Towards the end of last week, a sad episode of a viral video of what seemed to be a group of Ugandans booing former Prime Minister, Rt Hon. Amama Mbabazi on one of the streets of London as he was struggling to disembark from a vehicle that was either dropping him off for a medical checkup or a meeting.
In the video, a handful group of ‘disenfranchised’ bitter Ugandans are seen hauling insults at the person of Hon. Amama Mbabazi. Mbabazi who has been battling a back issue, has sought specialized medical attention in the United Kingdom, Hon. Mbabazi’s family released a video the same week but updated the country about his ill health.
In this video Hon. Mbabazi informed the nation that had been undergoing treatment in London, having developed a back problem, adding that he was recovering well and had resumed his diplomatic duties notwithstanding.
I worked with Hon. Amama Mbabazi a few years ago, and if there’s one thing I know about him, that’s the fact that he is a hard worker, this gentleman is very hardworking, and on many occasions, he forgets about himself. I believe it’s primmest on this principle that even at the time he is battling with poor health, he can still afford to set aside some time and render service to his country.
Our brothers and sisters who have either migrated to Europe or America, should firstly not forget that they are Ugandans, waking up every morning to don a winter jacket and eat a pizza on the streets of London and New York, does not qualify you to be Europeans or Americans, in the Africa traditions we don’t insult nor scorn the sick, the dead, the elderly or children.
For you to insult Hon. Mbabazi at his age and a man battling for his life is not African. This kind of politics of insulting people and name-calling them will not usher you to political power; we have two or three means of wrestling one out of political power, firstly do political mobilization, second wage an armed rebellion, and third organize an insurrection like the Arab Spring.
On abusing and insulting people, am yet to witness this as one of the new political theories that have been discovered lately to wrestle for political power; otherwise, this only illuminates a bad light on your political struggle if there’s anything like that, otherwise, you are just a group of a bad mannered lot of Ugandans with a self-entitlement to insult and blackmail others with impunity under the guise of political activism.
Hatred has never been a successful means of wrestling or retaining political power in history. The Nazis tried it, they lost and the confederates in America applied hate they also lost then came the apartheid regime in South Africa they also lost, the NUP activists ought they know this and revise their methods or else, they risk going down our political history as the most intolerant unfortunate episode that ever unfolded in Uganda’s political history.
The chants that the NRM government should have built hospitals to treat its people and its leaders is rather a parochial reasoning, most of the African leaders and nobles have always sought medical services in Europe, America, and India, is it the NRM government that is ruling over entire Africa?
What the African elites should know is that no amount of eating pizzas in the Western capitals will develop Africa, what we need is to take lessons from what China did, they sent their sons and daughters to Europe and America to learn how the West was doing things, they went back home and developed China, this is what we need to do, our young people cannot just go to Europe and America and only learn how they can build small apartments back home and staging minor protests against their leaders in western capitals.
The writer is an Analyst and Communications Specialist
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