{UAH} When our dreams for ‘making it’ got reduced to befriending Museveni

When our dreams for 'making it' got reduced to befriending Museveni

• August 25, 2021
• Written by YUSUF SERUNKUMA

We were gossiping about journalist Andrew Mwenda - specifically about how he nowadays represents what I tend to call, 'small dreams, small pleasures' - when my interlocutor on the other side asked a rather sobering question: "But what other dreams can they have really?"

This conversation had been sparked off by a viral picture of a smiling Mwenda donning a T-shirt which had Museveni's son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba printed at the front with the writing, "The Leader." I pondered on the question, which was now replaying in my mind.

As the entire country knows, Andrew Mwenda is perhaps one of, if not the smartest, journalists of the Museveni generation: sharp, articulate, witty, well-read, logical, etcetera.

As his former employee, I have no doubts that Mwenda is far smarter than Museveni and his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba. And because of this reality, I could not stop wondering how a younger, smarter, more read, and more exposed dandy would subject his superior brilliance and youthfulness to [indirectly] serving a clearly old and tired man — and now his son. Could Mwenda not dream of being in charge of the country himself? Why reduce his dream to an explainer, or simple cheerer?

While I mulled over Mwenda's decision to subject his smartness and youthfulness to people way below his talents and accomplishments, the puzzle cracked before my eyes: I viewed Mwenda as a victim, not a selfish opportunist as his detractors love to chide him.

What my friend was saying in our gossip was: "If you want to make it in life, there is only one sure dream under a Museveni presidency; it is not about hard work or investment. It is nothing in the academia or in the vocational world, but simply joining Museveni. 

Let me rephrase this for clarity:  this is not about befriending Museveni for support to accomplish a different dream. No. joining Museveni is the dream itself. It is abandoning everything else to simply be Museveni's friend, surrogate, fixer, errand boy, cheerleader, billboard, barking dog etc. — and you will be successful.

Dear reader, over the years, I have lost many otherwise brilliant friends to President Museveni. From a distance, I have also watched young fellows compete for Museveni's eye as the only window open for their success.

These fellows could have had other dreams such as being meaningful independent journalists, musicians, businesspersons, farmers, medics, et cetera – things that have [directly] nothing to do with who was president. But all success has been squeezed out of these dream careers that they are now simple titles with nothing in them. 

From my end, the list of persons forced— by the structure — to defer dreams is painfully long. Most prominently, it includes my former boss at The Independent magazine, Andrew Mujuni Mwenda; former Daily Monitor journalist, Chris Obore, and my friend with whom we ran the Literature Association (The LitAss) at Makerere University, the current New Vision CEO, Bwana Don Wanyama. 

[I will only mention these most prominent ones because for them I have the intellectual/theoretical backup to justify dissecting their public and private lives.  As Shakespeare reminds us [these friends of mine are students of tragedian drama, and definitely read Shakespeare], there is a time in the life of an individual when their otherwise private lives become part of their public identity, and thus public conversation.

It actually means that these individuals have risen in public importance. Indeed, writing about these fellows is to reaffirm their celebrity, which also means they are apt subject for private-public scrutiny.

When columnist and author Austin Ejiet passed on in 2010, there were only two of us in Bwana Chris Obore's car from Kampala to Kumi for the burial of the fallen literary genius. It was a long and sombre drive as Obore and I discussed Ejiet's legacy and how Museveni represented everything wrong that Ejiet hated.

Young and impressionable, I listened to the more mature Obore who was then political editor of Daily Monitor. He didn't disappoint. He was deep on the rottenness of the government that Museveni presides over.

As he would be later known for a critical segment that he ran every morning on the KFM radio's breakfast show, Obore's anti-Museveni musicals were filled with historical facts, figures and witty logical reasoning. 

Arguably smarter, younger and with a better future than Museveni and all of his NRM legislators, Obore nowadays works for Museveni's workers at parliament, and his job, among other things, includes explaining and defending their ineptitude.

Obore was forced to defer his dreams — and this must be painful — because not many see him as a victim but as an opportunist.

I recall visiting Don Wanyama sometime in 2009 when he was subeditor at New Vision. Wanyama and I were proud luminaries of the Literature Association (2005-2007), and graduates of Lecture Room 4 tended to be critical of the mess in Museveni's Uganda. 

It came so naturally. We despised New Vision for being the official vendor of fake news. So, when I visited Bwana Wanyama, I was itching to ask why he worked there. I recall him telling me that working for the country presided over by the monster did not mean cherishing the monster. Something like that. We argued on.

Walking in the footsteps of revolutionaries such as Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Okot p' Bitek, David Rubadiri, and many others, Lecture Room 4 gave us the opportunity to imagine life beyond the simplicity of food and water. Man's existence was no reducible to bodily comforts—because we will all finally die—but extendable to bigger things such as legacies, histories, memories, futures.

"Why did you abandon these dreams?" I challenged Bwana Wanyama. We abandoned this conversation, had a cup of coffee and moved on to other things.

Later on, Bwana Wanyama joined Daily Monitor, and for all who read his sketchy satires - trying to be Austin Ejiet - under the header, 'Letter from Kireka,' will remember a man who actually blossomed like a raisin. The caged bird had been released.

Wanyama connected with the dreams of his learning, and aspired for a better country.  But for the same reasons Mwenda and Obore abandoned their dreams, Wanyama caved in. The shamelessness of Museveni's structure caught up with him and forced him to defer his dreams. I refuse to see him as an opportunist but a victim.

When we recently gossiped about Mwenda, a rather sombre and sadder feeling overwhelmed me. There are many brilliant younger folks – too young for public scrutiny– that have abandoned their dreams to just befriend Museveni as the only sure way to make it. They could be good carpenters, good garbage collectors or artistes.

MP Semujju Ibrahim Nganda loves to say Museveni became the only project for the government of Uganda. Well, he is also the only dream for young people. Our children will soon start answering the question, "what do you want to be in future?" with response, "Museveni's friend." 

yusufkajura@gmail.com

The author is a political theorist based at Makerere University.

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