With election season now underway, Uganda is an attraction for all kinds of “allies” with hidden motives and self-seekers trying to make a name for themselves. Today I address the issue of Julius Malema, a South African opposition noisemaker. He was formerly a youth leader in the ruling African National Congress (ANC) before he was forced out due to indiscipline. He now heads the EFF.
In clip shared on social media, he is seen and heard making a big deal of Bobi Wine (whose real name, Kyagulanyi Sentamu, I doubt he even knows or can pronounce). If Malema is truly inspired by Bobi Wine’s politics, then South Africa is in trouble. I think there is something awful in those red berets!
Bobi Wine can hardly keep his own comrades from leaving his camp just a few seasons in politics. How long can his wave last when put to any serious challenge as we shall see during the ongoing election season? Many have determined that he is building a personal and family empire without a proper grasp of what comes next on the wider map. That is not the breed of liberators Africa wants or needs. May be in Malema’s thinking that is the best on offer but I can challenge him in that belief. Actually the most outspoken and pompous caliber are not the true leaders of the new generation; those are self-seekers selling themselves for favours from a few influencers in the Western world.
The genuine strugglists are too busy to go shopping around for accolades and endorsement. By the time the showy group realises that it has been running after the wrong partners, Africa will have left them behind.
Africa is rich with manpower, endowed a teeming large population young people and these are the pride of true Pan-Africanists. They are the future of the continent, the ones expected to take lessons from history and avoid making strategic mistakes which have caused the continent to lag behind “forever”. But it is not a matter of being young; the mindset must be mature and the body compliant.
Malema talks about nature being on the side of the young people. By that assertion, he means that the old will die. It does not take neuro science to know that advanced age comes with its own culminations. However, death is no respecter of age. Any age works. At the same time, the higher doctrine in Uganda (and which should spur Africa forward) is “Ideology not biology”. Every African at whatever age should participate in advancing good leadership for the continent in order not to miss out on the 4th industrial revolution.
Everybody knows that Museveni is the voice of Africa today; that is why he is entrusted to lead efforts towards integration of regions and then finally the continent. Previously, voices that championed Africa’s cohesion were extinguished prematurely such as Kwame Nkrumah and Muammar Gadhafi. We cannot afford to lose Museveni or push him to the sidelines.
Malema is free to do public relations for anyone but the decision for who leads Uganda squarely lies in the hands of Uganda. President Ramaphosa may be on good terms with President Museveni, as the young man states, but he does not come dictating who Ugandans should vote.
What signals is Malema sending by interfering in the internal affairs of other countries? Isn’t that dictatorship of the worst form? Isn’t it Apartheid wearing new clothes?
Africa’s young people should respect elders; that is a moral obligation because old age is a gift which many never live to enjoy. We are all free to disagree with anything but within the established legal, moral and social set up and compete based on issues and within our jurisdictions. People make it look as if when you are an NRM supporter you agree with everything does. That is a false assumption. NRM understands the challenges of Uganda best and has consistently offered to take on those challenges head on for everybody.
Museveni leads the front against all those challenges by being where the battle is hardest yet rivals think it is fun. All the blame goes to him despite the fact that they contributed little or nothing in resolving those challenges. All they sell is populism and slogans. When they chorus that he should leave power without providing alternative proposals for ending the challenges being combated against they are, in effect, in support of keeping Ugandans chained by those challenges.
That is the problem with the political class that Malema supports; they have not provided policy alternatives for majority of Ugandans (who are increasingly enlightened) to understand them. Does Malema understand the depth of the aspirations of Ugandans or he hears from a few people and listens to a few songs and joins the chorus?
Malema should concentrate on “liberating” South Africa where, in the previous elections, his party suffered humbling defeat at the hands of ANC despite so much rhetoric. Is he exporting his frustrations to Uganda?
For Ugandans, no amount of intimidation and populist engineering will distract them from the objective of maintaining tested and trusted leadership with President Museveni at the helm. He will secure the future of Uganda and Africa at large.
The same message goes to the shady lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, who has made Ugandan affairs his commodity on the market of imperialist operators!
The author is a Presidential Assistant in Charge of Media Management
Contact: kirundaf2@gmail.com
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