Museveni's slogan has been 'Protecting the gains'. But that includes the democracy built over the last 40 years, and if Uganda veers into full-blown authoritarianism Museveni's very legacy is at risk.
00:00I, Yoweri Museveni, swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the Republic of Uganda.
00:11President Yoweri Museveni has led Uganda for 40 years.
00:15As the unchallenged candidate of the ruling national resistance movement, he's confident of re-election.
00:22During the campaign, he's defended his legacy with the slogan, Protecting the Gains.
00:27His supporters agree.
00:29He has taught people democracy.
00:31There's a lot of progress. There's a lot of gains so far.
00:36Democracy and progress. That's what his supporters see.
00:40But what about his opponents and critics?
00:43Welcome to the flip side.
00:45When Museveni came to power in 1986, Uganda was in a bad state after the terror of dictator Idi Amin and the mismanagement of President Milton Obote.
00:56During the past days, we used to have few roads.
01:22But as I talk now, we have so many roads.
01:27We used to have few schools, few universities, but currently there are so many universities, almost everywhere.
01:36We used to have few hospitals, but at the moment there are so many hospitals.
01:41You know, Uganda in its post-independence context has never had a stable transition.
01:47But then in terms of the other side of that equation, you know, protecting the gains, Uganda, I think, has has shown really important resilience to external economic shocks.
02:00It's been able to maintain a pretty steady economic growth rate, you know, generally around the 6% mark.
02:09And per capita incomes are slowly increasing as a result.
02:1481-year-old Museveni was seen as a new generation leader who criticized other African presidents for clinging to power.
02:21But 40 years later, Museveni is accused of doing exactly the same.
02:27The current leadership which we have is not people-centered.
02:33It is self-centered and power-oriented.
02:38Museveni has been a mainstay of Ugandan politics for the past four decades.
02:43But the country is now much younger.
02:46Over half the population is under the age of 18.
02:49Ugandans are ready for a young leader.
02:51The majority of the population is made up of young people and they need someone that can relate to them and the issues that they face.
02:57And the gains Museveni is at pains to point out are very much defined by him.
03:03But he cannot go on forever.
03:06So would Uganda really collapse without him?
03:09I think that would do probably a disservice to, you know, the degree of kind of state institutions that Uganda has, you know, has built up under Museveni.
03:21Yes, it is still an extremely personalized system.
03:25It's very top heavy.
03:26You're looking at several hundred members of parliament, but also a massive network across the country of other positions.
03:35So there is also this kind of formalization of political structures across the country that's taken place under Museveni.
03:41And if Museveni relies on anything other than a democratic solution to the question of who will succeed him, that too could create problems, especially for his political allies.
03:52You know, there are also elements of the of the NRM who might question the logic of a hereditary succession process in Uganda, might kind of question that that could take place, you know, how that might take place given given the constitutional process.
04:12With that in mind, and with Uganda's gains being so closely tied to Museveni's legacy, maybe the biggest gain is in fact allowing the democratic process
04:22to flourish to flourish.
04:23The first Museveni government picked Uganda out of a ditch and put it on the foundation and Uganda started to flourish.
04:33But when our president loved power more than the vision that he had come with, then things went astray.
04:42I have always told him, please, President Museveni, I wish you could rest because you served.
04:48Now, instead of your legacy being good when you leave, it will end up badly.
Be the first to comment