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Professor Mwambutsya Ndebesa Disagrees With President

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni (C) gestures while standing on a car during the inauguration ceremony for his sixth term at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds in Kampala, Uganda, on May 12, 2021. (Photo by Badru KATUMBA / AFP) (Photo by BADRU KATUMBA/AFP via Getty Images)

 

While presiding over celebrations to mark 36 years of National Resistance Movement (NRM) at Kololo, president Tibuhaburwa said that frequent military coups witnessed in Africa are a result of weak civilian presidents.

The statement has since generated a lot of debate especially from the opposition politicians who argue that president Tibuhaburwa wants to bring his son General Muhoozi Kainerugaba as president to replace him after 4 decades of his stewardship.

Ssemuju Ibrahim Nganda, a Member of Parliament representing Kira Municipality in the country’s August house, pointed out the gesture of the president to send his son to meet the president of Kenya and the most recent wall mending visit to the president of Rwanda Paul Kagame are glaring actions for the whispered plan to actualise “Muhoozi project”.

Muhoozi project is a decades long strategy by the president to groom his son to take over power. This strategy begun with getting Muhoozi conscripted in the army where  he was meretriciously   promoted through various ranks. When people like the former minister of Ethics Miria Matembe questioned the president about Muhoozi, the president answered that Muhoozi was merely helping the army to recruit local defence units (LDU). General Sejusa also authored a paper about Muhoozi project in 1991 that didn’t go well with the president and they fell out forcing Sejusa to run to UK in exile.

Indeed recently, general Muhoozi himself took to his Twitter handle and wrote ” Keep praising the Lord, worship, pray and wait for 2026 osirike”. 2026 is the year in which the next presidential general elections are expected to take place.

Professor Ndebesa Counters Museveni.

Commenting on military coups in Africa, president Museveni reasons that military coups take place because civilian presidents are weak. I beg to respectfully disagree with this kind of reasoning. There has not been military coups in countries like; Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana and S. Africa. The above are countries led by civilian presidents since their independence.

To the contrary there have been coups and counter coups and all sorts of military interventions in countries like; Uganda, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan etc. Let’s take West Africa which was the context of his comment. There have been 10 military interventions in Burkina Faso since independence in 1960. Most of them have been coups by military men against fellow military men. There have been military interventions in Mali since 1969. Most of them military presidents overthrowing military presidents. To the contrary Senegal and Benin have never had military take over since Independence and have been under civilian governments. I think the reason for military leadership as being coup proof is not correct and may be just justification/rationalization of military rule. And the most stable governents in Africa have been those with no military interventions as pointed out above.

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