Why Museveni presides over a decayed system
The basic structures through which power is exercised and the different governmental systems in place do not serve the cause of the public good; rather, they mostly serve the interests of individuals and specific cabals who extract personal benefits from public resources.
It is a sad commentary on African politics that more than half century of independence and African rulers today are engaged in similarly deleterious practices and regressive policies as their predecessors at independence.
After independence, in many African states, it wasn’t too long before rulers who felt challenged by opponents went down the road of repression and militarism, sectarianism and suppression of dissent.
Yet, quite remarkably, the same sectarianism that a young Museveni denounced as backward is what today is brazenly practiced with little shame at his behest. The use of the state’s coercive apparatus to repress and humiliate citizens which ostensibly riled our ‘liberators’ is precisely what they continue to engage in albeit sometimes in more subtle ways.
The ruler in chief likes to downplay the humongous failures and dysfunctions staring directly at him, often evoking his track record of fighting wars such that nothing can defeat him! He shrugs off the reality that he presides over a hugely corrupt enterprise whose stench is so sharp.
The inefficiency in undertaking basic public goods works and providing critical services is so glaring. Consider that doing a two-lane road like the Northern bypass on the outskirts of the capital takes years and no one is bothered, not even the so-called development partners, in this case the European Union who have sunk in money.
The land registry, and the ministry as a whole, is considered by many Ugandans a den of thieving and bastion of decay in government. An understaffed court system is compounded by an entrenched culture of injustice where citizens run with the hope of getting justice.
The education sector, presided over by the ruler’s wife, yes and there’s never a feeling that something like that is not right, totters under the heavy heap of terrible facilities, poor instruction and the misguided rush for marks and grades by both learners and parents.
Even the hitherto hackneyed security that we were for long told had made possible peaceful nights of sleep has been in peril with rogue activities and criminal gangs in police and intelligence agencies.
We can go on and on. The point is, under the current regime, countless things have gone wrong and will continue to deepen. I have in this column repeatedly underlined the ills and evils that have endemically afflicted Uganda.
What remains utterly puzzling is the indifference of the rulers and their display of callousness. What’s even more shocking is that the ruler himself and the coterie ruling with him seem even less bothered with every passing year. There are two possible explanations to this.
First, the ruler has strongly persuaded himself, and believes so firmly his own delusions, that he is on a mission to deliver Uganda. Therefore, he cannot be distracted away from focussing on the agenda he has set to accomplish.
So, he looks around and castigates his ministers for being sleepy but he is sure he has his hand on the pulse and will deliver Uganda no matter those ‘small’ problems he sees as minor issues.
But it’s simply the curse of power. Power blinds and obscures. It engenders hubris and arrogance. The Ugandan rulers today is fully convinced that he has his mind and focus on accomplishing the big mission. There is no realising that the ground around him is shaky and might crumble unexpectedly and to tragic effect.
Unfortunately for him, it is quite common and to be expected when an authoritarian ruler clings to power for this long, there are sorts of delusions. The second and equally important force at play here is that the system Mr Museveni presides over benefits some people and groups of people. They are thus invested in defending the system and perpetuating it.
They work for it and benefit from it. They play roles during elections to finance campaigns, facilitate rigging and in between elections they contribute to funding the wider patronage machinery.
Among these are sycophants who tell Mr Museveni that Ugandans loves him and still crave for his misrule, but what they mean in fact is that their own material fortunes and interests are tied to the continuation of the decayed system of rule without which the future could be in jeopardy.
The sad reality with a long and pervasive system of misrule is that it ensnares all across the board including academics at the very highest level who one would expect to be more independent-minded and above the cheapness of power. Not quite.
Part of the reason why the system survives and the ruler is happy to press on is because it captures just about everyone or at least indirectly compromises voices that would have the moral authority to stand above the crowd. In the end though, things almost inevitably have to fall apart!
moses.khisa@gmail.com
The author is an assistant professor of political science at North Carolina State University.