I was hugely stunned, completely shocked and totally disappointed when President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda finally confirmed the endless speculation and rumour which had been rift that he will contest for a third time in office. President Museveni was one of heroes. He represented a new phenomenon and emerging trend in African leadership in a Continent blighted and bested with mediocre and incompetent leadership. The election has been scheduled for February, 206. African Leaders have demonstrated a proclivity for disregard for the Rule of Law and the Doctrine of Due Process. They have shown total contempt and distain for adherence to constitutionalism. True to type, President Museveni, first move was to instigate an amendment of the Constitution of Uganda to make his eligibility for a third term a sure bet. The Ugandan Parliament which ought to be the custodian of the Rule of Law succumbed and acceded to the desire of President Museveni to perpetuate himself in power in the true African tradition. African Parliamentarians have always being rubber stamp of the executive branch. They are pliant, selfish, self-seeking and lawless.
After the amendment of the Constitution, President Museveni decided to unleashed a campaign of terror, harassment and intimidation to cow and stifled the civil society and intimidate it to pander to the whims, caprices and desire to be the President of Uganda for six more years. He went for the jugular of the man he perceived to likely to pose a threat to his desire and ambition; the leader of the most potent and visible opposition Party, Dr. Kizza Besigye, a retired Army Colonel and a former close associate of President Museveni. He was a personal doctor to President Museveni in the heady days of the insurrectional movement masterminded by Museveni in the early 1980s against the government of late President Apollo Milton Obote, which was toppled in 1986. Dr. Besigye was appointed a Cabinet Minister after the end of the rebellion. He retired from the army in 2001 and entered the Presidential race. He challenged President Museveni in the presidential poll held in 2001 but lost gallantly. Dr. Besigye’s relationship with President Museveni deteriorated soon after this and he fled his country into exile in South Africa alleging his life was in danger. Dr. Besigye returned to Uganda from exile last and announced that he will be contesting the election scheduled for February, 2006. This apparently did not go down well with President Museveni and his supporters. Dr. Besigye has established a reputation of being a shrewd and penetrating politician. In 2001 he gave President Museveni a run for his money. Besigye’s candidacy sent a cold chill into the spine of Museveni.
An archetypical African Politician is intolerant. He is a power monger. He is ruthless and sadistic. He has no constitution and temperament to accommodate alternative political views, perspective and options. He is dyed in the wood and born dictator. He is a pseudo democrat. President Museveni schemed to render the desire and ambition of Dr. Besigye otiose and atrophied. Museveni alleged that Dr. Besigye was the mastermind of an armed rebellion against his government in Uganda’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC.
Pundits have dismissed the allegation as phantom and baseless. He was also accused of committing rape. Dr. Besigye was arrested and charged before a Military Tribunal. This procedure was considered strange, bizarre and unlawful by observers. When some of his supporters of Dr. Besigye were charged before a High Court the precinct of the court was invaded by menacing and gun trotting commandoes. These suspects who were already granted bail by the High Court were re-arrested again by these bandana wearing commandoes. A typical African Dictator believes in using the apparatuses of the State to intimidate his real and imagined political enemies into submission. President Museveni is a huge disappointment to his army of admirers both in Africa and the world alike.
The son of cattle herder President Museveni was hailed as a beacon of hope and among a new generation of Africa leaders supremely, dynamic and visionary, after the chaos and bad governance perpetrated by those who took over the reins of political governance from the colonials master in the late 1950s and 1960s.
A committed critic of colonialism and neo-colonialism in Africa, he was an admirer and a student of the great Tanzanian leader and Afro-centrist, Dr Julius Nyerere of blessed memory. It was Dr Nyerere who unsuccessfully attempted to use his country as a guinea pig to test the brand of African socialism called in Swahili, ujamaa, which was synthesis between African communalism and European socialism as propounded by Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels. The experiment failed and left Tanzania in economic ruins but Nyereree establish a reputation of been honest, superbly focused, serious, totally committed and a hugely dedicated African Leader. Tanzania became a model for national unity and political stability. She became a respected in international politics particularly in the third world. The capital of Tanzania became a sort of “political Mecca” for Afro-centrists, Socialists and Marxian. The University of Dar es Salaam became a hotbed and revolutionary incubator.
It was in the University of Dar es Salaam that Yoweri Katguta Museveni studies economics and political science and became greatly influenced by the radical and socialist thought prevalent there. He graduated in 1970 and was appointed Research Assistant to the then President Apollo Milton Obote. In January 1971,the commander of the National Army, Amin Dada, toppled the government of President Obote in a military coup de tat and Museveni formed a Front for National Salvation to fight the new regime. Idi Amin Dada, consolidated and established a dictatorship which viciousness, irresponsibility and human rights record was unparallel in the chequered history of Africa. In 1979, the Front for National Salvation cooperated with Tanzania army and other small groups opposed to Idi Amin to overthrow him. The overthrow of Idi Amin did not bring about the desire change to the political and economic fortunes of Uganda, which was once described as the “pearl of Africa” in the 1960s because of its then great potentials.
In 1980, Museveni denounced the re-election of President Obote as fraudulent and proclaimed the formation an insurgent group; the National Army, Tito Okello, overthrew President Obote. In 1981, Museveni seized power. He immediately consolidated his grip on power and embarked on a comprehensive political and economic reform program me to bring Uganda from the doldrums she has sunk as a result of persist and consistent instability. He place a ban on political parties that he said were divisive and therefore ill suited for a country with the contradiction and ethnic plurality of Uganda. Museveni was supported by massive foreign aid and support by the International Monetary Fund. By this time Museveni has toned down on his revolutionary posturing and socialist rhetoric. Museveni won international support and soon he was hailed as a beacon of hope in Africa. He was anxious to make a clean break from the legacy of instability, bad governance, human rights abuse and economic stagnation that Uganda had earned notoriety. In 1996, Museveni, won a referendum approving the continuation of his” against multi- party politics.
It is a sad commentary that Yoweri Keguta Museveni, an intellectual and revolutionary statesman has falling into the league of sits tight African Leaders. These include Hosni Muhammad Muburak of Egypt, Omar Bongo of Gabon, Paul Biya of Cameroon, Zane El-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, Mummar Ghadafi of Libya and Braise Campoare of Burkina Faso. Omar Bongo has been President of Gabon since 1967. He is the longest serving African President. He had survived numerous American President such as Presidents Johnson, Nixon, ford, Carter, Bush, Senior, Billy Clinton and George W. Bush, Junior and several major world historical events including the Nigerian Civil War, Vietnam War, Six Days War, Arab-Israeli War, the Cold war, collapse of the great soviet union, crumbling of the Berlin wall, Gulf War and unification of Germany to mention just but a few. In 2005, he again won another seven years term that will lapse in 2012. By then Omar Bongo would have been in office as president of Gabon for an unprecedented 45 years.
President Hosni Muhammad Muburak of Egypt was a General in the Egyptian Air force before he was appointed Vice-Chairman of the National Democratic party (NDP) and Vice- President of Egypt by the then President Anwar El-Sadat in 1975. He became president of Egypt after the assassination of president El-Sadat by an army officer while reviewing a military parade on 6th October, 1981. He has been under control of Egypt since then and last year he won a disputed presidential election for another seven years in office which will expired in 2012. By then he would have consistently been President for a record 31 years!
Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi, Libyan radical and revolutionary leader cane into power on the 1st September 1969 after his toppling the royal government under the ineffective King Sayid Idris El-Sanusi. Colonel Qaddafi was then a starry-eyed but visionary 24 years old captain in the Libyan from an obsure and essentially economic backwater to one of the success stories of Africa is noted for his fanatically devotion to Islam and zealous support for Pan-Arab, Pan-Africa and revolutionary causes. He has been in effective control of Libyan for more than three decades. There is no indication that he will soon leave the stage. There are on political parties in Libya except the officially authorized Arab Socialist party (ASU).
Paul Biya of Cameroon has consistently been in the corridor of power in Cameroon. After graduating from the University of Paris in 1960 with a law degree he returned to his country and was quickly appointed head of Foreign Development Aid by the then President Ahmadou Ahidjo. He became Prime Minister in 1975. In 1982, President Ahidjo suddenly resigned from office as President on health ground and appointed Paul Biya as his successor. Paul Biya has been President of Cameroon since 1982. In 2004, he won a controversial election for another seven years tenure that will cone to an end in 2011. By then the would have been in the helm of affairs of Cameroon for 29 years.
Another African leader obsessed with the sit tight mentality and syndrome is President Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia. He has been in effective and unquestionable control of the affairs of Tunisia for almost 18 years. In 1987 the then President Habib Bourguiba appointed coup in November 1987 claiming Bourguiba was diagnosed senile and unfit to govern. He decreed the abolition of President-for-title introduced by former President Bourguiba. However, soon Ali begins to carry on as typical sit tight Africa leader. In May 2002 a referendum abolished the three-term limit on the office of president, enabling Ben Ali to contest a further election. There is nothing on ground to indicate that Ben Ali intends to leave the scene soon.
Blaise Compaore has been President of Burkina Faso, since 1987, when he toppled the regime of his former friend and Compatriot, Captain Thomas Sankara, in a bloody coup de tat. In 2005 he won a one side Presidential election for a seven years term that will constitutionally end in 2012. By then he would have remained the President of Burkina Faso for a record 25 years.
The tiny Republic of Equatorial Guinea has a history dogged by dictatorship and sit tight leadership. From independence from Spain, on the 12th October 1968 with Francisco Macias Nguema until this moment, Equatorial Guinea, has known only two leaders, late President Francisco Macias Nguema and President Obiang Nguema. At independence Equatorial Guinea was a Federal State comprising two provinces. In 1973, it became a unitary State. In 1972, one of the bloodiest dictators ever seen in the continent of Africa appointed himself president for life. His regime became notorious for dictatorial and repressive policies and gross human rights abuse. Thousands of his Political opponents were killed. About 40,000 people were arrested and kept in concentration camps as labourers. More than 100,000 Equatorial Guineans were compelled by Presidents Nguema iron rule to flee into Nguema, toppled President Obiang Nguema. Hew was tried for treason and executed. Since 1979, President Obiang Nguema has remained in power unchallenged. In December 2002, he won a Presidential election with over 97 percent of the votes that was condemned by the opposition and foreign observers as fraudulent. There is no possibly that a new leadership will emerge in Equatorial Guinea except President Nguema drops death.
I think all progressive forces in Africa should tackle the problem of sit tight leadership because it is one immediate cause of the backwardness of the continent. It is also responsible for bad governance that has plagued many an African country. It is essentially stem from the culture of sycophancy and cult of personality that is prevalent in many African Cultures. Culture must be dynamic and not remain static. It must be subject to reform in accordance with prevailing times. The Culture of sycophancy and personality worship that breeds dictatorship and the urge for many and African leaders to play God and think they are indispensable is an anachronistic tradition that must be done away with otherwise the developmental challenge that has assume an endemic proportion shall continue to plague Africa.
Okoi Ofem Obono-Obla
• Obono-Obla is a Barrister-at-Law and a Human Rights activist. He lives in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, and Nigeria.
• This Essay was published by the Guardian on Sunday on the 20th January, 2006. The issues discussed in the essay are still fresh and relevant in view of the crisis of leadership plaguing Nigeria which is somewhat rooted in the culture of impunity prevalent in Nigeria.
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