Historicals are human

Jun 21, 2003

YOUR columnist, reversing the trend of those intrepid explorers of yesteryear, has now himself been rummaging around Europe. His findings will follow at a more leisurely time.

One Man’s Week
By John Nagenda

YOUR columnist, reversing the trend of those intrepid explorers of yesteryear, has now himself been rummaging around Europe. His findings will follow at a more leisurely time.

For he returns at a period of great interest within his own land, one moreover, which is likely to play a decisive role in Uganda’s future. I have not been, for the last three weeks or so, on the ground to study at close quarters what the feelings are on the political field.

But I am in the lucky position of being able to use yesterday’s article “Ofwono’s Option” in Vision.

The sub’s headline goes: “The Movement is not for historicals alone”, which is surely correct. In fact it should never be forgotten.

That is why the Vice-President, the Speaker, the Prime Minister (and his First and Third Deputies), to mention but a few, but what a few, are not historicals. To these you can add a sizeable component from the cabinet, as well as the civil service. And you can add Ofwono Opondo himself, no less than the Movement’s Director of Information at the Secretariat. What a dizzy climb in so short a period!

The sub-title to his article (titles and headlines are usually in the provenance of the paper’s sub editors) is also well chosen: “The writer discusses a matter of sensitive concern in the Movement”.

Precisely. It is sensitive because of the subject matter. It is also sensitive because of the people it discusses. Those named are Kizza Besigye, Eriya Kategaya and Amanya Mushega, in order of mention. I will pass Besigye over:

there are people who have better claims to this one, for example Mrs Besigye, Anne Mugisha and Sam Njuba, to mention but three. It is when we come to Kategaya and Mushega, that I stand up to be counted, not only for myself, but for the Movement and for Uganda. I will start with Mushega. He is an arrogant person, but a good one.

We had a fight (of words!) when we first met on my visit to The Bush in 1985, which made it difficult as he had been assigned to guide the present Kabaka of Buganda and me on our travels in National Resistance Army (NRA) controlled territory. But as we travelled he and I discovered a kinmanship which lasts to this day.

But occasionally we have to be (metaphorically) pulled aside as our comments heat up. Because Mushega used the term “political creepers” at the NEC meeting at Kyankwanzi, Ofwono Opondo concludes, “…this classification is …intended to intimidate the so-called “creepers” so that they do not stand up against indiscipline and possibly mischief from the “founders” of the Movement”.

Did Mushega say that “the creepers” only come from the new as opposed to the founder members of the Movement? Ofwono sneers, “…if this is a genuine …struggle between the “old” and the “new”, no one should be scared of getting involved because the progressive forces will prevail over the apparent pseudo revolutionaries of yesteryears”. One for a brief second sees the comical scenario of “new” Ofwono slaughtering with his little arrow the “old” giants Kategaya and Mushega, if those are the ones he is talking about.

For Goodness sake! Elsewhere he says, “…according to the Bible, Jesus Christ was betrayed by Judas Iscariot, one of his original disciples”. This is preposterous! Is Mr Ofwono saying that both Kategaya and Mushega are Iscariots? If he has the proof he should come right out and present it. He says that “with the anticipated retirement” of the President in 2006,
these “historicals” are “bickering” because in their “self-delusion” they had thought “the baton would automatically be passed over to them”. These realistic and intelligent Banyankole, to think of succeeding another one of them?!

With Kategaya I have spoken enough in the past. I was relieved to hear while in London that the Makerere Guild fund-enjoyer upstart who had thought it fit to insult Eriya Kategaya in the most personal manner imaginable, was summarily kicked out of State House.

What that does is to prove that recent matters notwithstanding, the highest authority will have no track with malwa-type abuse. That is on the personal side. But even more importantly, what people like Ofwono should never forget is that these “old” Movementists at whom he jeers, represent very strong tidal waves behind them.

Unity amongst us all has been hard-won. It is inconceivable that it should be threatened by importunate words from
a few.
* * *
I returned from my journeys to discover that my worst expectations (and prophecies) regarding Kony and his Satanic forces had been more than fulfilled, including his plans for the Church. We shall return to this. But it is with General Kazini’s magical 340,000,000 shilling transport conveyance that I want to end. It has more features than the map of your country. It can read drivers fingerprints. It can probably bark out commands in seven languages at the same time. No doubt if it drops you off at Ange Noir nightclub it can “get down” to a salsa or a twist. In Denmark (of which more next week) people ride to work on bicycles and they send us money to balance our budget. Even if they didn’t! I hear of an Indian magnate who wants a Range Rover like the one above. Let him be sold ours, even at a discount. The price we paid is
the equivalent of 3400 monthly salaries at sh100,000 each.
Put that in your pipe
and smoke it, as we used to say.
Ends

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});