I am sure those we can achieve without shedding more blood. Northern Uganda, Luweero, Teso, Karamoja, ADF and Idi Amin are more than enough dark times.
Oh, one last thing; if nothing changes, if the corruption keeps up, for chrissake, if nothing changes, Ugandans, please #KeepWalking or #Walk2Work
