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OPINION

Rt. Rev. Dr. Fred Sheldon Mwesigwa

By Rt. Rev. Dr. Fred Sheldon Mwesigwa

My inspiration to write about the raging United States presidential campaigns to elect the flag bearers of the two leading political parties, Republicans and Democrats, Trump or Biden, is the New Vision of February 27, 2024 article by Agatha Lubwama giving an overview of the candidates’ manifestos, the political map of the US and the prospects of each candidate to win.

The missing link in this article in my view is that while it addresses the topic ‘What Ugandans should note about this year’s presidential elections’, it misses to highlight the side of Trump that Ugandans would fall in love with very easily.

I have on several occasions seen clips and writings splashed across social media denigrating Trump and demonising him as a hater of Africans. True, Donald Trump is on record for having made some annoying remarks about African countries and even China or Russia, but the exaggerations are beyond imagination.

One recent clip by a TikToker in Luganda was entitled ‘Obusilu obuli mubadugavu sibulabangako’ meaning, ‘The foolishness of Africans is of a rare kind.’ Surely, how daft can a presidential candidate be to say all the things the TikToker reeled off, as if they were facts?

So much for the misuse of social media. Ugandans may love to know that Donald Trump, despite his chequered personal life in the eyes of moralists, according to AFP news agency, a casino-owning playboy, married three times and facing 91 criminal charges, he is the favourite candidate for Republicans since he is already the presumptive Republican party candidate following the Super Tuesday contest which the sworn enemy CNN referred to in a derogatory manner as ‘Stupor Tuesday.’

Ugandans may love to know that the Republican Party is largely supported by the white evangelicals, who in 2016 gave him 77% of their votes. The white evangelicals are referred to as Christian nationalists and conservative or right wing.

What distinguishes the Republicans from the Democrats is that the former promotes an anti-abortion agenda, generally opposed to LGBTQ+ agenda, sex change, including choice to young children to undergo sex change.

The Republicans with the backing of white evangelicals generally view the US as a covenant nation marked for the chosen children of God. To this extent, Ugandans would be at home with Donald Trump since he supports religion and apparently appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court who in 2022 overturned the long-standing Roe vs Wade ruling that had allowed for abortion rights, a verdict that Joe Biden recently criticised.

With Donald Trump in the White House, I do not envisage that restrictions on trade between the US and Uganda would be imposed on the basis of Uganda having passed the anti-homosexuality Bill. Nor would Sarah Opendi be denied a visa to the US on the account of her role in framing the anti-gay Bill. What Ugandans may need to know is that Ugandan illegal immigrants would almost certainly be flown, shipped or shoved out of the US.

It is for this reason that the majority of blacks and black evangelicals are more at home with Joe Biden who supports homosexuality and LGBTQ+ agenda, abortion, ensuring that illegals stay in the US and related liberal, far left policies.

A typical religious Ugandan would be at pains to decide to support Trump or Biden in view of the support for religious rights by the former (despite the tag of being a racist) and the embrace of immigrants by the latter. My little or much knowledge of Ugandans, with their rich religious history, including the making of martyrs, tells me that they would most likely prefer a Trump to a Biden.

The writer is Bishop of Ankole Diocese and chancellor Bishop Stuart University