“Do not lecture me on democracy” Ugandan Presidents and the West.

Yesterday the 12th of May was the sixth swearing in ceremony of the President elect, Mr. Yoweri Tibuhaburwa Kaguta Museveni and in his speech,he took a swipe at the West saying that he doesn’t need lectures on democracy.

One day we are going to realise that there is more to being a progressive leader than challenging Western imperialism. In fact, most leaders in Africa who are very bold in challenging the USA and Britain’s imperialism are very silent on challenging Chinese imperialism, which might not be as violent, but is as vicious as Western imperialism. In fact, save for the violence, the imperialism of China has the same features as Western imperialism: cultural and intellectual imperialism ( I know about this, after all, I have done Chinese Studies – culture), settler imperialism, large-scale land acquisition (correctly defined as land grabbing), violation of human rights and arguably, monopolization of industries that are a country’s comparative advantage, resulting in the suffocation of local industries.
So most leaders who hate Western imperialism are not genuinely against imperialism, they just don’t want it done by the West. Reminds me of one young academic who, in a post-graduate seminar two years ago, justifying Chinese imperialism, said: “Yes China is an imperialist and is raping Africa’s resources. But China has a smaller penis than the West”.

My mind went to Apollo Milton Obote and his critical stance against the British. Some sources say that Obote was toppled with the help of the British and Israelites, infact while at a conference in Singapore, remarks like,”some of you are not going to return as President” and indeed, that came to pass.

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The 1971 coup d’etat can be said to have taken place with the help of the British. When Idi Amin took over power with the help of Imperialists,he had a title,”conqueror of the British Empire”and loved humiliating the British like he would make them come to his tent and given it’s make, one has to kneel down to access the important man

Amin went a notch higher by making the British to carry him ,he is actually the only African to perhaps be carried by the whites on his back.

Going to the May 12th speech, the background is when the GOU halted the Democratic Governance Facility (DGF) and thence halting all it’s activities the irony is that it supports Parliament and other government institutions. Word has it that Intel reached Tibuhaburwa that DGF was supporting the NUP, unfounded as it is, the facility was halted. So what is clear is that Tibuhaburwa will not take lectures from the European Union on Human Rights and rule of Law. On a serious note ,when organization of the seating arrangement was made, the US ambassador was given a plastic seat.This is diplomatic sacrilege.

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