It was at around 4pm 29th July, 1985 while at a fundraising that was supposed to be presided over by Chris Rwakasisi at St John’s SS Nyabwina play ground, that the news which my family and many other NRA war believers were waiting for came in.
Yes, it was the first round that laid the ground for your victory but it was a moment that many people celebrated. The government of Obote 11 had fallen and our suffering had been halted. There was extreme anxiety that day and I was happy because I had been lined up to play in a band organised to receive a man that was behind the torment of our parents. It was a depressing moment for many but we had no choice. I recall vividly your Excellency that it was a day of reckoning. We spent most of our days on the radio waiting for your real success and we were all glad.
From that day, I saw people hurting others with joy, cows of UPC leaders being openly slaughtered alive and standing, banana plantations cut down joyfully, beards of local government leaders being plucked in pain but in joy by opponents and arrogant leaders of UPC being openly mocked and belittled. I was excited because finally, the tormentors had been defeated. As a 10 year old seeing his parents worried and belittled everyday, I was possibly right to get excited. It’s today in the years of 2000 that I realize that I was possibly wrong to be excited. I’m however consoled by my innocence as a child then.
Your Excellency, many years after that date, I now realize that we are slowly creating the same conditions that I abhorred as a child but this time in a serious way. We have planted a serious seed of dishonesty among political leaders which I strongly believe is slowly undermining the will of the people. Restoring the will of people and setting them on the path of self determination was indeed the primary objective of the largely innocent people that braved the tormentors of the time. We are slowly becoming tormentors of the same people that you and many of your supporters including innocent children like me then and my fellow band members swore on cold blood to never do. We are slowly taking away the will of the people and the true inheritance they have. The power to decide and the feeling that their will is being abused by those that should be privileged to lead them.
I later left the country to study in our neighborhood Tanzania. With admiration, I fell in love with Mwarimu Nyerere’s legacy as a leader. I still mirror Mwarimu Nyerere in you and I recall, he was always full of praise for you as our new philosopher Leader. He personally made me love you more as my Leader that restored hope in majority Ugandans. I admired Mwarimu Nyerere for his faith in Tanzania and the people of Tanzania. He lead them for 24 years but in those many years, he built a national army, left a framework for protecting the nation’s resources, built a strong party CCM and empowered the Tanzanian people to carry on. He retired, became the nation’s most respected elder/Father of the Nation through the will of the people. He died in decoration.
I sincerely wish you to be my Mwarimu too. Yes, things may not be the same but sacrifices are real and qualifying. Allow to retire, become the nation’s teacher and guide and allow the people of Uganda to see what they have never seen. A peaceful handover of power and a retired President. We are now ripe for that and please don’t allow any Ugandan to lie to you. Don’t allow us to destroy ourselves your Excellency. Don’t change the age limit of our President.
May God bless you Your Excellency.
Dr. Deus Kamunyu Muhwezi (PhD)
Destination Marketing & Management Specialist (Difficult Places)
Department of Forestry, Biodiversity & Tourism
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
Makerere University
P.O. Box 7062
Kampala, Uganda
e-mail: deus.muhwezi@caes.mak.ac.ug or
kamunyu.muhwezi@gmail.com
Research Interests: Place symbolism, image formation of difficult places, prosperity entrepreneurship and peace, Country image and positive peace.
Other Responsibilities:
Publicity Secretary, Makerere University Convocation (MUC) – Alumni and Staff Association
Public Relations Officer (Executive Committee) – Makerere University Academic Staff Association (MUASA)
Founder, Uganda Hospitality Institute (UHI)
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