I know Museveni well.
I know Museveni well.
I was, at one time,
His Permanent Secretary.
As his Permanent Secretary,
I had to read any speech
He was to deliver in public.
The first speech he gave me
Was the one to be delivered
At Kisubi School.
It was on the Government policy
To move to the Left.
As I skipped through the speech
And glanced at the author
It occurred to me
That he was not a very easy person
To describe positively.
It was easier to describe him
By negatives.
He could not be accused
Of possessing
Much creative imagination.
Nor of being a great reasoner.
Loose observations
Which might pass in conversation
Found their way in an article
Written, corrected, and ready
For presentation by him.
I returned the speech to him
Without any correction
And with my approval of it.
I then took advantage
Of the occasion to discuss things
Generally with him.
He did not have high opinion
About many around him.
He sneered almost at everybody.
I would say, “But surely
The Vice President is doing everything
With obvious successes,
To increase the population
Of exotic cattle
In the hands of farmers.â€
Answer: “He is a snakeâ€.
Question: “And what about Onama ...â€
Answer: “That is a C.I.A.â€
After the coup, he was asked
About Milton Obote,
Akena and Oyite
On whom Amin had placed millions.
His comments were pithy:
“Obote is reactionary.
Tried to pass a progressive.
Failed badly.â€
“Akena is not a politician.
Why talk about him?â€
“Oyite is bourgeoise
Military automation.
Never serious.â€
He practised the art
Of sneering at everybody
So much so that it obtained for him
The reputation
Of being a great judge
Of character
From those people who are impressed
By such art.
His conversation
Kept his listener attentive
And on occasion entertained
But didn’t appeal
Much to the imagination.
But he was ever persistent
And it did not take me long
To discover
That he was eaten up
By ambition.
His ambition
Was so intense
That it became
A substitute for talents.
His whole heart seemed
To have been devoted
To the attainment
Of the goal of his ambition.
The characters of men
May be compared
To the facial features of men.
Just as no two features
Are quite alike,
So are there no two characters
Which are quite alike.
None of the twelve million
Ugandans Can be taken by a person
Who knows him for another.
Yet grotesque deviation
From the common Characteristic facial feature
Of a forehead, two eyes,
A nose, a mouth and two ears.
Are indeed very rare.
Here and there you may encounter
An unusually large or small
Eyes, or nose or mouth or ears.
The same with characters.
Inborn in all of us
Is the passion for love,
Hatred, jealousy, avarice,
Pleasure and pride and so on.
Yet one mind may
Predominantly display
One of these passions
That the other passions
Are dwarfed completely.
In the case of Museveni
The passion developed
To morbid degree
Is one for political power.
The monomania
To rule over others.
We have expressed ourselves
Rather strongly
On the subject of Museveni.
We have not done so
From any unfriendly feeling.
On the contrary,
We have been at pain
To project him as he is
Or, at least, as we see him.
We do not agree
With those who proclaim him
As a man with a political base
Outside Uganda
Or that he is
An overrated politician
Without the personality
Necessary to maintain him
On the eminence
Of the political battle field.
We believe, on the contrary,
That his being known as one
Of the Ugandan political leaders
In exile
Was due to his contribution .
To anti-Amin activities.
In any case, competition
For Ugandan leadership
Amongst some two thousand exiles
Is a very different thing
From competition
For Ugandan leadership
Amongst twelve million Ugandan citizens.
Excerpts from o’s FROM OBOTE TO OBOTE
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Salutation to the now unseen Akena Adoko. His assessment of Museveni's character was acurate, to the point of almost devine revelation.
May God rest his soul in peace!
Innocent