24 January 2003
column
Kampala — The Long View
It is not surprising that Ugandans are marking a record 17 years of the NRM in power.
It is a befitting reward for a leadership that has perfected the politics of dialogue, compromise and consensus in the best interest of the people.
Contrary to the warped perception that Museveni is a militarist who brooks no challenge, the last 17 years-and even before-have shown that he is always ready to climb down and listen to any pretender to the throne.
The President's brokering of harmony between defence minister Amama Mbabazi and his Kanungu rival, James Musinguzi, this week, was just the latest illustration of the long history of his dialogue acclaim. This comes shortly after the President declared that self-exiled Col. Kizza Besigye is free to come back home.
Chronologically the president's dialogue politics stretches back to the NRM bush days.
1. It is known that far back in 1983, the NRA leadership accepted overtures from some elements in Milton Obote's UPC government. Unfortunately, a prominent NRA emissary Maj. Katabarwa was killed when he embarked on a dialogue mission.
2. When divisions rocked UPC, the Okellos' faction kicked out Obote and reached out to the NRA for dialogue. Guerrilla leader Museveni and his team enthusiastically accepted the olive branch. But the resultant so-called Nairobi Peace Accord could not hold because some of the rogue elements in the Okello group continued to massacre Ugandans contrary to the pact. The NRA was therefore left with no choice but to liberate the people by the gun.
3. Even as the undisputed victor, the NRM made it its business to reach out and talk to the vanquished, starting with the Uganda People's Democratic Movement /Army (UPDM/A)-remnants of UNLA-in Acholi, led by Lt. Col. Angelo Okello. An agreement was subsequently reached in 1988.
4. Not too long after that, the exiled political head of UPDM, Eric Otema Allimadi, former Prime Minister in the Obote II regime, returned home and lived unmolested until he died in peace a year or so ago.
5. Allimadi's was not an isolated case. Other top exiled politicians (who were not necessarily rebels) who returned included ex-presidents, Gen. Tito Okello Lutwa (RIP) and Godfrey Binaisa Q.C., three of the Gang of Four ( Omwony Ojwok, Edward Rugumayo and Dan Wadada Nabudere) and many others whom I would need acres of space to list here.
6. Similarly, President Museveni talked to and made peace with the Uganda People's Army (UPA) rebels in Teso. The rebel leaders, such as Max Omeda and Col. William Omaria, joined government and rose to become ministers.
7. The charlatan Alice Lakwena, of the Holy Spirit Movement fame, despite being defeated, has also had her share of the olive branch from government. Even after beating her hands down, the Museveni administration did not rub salt in her wounds, preferring to treat her as an unenlightened and misled woman who would benefit from amnesty and start a new life.
Strangely she prefers to remain in self-imposed exile in a Kenyan refugee camp, where she has become so obese tailors around there need acres of cloth to make good her covering. Let's hope the cotton harvest continues to be good in those areas.
8. Even Aggrey Awori of the Force Obote Back Again, (FOBA) rebel group returned and settled down. We all know he is now Samia-Bugwe MP and one of the loudest voices in Parliament.
9. Of course, not to forget that a whole rebel army, Moses Ali's Uganda National Rescue Front (UNRF) was integrated into the national army after dialogue and agreement with the NRM.
10. More than a decade-and-a-half after coming to power, the spirit of dialogue in the NRM is not about to run out.
The cup is still full and running over. Even the renegade elements of Moses Ali's group, UNRF II led by Ali Bamuze recently had their hearing before the President and are a happy lot today. They are benefiting from the amnesty and good resettlement packages.
11. Even the otherwise unforgivable, genocidal Joseph Kony and his so-called Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), have been given a chance of a life time to name a team and talk to the government's publicly known line-up!
12. And lest the usual detractors jump up saying Museveni talks only to armed groups, one needs no reminder that he talked to and reached a landmark agreement with the Buganda Kingdom over its ebyaffe. Of course, the other tribes too (that wanted) got their traditional leaders restored and even offered state goodies.
13. Equally the greater majority of Ugandans have had adequate dialogue with their president and government. How else would one interpret the opportunities given to Ugandans via the Odoki Constitutional Commission, the Constituent Assembly (CA) process and the universal adult suffrage elections of 1996, 1997, 2001 and 2002?
And right now dialogue continues through the Constitutional Review Commission. It couldn't get better.
14. Foreigners too know this president and government as people one can have dinner with. Ask the Sudanese, the Congolese, the Rwandese and the Angolans-even the Kenyans. It is all there in black and white, showing how over the years Museveni has always been the man of dialogue. He is also the Chairman of the Burundi Peace Initiative.
As we look back on 17 years of the Museveni administration, it is time to toast, not just to the development that has chased and overtaken us in such a short while, but the spirit of dialogue, a fire that has kept burning all this while. No one has been too big and none too insignificant for the government to carry out dialogue with. May this fire never go
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