{UAH} LET MUGABE WRITE HIS MEMOIRS

ROBERT MUGABE SHOULD BE OUR HENRY KISSINGER
BY AHMED KATEREGGA MUSAAZI
l came to know the late Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe in mid and late
seventies when they were regular visitors to Uganda during Idi Amin's
time.
Nkomo of ZAPU PF had an ambassador here who used to read newspapers in
Shona on External Service of UBC and people of Zimbabwe could get
liberation struggle's updates.
l remember well Bishop Abel Muzorewa the whites collaborator that had
replaced Ian Smith before 1980 independence that brought Mugabe to
power.
Many Zimbabwean students were studying at Makerere University and
others were in diplomatic and intelligence services, and those were to
become future leaders, it was the same with the rest of Southern
Africa that was not yet independent i.e. Namibia, South Africa, etc…
According to War in Uganda, the Legacy of Idi Amin, when the war broke
out at Mutukula boarder post, Tanzania first thought that it was Ian
Smith's Rhodesia that had attacked it in order to divert it from
concentrating on liberation of South Africa under OAU's Liberation
Committee which was headquartered in Dar Es Salaam. In the actual
fact, Smith suggested to Amin for help but Amin declined the offer for
it would have been act of treason to Africa's progress , to borrow the
late Mwalimu Nyerere's phrase.
We saw a coalition government between ZANU PF and ZAPU PF where
initially, Nomo was Minister without portfolio and later Minister of
Internal Affairs before he the alliance ended and he fled to UK in
1982 without a passport at the peak of insurgency in Matabaleland .
North Koreans, who were given a bloody nose by NRA in Luwero Triangle,
had also been hired by Mugabe to do havoc to the Ndebere and they did
so.
Later Nkoma and Mugabe reunited and the former died a second Vice President.
Mugabe visited Uganda in November 1987 when he came to attend PTA
summit, and there was trade fair at Lugogo were Zimbabwean White
farmers came with broilers. When asked why they still had booming
economy in a post independence period, their answer was that they did
not have Idi Amin (who in 1972 declared an Economic war and chased out
Asians from commercial and industrial sectors which they had
dominated(Years later Mugabe copied Amin and incited Blacks to take
over White farms, and like Amin's Uganda, Mugabe's economy suffered
from sanctions, inflation, and black market, which is a necessary
bitter taste before economic independence.
Mugabe and Mozambique's Joachim Chissano came with Nelson and Winnie
Mandela and addressed an international cooperative day at Kololo.
Mugabe defended a one party dictatorship as the best political system
for Africa. He could not tell that it could end into a one man
dictatorship as it was the case in Uganda from Obote l to Amin.
Mugabe, Mandela, Dos Santos, Mwinyi, allied with Museveni and Kagame
to get rid of Mobutu but a year later they fell out and Mugabe, Dos
Santos and Nujoma defended Kabila against Uganda and Rwanda that were
for Banyamulenge. A peace was brokered and a Peace of Lusaka was
signed, thanks to the late Col.Muammar El Qadaffi who had initially
brokered it in Sirte.
There is a common saying that South Africa will never be economically
free unless it gets an Idi Amin or a Robert Mugabe.
Now that the man has been forced to resign by his historical comrades
in arms who had fallen out with him due to the visible overwhelming
ambition of his young wife, Grace, he should be left free to write his
memoirs. He is our Henry Kissinger, a former US Secretary of State who
is a senior advisor when it comes t US's foreign policy.
Africa Union should consider having a Council of Elders made up of
former presidents like Mengistu Haile Mariam of Ethiopia, who a
fugitive in Zimbabwe.
That may attract the long serving president like Nguema of Equatorial
Guinea who came in 1979 and Paul Biya of Cameroon who came in 1982 to
consider calling it quits.
We should not make our elder statesmen suffer as it is the case with
abdul Aziz Bouteflika in Algeria, who could not hold a Holy Qur'an
during swearing in ceremony, and it is the generals that are ruling
from behind the scene after nullifying Islamic Salvation Front's
victory in 1992 which sparked off a bloody civil war.
As for our case, if the ongoing constitution review process is made
more broad and we get federal form of government or we return to a
quasi federal as it was the case in 1962 and we devolve some of the
power to regions, we should also have a Senate as it is the case with
Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. We should borrow from Burundi
where former presidents are automatically members of the Senate for
life.
It is high time we also thought of putting in place an upper house of
East Africa Legislative Assembly. The lower house should be directly
elected and the upper house indirectly elected but former heads of
state and government should automatically become life members. We need
them, Ali Hassan Mwinyi, Benjamin Mkapa, Danil arap Torotich Moi, Mwai
Kibaki, Pasteur Bizimungu, John Baptist Bagaza, Pierre Buyoya, etc….
Only this year, former Vice President of Kenya, Kalonzo Musyoka
suggested that President Museveni should become the first President of
East Africa Federation. Then President Joseph Magufuri of Tanzania,
while on a state visit here in Masaka, referred to Museveni was
another Nyerere.
The President and NRM should use this term for laying a solid
foundation for achieving a political federation for East Africa. What
we do in this and next terms will help us not to go Zimbabwe way.
Haji Ahmed Kateregga Musaazi
Secretary
NRM Buganda Regional Task Force.

--
Disclaimer:Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com