Why Museveni will remain President
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Watching his superb performance at the presidential debate mirrored his campaign rallies, submitting himself to the fact that he has to convince Ugandans and win hearts and minds to win the presidency.
Awel Uwihanganye is a socio-politico organiser
By Awel Uwihanganye
Buoyed from the great performance from last weekend’s presidential debate, and as projected by all major opinion polls Museveni seems to be heading into the final lap of the campaigns with surprising invincibility.
Watching his superb performance at the presidential debate mirrored his campaign rallies, submitting himself to the fact that he has to convince Ugandans and win hearts and minds to win the presidency.
I find that this time round his campaign has exposed us to his deep humility, his biggest weapon as a public and political leader. With the two last presidential election campaigns I have closely observed, i have not seen president Museveni work as hard as he has worked to convince Ugandans to get their vote.
You get the sense that despite a strong brand name and face recognition beyond any of his opponents, he has not in any way taken chances nor does he take the privileges of incumbency for granted to guarantee him a win.
What I witnessed at the debate was vintage Museveni taking on challenges head on, loving engagement in debate and ideas. He displayed a combination key factors that make him a great and formidable opponent, particularly personal charisma an amiable character, his extraordinary ability to overwhelm, persuade, and overcome his opponents and critics with a mixture of charm and threat. It is the same charm of character and person that endears him to the ordinary person, mainly in rural Uganda.
Despite heavy criticism from those who wish to see change in leadership in Uganda, reading through the revised his auto biography, Sowing the Mustard Seed, you get a sense of a leader satisfied with the achievements of the vision that has guided him in leadership for over 50 years. Uganda has achieved a great deal from his leadership, his 2016 manifesto in my view the best the NRM has ever presented to Ugandans, and visible progress in lives of millions is irreversible. This is not to say the country doesn’t have significant challenges.
Besides policy issues, politics remains a game of persuasion of message and manipulating feelings and sentiments of voters, and Museveni’s opponents have continuously underestimated his personal attributes (character), the power of vision and foresight as key tools that have sustained him in struggle for power and keep as leader of a revolution over five decades and president of the country for 30 years.
Having the privilege of working on his campaign has meant sometimes crisscrossing the country meeting people of different social strata, education backgrounds, and the ordinary of our citizens in the villages who form the bulk of his supporters. It has presented me with a deeper insight of the Museveni brand and understanding why after 30 years Ugandans will still vote for him and are excited about it.
I do agree that serving for 30 years is quite a stretch and has its challenges and make it hard for someone to justify, however every society is conditioned differently and has its own peculiar circumstances that define events and situations. Many among us, the educated and elite class, despite our usual protest for independence and self determination, we are still largely conditioned by western democratic ideas and are still very much influenced by the democratic experiences of the west. This is not so much the case among rural voters.
As I have witnessed at different rallies, you notice that he observes the smallest things in the crowd and has an eye out for those he should reach out to in expressing his own feelings and emotions to the people he leads.
He would for example he would be driving through a big crowd of supporters and suddenly stop and call out an ordinary villager he recognizes by name, they would chat for a few minutes and he promises to call them later, of which I have learnt that he actually does.
For the urban elite, we can consider these as insignificant, and lacking in taste. However we forget that we live in a country where over 70% of the voters are still in the countryside, and not influenced by the western democratic thinking that influences our lifestyles and attitudes.
The weekends performance at the presidential rally was just as inspirational as it was informative on issues and facts. It brought back the vintage Museveni so many of us have been drawn to over many years.
Despite the challenges that still remain, travelling across the country, you notice the different achievements and changes in communities and peoples lives. From roads, electricity, water access, more school going children, increased access to health care, more Ugandans living longer, its hard not to appreciate that to a great extent Uganda has achieved a strong foundation to leap frog to where it needs to be.
Uganda has been on steady progress over the last three decades non-stop, Museveni remains the best bet.
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