Mao not yet Museveni successor

By John Nagenda

OPINION

Norbert Mao, DP's current Leader, is not, so far as the political eye can discern, the Leader to succeed President Museveni. That one will be President Museveni, but after? And no matter what that sagacious journalist, my young friend, Muwonge Mayengo, thought of that Catholic political party's chances of yet making it to the top, Mao might first have to move from his Party to another (even Museveni's?) to get the job. 

By this, I mean that Museveni is "nailed on" to win next year's presidential elections and that by that time Norbert Mao, who will almost certainly have lost the DP leadership, will have moved on to the National Resistance Movement. In that case, the President's resignation after he had triumphantly won the Election for the fifth time off the reel, the irrepressible Mao would have learnt the tricks of the trade and become ready to rule the roost for NRM. 

I freely admit I write this without a word of it to any of the key players! But Mao seems to me head and shoulders above the opposition, especially from the Northern corners. While it is true that Obote (twice), Amin for a full term, Okello was only president for a brief term. If President Museveni wins again next year, as he is expected, he would have been in the chair for the full five terms. 

Kabaka (King) Mutesa was fooled into the presidency for a brief time before Obote attacked his palace, and he escaped to England, never to return alive. Should Mao, a very presentable presence, ascend to the Presidency of Uganda as Chairman of NRM, it would make him a most acceptable President. 

He is a very popular Northerner (interestingly with an Ankole, southern, mother); and what's more, a once-popular President General of the foremost Religious Party, the Roman Catholics, who have never held the Ugandan presidency! 

Of course, if we were to be visited by that horrible marauder Coronavirus, how lucky we the Ugandans were that we had Museveni for President! As I write this, we have a total under 2,000 of our population ill, and no deaths. I hate tempting Death by boasting (none of it is due to yours truly, except at home, where we run a tight ship with plenty of masks.) 

I have sallied out twice or thrice in my nice vehicle to get sumbusa triangles from Munyonyo Beach by Lake Victoria. The place is deserted, and the Lake has reswallowed some of the land unluckily. On the other hand, I resent the World newsgatherers for not giving our figures of 2,000 and zero the publicity richly deserved. I hate it when the yappers on their radios (BBC as well) with this fantastic knowledge held back. What if it belonged to their old lady Beeb? It is very well put: "Black Life Matters!"

It makes me sad to have to take the Police (and LDUs) to task because most of them live in what I can only call dingy quarters. They are paid better than used to be the case, and anyway not all that many of them used to be paid much better before, and they went in with their eyes open. 

As a result, they get up to mischief of all sorts: the worst of it hiring their firearms for hire, followed by letting it happen that they take part in crime for hire. It lets the side down when you can't tell a good copper from a bent one. If you asked a lawful citizen, whether most of them could find a well-behaved policeman (or even woman) the answer would be a spit on the roadside. The usual type of behaviour is asking for bribes as soon as look at you, called "a little one". They can turn nasty if it is not forthcoming! The sooner Ugandans of all types collects many little ones and bind them into "medium bits" the better for all concerned", including the higher types in the Police Force. 

But the very worst of it is how they treat ordinary citizens with contempt, even to killing men or women. I hardly read a newspaper without another murder. It is a pity but, I often wonder immediately whether it is at the hands of the police. 

What do you know? There is a case right now near one of the Makerere chapels of a young boy's death. Named Tegu, his case was indeed so convoluted that my immediate thought was that somewhere in it we would find a policeman! It was (several of them). By the way, the young boy is now permanently dead. Government, will you please find out the whole gory details, and punish the offenders quickly? 

I have asked myself whether the Army is like the Police (and LDUs) and next week I'll ask those in the know which of these is the better behaved. Hopefully the Army? The journalists have sunk their teeth in many cases at any rate. I may be over-romantic, but let this case be solved! We are after all, in my view, the best Government we ever had in Uganda. In the name of a boy called Tegu, may we not rest until the guilty are found?