Apoliticism is apathy or antipathy towards all political affiliations. A person may be described as apolitical if they are not interested or uninvolved in politics. Being apolitical can also refer to situations in which people take an unbiased position regarding political matters. As usual, I have written something about them before. These are mainly the elite or I would say second-class bourgeoisie citizens, they don’t want anything to do with the politics of the country, they’re always on the sidelines on their video game consoles and not minding how things are run. They only get concerned with the politics when the fuel prices rise because guess what, they have private means of transportation and have never known what public transportation is about. When you hear these folks opine on leadership in Africa, it has to be a Havard graduate or an LSE candidate to qualify for leadership, then they can take a back seat and do nothing as always. Most of our elites are black Europeans who are enslaved mentally and try to imitate a white man’s way of looking at leadership. Colonization was so bad that most of the African elites think that one needs Qualifications for leadership.
Before he was elected, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was a comedian with no political experience; but now he’s gaining admiration around the world for his resolve. The elite of the day felt that a president has to be a lawyer, economist or someone who is well educated.
I guess that answers critics of Kyagulanyi Robert who argued that Uganda can’t be led by an “unserious” musician. In 2021, Robert Kyagulanyi vied for presidency and was dismissed as a joker and someone who should stick to Entertainment. Majority of our so called elite have failed to do an introspection on how people like Kyagulanyi rise and are willing to lock horns for leadership but as expected, continue to trivialize the qualification bit.
While Education and qualifications are very important in a country like Uganda and Africa that has shifted to a knowledge-based economy, we must never fall into the liberal trap of judging people’s capacity to lead on academic qualifications alone.
When Julius Malema of Republic of South Africa entered the political scene, he was mocked by everyone, derided as a baffoon and an idiot with sad results. His symbol in Woodwork was a particular point of ridicule.
But no honest person can call Julius stupid and certainly, no-one can claim he’s incapable of leading. We may question his leadership style, we may say he’s dictatorial, we may say he’s narcissistic, but a leader he is. He has redefined the political milieu of his country and now leads the second biggest opposition in RSA ; a party that’s also making a huge impact in institutions of higher learning. This is not the works of an incompetent person but a rather brilliant person who was ridiculed by the usual elites as not matching up to leadership.
So I’m saying let’s discuss the importance of education as much as is necessary because indeed education is necessary to a developing country like ours. But we must never be so reductionist as to regard education as a single determinant of a person’s capacity to lead. History evidences a different reality.
Mwene 