By Stephen Lwetutte
LONDON-UNITED KINGDOM/NEWSDAY. President Museveni, if noone else, is one person, who must be grateful to late Dr Paul Kawanga Ssemwogerere for his political career and ultimately his presidency, because he owes them to the late.
The ever so urbane a personality that he was, Dr Ssemwogerere did not oppose Museveni’s political antics of opposing tyranny on the back of Dr Ssemwogerere’s stolen victory in the 1980 general elections, when he could have done so and dealt Museveni’s sinister ambitions a fatal blow.
Even when Museveni had succeeded in hoodwinking everyone and captured power in 1986, he remained very much an unknown quantity and a communist suspected at best in Western capitals, whose support he desperately sought.
Museveni’s regime was weak and vulnerable, and would have fallen sooner rather than later were it not for the support Dr Ssemwogerere rendered Museveni in the early days of the NRM regime by accepting to be part of the short-lived broad-based government and lent it that crucial international, credibility, reassurance, credence and acceptability.
For a man who had never won any elective office, and was humiliated at first attempt in his native Ankole area, when he was resoundingly rejected by the electorate in the 1980 elections, Museveni badly and desperately needed Dr Ssemwogerere’s presence in top NRM government positions, which was equally reassuring as it was life-saving for him at home.
The shameless ingratitude and arrogance the now elderly Museveni is publicly exhibiting in claiming that he was never assisted by anyone on his way to the top is not borne out by reality and will one day come back to haunt him and/or his successors.
Without the late Dr Ssemwogerere, it is evident that Museveni was always going to be a nobody locally and internationally.
In many ways, Dr Ssemwogerere has been one of the main shakers and movers on Uganda’s post-independence political stage. To all intent and purposes, he directly mentored, helped and made President Museveni, but must have regretted for the political monster that he had inadvertently created.
History will no doubt judge him favourably and he will be remembered for his tireless efforts and indelible contribution to building a peaceful and democratic Uganda.
President Museveni, if noone else, is one person, who must be grateful to late Dr Paul Kawanga Ssemwogerere for his political career and ultimately his presidency, because he owes them to the late.
The ever so urbane a personality that he was, Dr Ssemwogerere did not oppose Museveni’s political antics of opposing tyranny on the back of Dr Ssemwogerere’s stolen victory in the 1980 general elections, when he could have done so and dealt Museveni’s sinister ambitions a fatal blow.
Even when Museveni had succeeded in hoodwinking everyone and captured power in 1986, he remained very much an unknown quantity and a communist suspect at best in Western capitals, whose support he desperately sought.
Museveni’s regime was weak and vulnerable, and would have fallen sooner rather than later were it not for the support Dr Ssemwogerere rendered Museveni in the early days of the NRM regime by accepting to be part of the short-lived broad-based government and lent it that crucial international, credibility, reassurance, credence and acceptability.
For a man who had never won any elective office, and was humiliated at first attempt in his native Ankole area, when he was resoundingly rejected by the electorate in the 1980 elections, Museveni badly and desperately needed Dr Ssemwogerere’s presence in top NRM government positions, which was equally reassuring as it was life-saving for him at home.
The shameless ingratitude and arrogance the now elderly Museveni is publicly exhibiting in claiming that he was never assisted by anyone on his way to the top is not borne out by reality and will one day come back to haunt him and/or his successors.
Without the late Dr Ssemwogerere, it is evident that Museveni was always going to be a nobody locally and internationally.
In many ways, Dr Ssemwogerere has been one of the main shakers and movers on Uganda’s post-independence political stage. To all intent and purposes, he directly mentored, helped and made President Museveni, but must have regretted for the political monster that he had inadvertently created.
History will no doubt judge him favourably and he will be remembered for his tireless efforts and indelible contribution to building a peaceful and democratic Uganda.
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