George Bita
23 July 2008
Jinja — PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has lashed out at radio talk-shows, known as bimeeza, which he described as 'non-developmental'.
A tough-talking Museveni wondered why the bimeeza had concentrated on abusing him instead of discussing issues relevant to the country's development.
"After all the NRM government has done for this nation, some elements are indulging in rumours abusing Museveni mbu musiiru (that I am stupid). A man who went to the bush with 27 guns and defeated an army of over 60,000 and you say he is stupid?" he wondered, drawing laughter.
Opening the 16th national agricultural and trade show at the source of the Nile grounds in Jinja, the President advised parents to keep their children away from such radio talk-shows.
"There was initially one national radio specialising in English and a few vernacular languages," he said.
"So we allowed those private radios to broadcast in vernacular hoping that they would explain developmental issues to citizens. But all they are talking is rubbish. Those radios will be cursed." He compared bimeeza-oriented radios to shops that stock unwanted poisonous substances on their shelves.
"If a radio has become poison, it should not be allowed to continue just like the errant shops. When a shop is found with poison it should be closed."
He blasted those behind the abusive language on bimeeza saying they were "stupid with no brains. We won't allow those radios in our midst."
Museveni said radios should be explaining things that are important in the eradication of poverty like the African Growth Opportunity Act.
"Anyway, it will be stopped. They will stop as they are part of the problem and not the solution."
Museveni did not name any particular radio station but it is believed that he has been angered by talkshows on CBS, a Buganda radio, where the three arrested Buganda officials are regular hosts.
The CID yesterday interrogated two CBS presenters who co-host programmes with Betty Nambooze, the chairperson of the kingdom's Civic Education Committee.
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This is somebody who, whenever he is speaking to ordinary ugandan folks, is not only down right condescending but also out right abusive. It seems to me even if you are a president of a country you must have some respect for the people you purport to lead. Commendable leadership is leadership by example. For far too long the Ugandan people have been subjected to unprecedented verbal assaults from their own president, maybe they have internalized it and learnt that that is the best and only way to communicate and relate in the "family" called Uganda. If the "father" called the president of uganda is abusive, is it any surprise that his "children" the citizens of uganda turn out to abusive too. Sorry, if you dish out the sh*t you should be able to take it. And those who live by the sword die by the sword.