Recently, a Ugandan veteran opposition Leader Kizza Besigye mentioned that what happened in Senegal where younger people wrestled power from the establishment represented by president Macky Sall can also happen in Uganda. It is indeed possible for younger people to wrestle power from the establishment in Uganda too but not under the currently existing conditions in the Country.
In Senegal, Sonko and Faye ran as anti-establishment not only within but also without, they were strong critics of imperialism as practiced by France in the west African region, which has already faced backlash in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. A look at Uganda tells us that the opposition in Uganda is instead with the imperialists yet we have entered an era where many of the African People want nothing to do with the humiliating association with European and the general western Imperialism.
Sonko and President Faye Meet President Macky Sall. In one interaction between the Ugandan President and the European Union, the EU delegation leader of the day asked President Museveni why the Europeans are mostly looked at as enemies, of course this speaks to their hypocrisy because the Europeans already know the answer to this question. The point here is rather to point out that the African People have noticed this intersection between the African ruling class and the Imperialist interests with much disgust.
Museveni on the other hand has become a critic of this western humiliation of Africans and their way of life, which they are relentlessly forcing onto the Africans who don’t want it. President Museveni’s rhetoric is far from practical Pan-Africanism but to the masses it looks like it is Pan-Africanism.
In addition to this Museveni has relatively protected the country’s resources including oil, while the opposition in Uganda is seen as being against Uganda’s interests in the Oil and mining sector in favour of imperialist interests in the sector. In Senegal Sonko and Faye are looked at as those who have come to take back the resources from imperialist control including renegotiating the oil contracts which negotiated by the Macky Sall regime.
Another interesting aspect is that while the opposition leaders in Uganda claim that Museveni is a dictator, the opposition leaders themselves cannot unite or sacrifice like how Sonko compromised to give Faye the required endorsement, this has failed in Uganda even though it has been tried at times. There is not enough support for each other but mistrust continues to prevail.
Unless the opposition in Uganda crosses that Line by abandoning imperialism as the young people in Senegal. There is no chance of another Senegal in Uganda. This is not to suggest that the situation in Uganda is too different but to recorgnise the existent to which players shape the conditions and therefore their outcomes.
©Kwame Gonza is a Technologist, Industrialist, Railway engineering consultant, and Pan-Africanist member of the ACUP-African Continental Unity Party.
