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By Mulengera Reporters
Eminent thought leader Odrek Rwabwogo, who also marries the President’s daughter, has once again erupted in a viral online video. This is a follow up to an earlier one. Even when he is part of the people considered to be contemporary Uganda’s decision makers, Rwabwogo is once again dissenting from the conduct of some powerful leaders in the country. He is defensive of free speech and urges Ugandans, who had become cowed having seen what happened to Kizza Besigye, Erias Lukwago and more recently Muwanga Kivumbi, to overcome their fears and once again become outspoken.
He says Ugandans have a right to disagree with those holding positions of authority and must be deliberately very outspoken while amplifying their dissenting views. He implies that in a democracy that Uganda says it is, no one should be beyond criticism. He refers to himself saying he has been a victim of hateful lies, propaganda and disinformation for decades but he has never caused the locking up or even torture of anyone.
He says he quite often ignores because many of the things said about him are outrageous lies which he merely ignores. For those who say things that have a small iota of truth, he comes out to defend himself. Sometimes he reaches out to engage those perpetrating false narratives about him. That when all these efforts fail and don’t yield, he uses civil courts to personally sue those defaming him. He says this is the only way to hold such hateful liars accountable. He demands this is what every leader should do as opposed to using their powerful positions of coercion to lock up dissenters and have them made to pay a heavy price, which sometimes has taken being subjected to torture.
Rwabwogo says jailing and locking up dissenters who say what those with power don’t like isn’t sustainable because such guys are simply too many making it impossible to imprison all of them. He says intolerance to dissent is counterproductive because it gives Uganda a bad name and reputation out there, which will be costly to clean up. Rwabwogo, who is heavily involved in amplifying Uganda’s export agenda, says he recently was contacted by investors doing business in the East African region and its clear many of them are concerned and are pondering scaling down their investments in Uganda because of the brutality that is being meted out against political dissenters.
He says that the realization of the 10-fold growth strategy which requires Uganda’s GDP to enlarge from the current $63bn to $500bn between now and 2040 is a tall order and will require lots of external good will and good image for the country, to be realized. That besides leveraging the private sector and pension funds, Uganda will have to look at external sources like sovereign wealth funds and other new FDI sources to realize that ambitious strategy Gen Museveni has set and tasked every public official to work towards between now and 2040. Rwabwogo says that brutalizing dissenters (as was done with Erias Lukwago) will only complicate, as opposed to facilitating, that $500bn GDP realization.
He also talks about the billions GoU recently sunk into purchasing aircrafts from Boeing and says for that money to be recovered, Uganda will have to be deliberate about its name and reputation when it comes to democracy, rule of law and generally tolerating dissent. He also implies that the demographic dividend that is realizable through the huge young population that is highly talented, will only be realized if free thought is deliberately tolerated and even encouraged so that the country’s young minds can freely think, say whatever they want and be able to freely dissent even with their leaders without getting into trouble for doing that. He calls upon Ugandans to overcome fear and freely pronounce themselves on everything.
Directly addressing himself onto the circumstances under which NTV and Daily Monitor were closed at the instigation of his brother-in-law, Gen MK who is also the CDF, Rwabwogo makes it clear that “dissent and bad media” can’t be avoided in a free and democratic society. He calls upon fellow big men and women in government to prioritize “consistent good communication’ as the only way to mitigate against ‘civil dissent and bad media’ which NTV was accused of epitomizing. The other way, he says, is by sensitizing Ugandans into responsible citizenship.
He says this has to be continuous targeting especially the young people. To him, shutting down media houses because they have given a platform for dissent weakens as opposed to strengthening Uganda which ought to project itself as a modern, robust and resilient country of the 21st century. Such things can only alienate Uganda, a country Odrek Rwabwogo says needs to project a good image to outsiders to be able to raise enough foreign exchange that is required to fund grand projects like electricity generation.
He says that to be able to become a sustainable $500bn GDP country, Uganda must grow its electricity generation from the current 2,000 megawatts to over 35,000. He says only happy and freely dissenting citizens will be able to aid their government and rally behind their leaders to deliver those ambitious targets which the President has set. Rwabwogo says its visible even in the social media conversations that Ugandans have become so cowed and can’t freely express themselves anymore.
He calls on those in whose hands a lot of power is currently concentrated to encourage free thought and dissent amongst Ugandans by exercising reason and proper sense of judgment while engaging into a lot of restraint while exercising power that they have right now.
He also calls upon supporters close to such leaders to avoid flattery and blind loyalty while demonizing and telling lies against objective cool heads like himself who have chosen to speak out and behave like the adults in the room at this critical juncture in the political history of Uganda. Rwabwogo corroborates this point by hinting on the inevitable political transition which millions of Ugandans are looking forward to. He says that as the other way to accelerate the movement towards the realization of the $500bn GDP dream, there is need to reassure foreign investments that all is well so that the trillions that continue to be repatriated in profits can be kept and reinvested here in Uganda.
He says for such investors to reinvest such profits here their transition and democracy-related fears and anxiety have to be arrayed in a very deliberate manner. He also says that those currently having a lot of powers in their hands in Uganda can only require other actors to act responsibly only and only if they themselves act in the same way. Rwabwogo says that once the political-related anxieties are adequately addressed in a demonstrable manner, he is confident the $500bn dream is realizable given the resilience Uganda’s economy has demonstrated thus far even in the face of shocks that came as a result of Ebola and Iranian/Ukrainian wars which disrupted the global economy. He calls on those holding a lot of power today to ‘tone down’ because that is the only way this country can continue holding itself ‘together’ while deescalating unnecessary and avoidable tensions in the politics. He stresses that there is need for the rulers of Uganda to treat everyone with dignity, including dissenters who don’t agree with the mainstream view.
When it comes to the Movement, which many believe has become a tired and exhausted political organization as a result of being around for over 60 years while suppressing internal dissent, Rwabwogo says it’s still possible to reform it so that it remains a viable political organization. He admits where things have reached the NRM is a tired exhausted organization which requires urgent ‘physiotherapy’ to be reinvigorated. He says the national chairman must become deliberate about sidelining those acting with extreme impunity in the name of the Movement while deliberately reaching out to the older cadres and getting them engaged into redirecting the Movement.
He says that those who have been mentored and given opportunity to evolve into responsible leadership but have consistently refused to learn and transform into responsible leaders should be ‘injected and amputated,’ the way it has to be done to a human body. And that if they don’t get better after that ‘amputation,’ the party topmost leaders must wear a bold face and expose them while purging them out of the organization.
Rwabwogo also demands decentralization of decision making in the Movement whereby district leaderships should become more empowered to run things at that level. Rwabwogo also demands that the Movement goes back to its old days of accepting and encouraging ‘constructive criticism’ of its top leaders because that is the only way ideas can contend for the best ones to win, prevail and carry the day.
He also demands that the party walks away from relying on huge monies coming from the President at election time and adopts the model whereby members fund their own party through making periodic contributions. He wonders why district structures aren’t made to thrive on contributions from cadres in that given district so that whoever holds office there is accountable to the local members as opposed to the secretariat in Kampala because it’s the conduit through which election campaigns money comes from the national chairman. Rwabwogo says he is an interested stakeholder determined to work with others to ensure that the Movement rejuvenates and once again becomes a viable organization hence his readiness to keep releasing regular video messages aimed at instigating debate and scrutiny on the issues he is raising. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
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