Ex-British premier’s ‘unfiltered truths’ about Museveni

DIPLOMACY 

Ex-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has just published his political memoir with heart-searching confessions including one about Uganda President Yoweri Museveni, COVID-19, the late Queen Elizabeth II and his future in politics.

The American-born British journalist and Conservative Party politician Boris Johnson was Prime Minister from July 24, 2019, to September 6, 2022.

Johnson’s memoir "Unleashed", hit the shelves on October 10 with the former UK foreign secretary pledging what he calls the "unfiltered truth".

Excerpts from the memoir, a copy of which New Vision has seen, indicate that Boris spent “happy hours talking to Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni”.

According to Johnson, Museveni is pivotal to lasting peace in the Great Lakes Region countries, which include Burundi, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.

The United Nations says instability in the Great Lakes region remains a source of grave concern, especially in DR Congo as violence between armed groups and against civilians continues, with an unacceptable toll in human casualties and forced displacement. The UN has always rooted in mediation efforts to reach a peace agreement.

The instability in the region has spread to several countries including Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia. As a result of the instability, the displacement has greatly contributed to the influx of over one million refugees into Uganda.

“… that ancient bush fighter who is so important for the peace of the region, from Somalia to Congo to Sudan,” an excerpt from the memoir reads.

“He is crucial, and though we may disapprove of some of his prejudices (such as his 2014 ban on gay sex) we have to engage with him more, or else he will just talk to others instead,” Johnson writes.

Museveni’s peace efforts

President Museveni has been at the forefront of brokering peace among warring parties within the Great Lakes Region countries including Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan and DRC.

The brokerage has seen Uganda commit troops to peace efforts in eastern DRC under East African Community Regional Force (EACRF) and Somalia under the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM), a peacekeeping mission operated by the AU in Somalia with approval by the UN.

President Museveni on October 7 this year expressed his willingness to mediate the ongoing conflict in Sudan, should both parties be open to his involvement.

“I am ready to mediate the conflict if they are agreeable," Museveni said during a meeting with United Nations Envoy for Sudan Ramtane Lamamra at State House Entebbe.

The Ugandan president reiterated his commitment to joining efforts to restore peace in Sudan, emphasising that the root cause of the conflict lies in the promotion of identity politics, which destabilises a country as diverse as Sudan.

He urged the warring factions to agree to a ceasefire and to hand over power to the people of Sudan.

According to Johnson, Museveni is pivotal to lasting peace in the Great Lakes Region countries, which include Burundi, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Disagreement on the Russia-Ukraine war

Johnson also says in the memoir that Russia President Vladmir Putin's February 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine saw 141 UN votes against it, but many countries offered lukewarm support or even sympathy for Russia.

According to him, it was a complex global response, ‘where there was more than sneaking sympathy for Putin’.

However, in June of the same year, the former premier felt he would marshal more support for Ukraine from Commonwealth member states.

Johnson reminisces about the June 2022 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Rwanda where Museveni disagreed with him on the Ukraine question: ‘When it came to Putin and Ukraine, however, we were miles apart’.

“I made what I thought was a reasonable argument against the invasion, only to find that my old friend Yoweri Museveni… was raising his hand. ‘I do not agree with what Boris Johnson has said.’ Generally I got on famously with this merry-faced old fighter, who had helped overthrow the dictator Idi Amin,” an excerpt reads.

Johnson says he is afraid that in many countries, the West’s ‘delicious disputations’ on some subjects including democracy, human rights and press freedom are “viewed with bemusement if not outright hostility — not just by the leaders, but by many of the people themselves”.

Putin, according to Johnson presents himself as a champion of old-fashioned family (or Christian)values and as a result, his ‘dark charisma’ is compelling. It is because of this charisma that many African countries, according to Johnson, are aligned with Putin or ambiguous about Ukraine’s situation.

"So after Yoweri Museveni and I had argued each other to a standstill, I gave up, and the fifty-six countries of the Commonwealth contrived in their long communiqué to say nothing about Ukraine at all. Oh, except for a brief reference to the food shortages and price inflation".

Putin gives us weapons

The former UK premier says Museveni being about 80 years old, 'surely he could see what was happening' [with the war between Russia and Ukraine]. 

"Putin’s attack was a neo-colonialist assault on a newly independent state. It was naked imperialism. Surely he was anti-imperialist?"

He quotes Museveni as saying: ‘Putin gives us weapons,’  a statement Johnson responds to, "... there, I am afraid, he has a point".

"Look around sub-Saharan Africa and you will find that Russia is the biggest supplier of weapons, with about 25 per cent of the market. Unlike some of us Western countries, Putin believes in a no-questions-asked approach. You got a problem with Islamists? says Moscow: we’ll send the  Wagner group! They will blow them away," an excerpt from the memoir reads.

UK is more important than Russia

From the memoir, Johnson argues that “Britain is, or ought to be, a FAR more important partner, for these countries than Russia” because ‘we trade more with most of them; we invest more’. This is because Britain’s economy is bigger and more diverse.

Happy discussions

Johnson indicates in his memoir that he and Museveni over the years had 'happy discussions about 'Land Rovers and cattle farming, and he always seemed to me to have a sentimental interest in – if not quite allegiance to – the old colonial power'. 

"As he once explained to me, his very name is a reminder that his father had fought for the 7th Battalion of the King’s African Rifles: hence Mu-seveni," Johnson writes.

During one of the state on nation addresses, President Museveni said he is called 'Museveni' because the name is a corruption of the English word 'seven'.

"The seventh regiment of the British army was where most Ugandans served. So, in the Bantu language,  they say 'aba seveni' the people of the seventh. So, I'm one of those colonial soldiers," he said.

Charting Johnson political journey

Johnson's memoir charts his rise in politics to become London mayor, before leading the "Leave" campaign during the 2016 Brexit referendum, to becoming Tory leader in 2019 when he secured a landslide general election victory.

Johnson was ousted in disgrace by colleagues fewer than three years later following a series of scandals, particularly the illegal Covid lockdown-breaking parties at Downing Street.

Mixed reviews

Unleashed has met mixed reviews with The Financial Times saying Johnson’s writing of history attempt will delight Johnson’s supporters and infuriate his detractors, while teasingly settling a few scores.

Eira Makepeace, another reviewer, says: “He is funny, engaging and can shine a light like no other. Best of all he determines the context of the many challenges he faced. The major flaw in the book is that we are never quite assured of Boris’ honesty but the man he presents in this book is a clever man whose cleverness was not matched by any of his cabinet colleagues, who did not care much for their advice and pretty well ploughed his own furrow”.