Regional
Uganda: Will Museveni’s statues salvage his waning popularity?
A day before the 40th commemoration of ‘Tarehe Sita’, (6, February), a date commemorated for the founding of Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), Museveni’s son and commander of the Special Forces Command(SFC) Lt.Gen. Muhoozi Keinerugaba, unveiled a statute to honour his father President Yoweri Museveni.
Muhoozi called on other UPDF services to have such
statues, “so that the young soldiers can
know who President Museveni was and how he led them to victory for over 40
years without losing a single battle”, a statement posted on several Uganda
intelligence linked websites said. “It’s
my great pleasure to unveil this statue of our great leader Gen. Yoweri Kaguta
Museveni as part of our Tarehe Sita commemoration.
Once again SFC is leading the way as the first service
to have such a statue,” Museveni’s son said. It was on February 6, 1981, when
the National Resistance Army (NRA) attacked Kabamba barracks which marked the
beginning of the five year guerrilla war that brought Museveni and the National
Resistance Movement (NRM) to power in 1986.
Museveni’s statue attracted a public backlash on various
social media platforms in Uganda. On NBS television facebook page, one Daniel
called it, “a wastage of tax payers’
money,” Eyaru Paul said, “We shall remove it when time comes,” while Ojara Benjamin commented that, “it will be taken down in the near future just
like that of Saddam Hussein and the likes.”
I caught up with a historian and
museum curator and asked him the significance of putting up Museveni’s statue
at this time, after a tightly contested presidential election and a petition
still pending in court. “This is a
project by Gen. Muhoozi who is the president’s son to salvage the waning
popularity of his father, Yoweiri Museveni.
The last election was a litmus test
to show how unpopular Museveni has become with his NRM party. NRM lost many key constituencies and many of
Museveni’s trusted ministers were voted out by young men from the newly formed
National Unity Platform (NUP).”
Experts tell us that the significance
of statues is that they teach us about history, but they do not convey some
immutable truth from the past as captured at a particular point of time. I
again asked the historian and curator why such an important statue in the
history of Uganda was not put in a public place like the Kampala City Square so
that it can serve as a memory to all Ugandans.
“Gen. Muhoozi knows very well that
the selling point of his father Yoweri Museveni to Ugandans has already
expired, and that’s why he chose to put the statue at his office where he knows
it will be guarded. Ugandans have already expressed their need for change. If
it was put in a public place, I do not think it would last for a day.”
The historian further observed that, the problem arises when such a monument seem to represent a person and an ideology that is no longer acceptable to majority Ugandans. “What I agree with Gen. Muhoozi is that his statue and others he asked military commanders to put up in other places, will only serve to remind “young soldiers” about Museveni and not all Ugandans.
The stolen statue
In an article titled, Museveni regime
and arrogance of Power, published in the Daily Monitor
on Tarehe Sita, by Moses Khisa, an assistant Professor at North Carolina State
University (USA), argues that ‘’the Museveni regime (and the army of
hangers-on) is so consumed by the trappings of power; there is no imagining the
end in sight even when the writing is on the wall.”
Khisa also talked about Museveni’s family arrogance in running Uganda’s affairs. “There is a certain sense of bravado, assuredness and arrogance. You hear it in the sardonic voice of Salim Saleh on the Capital Gang talk show and in the tweets of Muhoozi Keinerugaba.
Empty space where the statue had been erected.
In the recent past, Saleh has
become the definitive chief of finance while his nephew presides over control
over the use of force.” Museveni is a very proud man…. he is willing to
forcefully fight whoever dares to challenge him; Moses Khisa further says. He
concludes by saying that, everything has its own shelf life…., unfortunately for
Museveni and his regime, a combination of both internal dynamics and external
forces doom his shelf life being past the sale-by-date.