Fredrick Golooba-Mutebi
25 October 2008
column
Mr Yoweri Museveni is likely to go down in history as the most hardworking president to have led Uganda during its first 50 years. He will also count among Uganda's most successful, loved, hated, despised, reviled, and, some say, most divisive leaders.
The negative sentiments are to be found as easily among erstwhile friends, colleagues, fellow bush-war fighters, and admirers, as among those who have never liked him or his regime.
Media portray the President as confident that his popularity in the south, especially among 'ordinary people', remains undiminished, and that those who dislike or criticise his regime are misguided by 'wrong elements', among them Opposition politicians.
However, by all accounts the President is an intelligent and perceptive man. Deep down, he must know that neither the effusive praise from his assistants and juvenile interns at the Media Centre nor accolades by peasants welcoming him and asking for favours during his rural safaris, capture accurately what the public think of him.
He must know that a realistic assessment is to be found in electoral data since 1996. For a man who prides in his achievements, and we must remember that he sees all achievements since 1986 as his alone, the President's declining popularity must make him feel misunderstood and unappreciated.
You may recall that recently he spoke of writing the eulogy to be read at his funeral.
When I learnt of this unusual decision, I wondered why he would want to do that. It is possible that he did not really mean it, in the same way that he probably was joking when he said "a president should not tell lies". Recent history suggests we shouldn't take him seriously on that one.
On the other hand, if he meant it, it would be in keeping with a common narrative spun by his acquaintances and friends, in which they accuse him of not trusting anyone. Well, perhaps if he did, he would leave eulogising him to them. But then it could be that the accuracy of whatever writing they may do, or whatever speeches they may make is what has frightened him, thus his plans to upstage them.
I now fully support the President's plans. After a controversial and controversy-filled life, he has no reason to feel confident that anyone other than himself can write a 'balanced' eulogy for him.
Only he can strike the "right balance", for in many of the things he has done, only he can explain or defend himself.
We may never believe him, or we may even laugh at his claims, but at least he would have put his own view of himself - such as being next to God - on the record for posterity to read.
Evidence that he may be justified in fearing final peer assessment is to be found in the views some of his old colleagues and friends expressed about him in a series of interviews the Weekly Observer conducted about two years ago.
The interviews which stand out as authoritative and have been used substantially in academic writing by scholars tracking the progress of his career and the NRM revolution, are as damning as some of them are complimentary. For a man who once claimed not to recall any instance of failure in his life, much of what these people said about him must have stung.
And then, of course, there is the small issue of the "fundamental change" he promised 22 years ago. No doubt, a lot has been achieved. There are also some remarkable failures.
At the time he came to power, people were dying of jiggers in some parts of the country while leaders lived in luxury. He criticised all that.
Two decades on, he's still here. Jiggers are still killing people, and leaders live in greater luxury. Writing his own eulogy may ensure that issues such as these do not come up during his send-off.
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