Our Image of the World Reflects on Who We are and What We Do

We create policies and situations based on our image of the world. If the image is false, the policies and situations will be false.

Let us look at the case of the Oga of Uganda, General Museveni. He lost an election. It was after a war to oust dictator Idi Amin. Everything was in a messy flux. Rather than work with others to civilly nurse the nation back to sanity, Mr. Museveni chose to go to the bush to fight a government that had hardly found its feet on the ground. Many starry-eyed homeboys followed him. Basically, it was a war of liberation from the Northern hegemony. Before, he could win and after, great carnage was done to the population.

On coming out, he could do no wrong. He claimed he was the personification of good governance and heaped insults (may be deservedly) on the past regimes. This, however, was a ruse to send people to sleep. He did not believe in anything he said. By the time the population woke up, he had his personal army, a parliament that jumps at his beckoning, basic safety-net services have gone to the dogs. All the while a few have become filthy rich, the national coffer has become his piggy bank, and the culture of corruption has become the order of the day.

Why would a leader have his hand in every details of national activities? Then, when things go wrong, he blames others. When there is a flicker of achievement, he hogs the credit. He is obsessive. He is a control freak.

What makes a leader stray in every armed conflict in the neighborhood? Is it to create a battle-tested military? What for? What are his major plans when the military absorbs a large chunk of the national budget? All the while those who need safety-nets the most sleep on the floors in public hospitals.

The man who once said that a major problem of African countries was leaders who overstay in power, has used all kinds of under-handed fiats to cling to power for nearly thirty years. By all indications he wants more of the same. All the while, any kind of serious opposition is brutally snuffed. The LC (local council)structure of his no-party days is the machinery to deliver down to the mud-and-wattle pit latrine huts. Throwing printed money in the right places, strategic appointments, and going easy on thieves in high places are the lifeblood that keep the system chugging along.

So, what is the Oga's image of the world really beyond the façade of a born-again Christian and the feted darling of the West for nearly thirty years? Deep down, the world is not a safe place, and nobody cares about you except yourself. Grab power, grab wealth, and grab people by any means necessary. This is how to ensure your own survival. What goes for a master politician is, in fact, a depraved instinct developed in suboptimum beginnings.