Robert Kyagulanyi’s decision to visit Milton Obote’s grave in the middle of an election was definitely a political blunder, and I’m sure his advisors have silently acknowledged it.
Once you start setting your sights on historical injustices, you trap yourself in struggles that can never be fixed because the same river can never flow twice. You also divert your attention from things right in front of you that are pretty easy to fix.
A lot of people assume that it won’t affect him since the majority of Ugandans are below 30 years, and I kind of thought in a similar way when I first saw the video of the visit. I thought to myself, “You know what, Uganda has the second youngest population in the world. None of them knows anything about Obote.
They have only known Museveni as president. So, it won’t affect Bobi. ” But then I realised that I have also known only one president all my life.
So, how come Obote’s name has always been a thorn in my brain? I remembered that I started reading about Obote around 2009 on the Ugandans At Heart forum through our interactions with the elders.
I also started borrowing books from the university library to teach myself the history of my country – that’s the time I was doing my postgraduate studies here in the UK. That’s why I’m now in a better position to assess the gravity of the visit to Obote’s grave than some people. I’m sure that those Ugandans in their 20s have also started opening up books, consulting elders, like I did, to research about Obote and what he did while he was president.
And people shouldn’t bet on crowds and think that all will be forgotten. In any case, crowds don’t necessarily mean votes in any election. Besigye had serious crowds, but he’s now sadly in prison, and he never became president. Huge rallies are a completely useless metric.
Reconciliation is the process of restoring a relationship, system, or account to a state of agreement, consistency, or harmony after divergence, error, or conflict. Reconciliations aren’t really done during campaigns. When you do it during campaigns, it smells of opportunism. If you decide to visit Obote’s grave for purposes of reconciliation, then you have to go all the way.
You can’t limit it to the dead and past. You should reconcile with Museveni and others, too. The word reconciliation in normal life refers to the removal of any mistakes that happened between two persons. It means the restoration of friendly relations or the action of making one view or belief compatible with another.
So, if Kyagulanyi means what he says, he has to stretch during these elections and reach out to Mathias Mpuuga, Asuman Basalirwa, and several others who are his ” enemies.”
The 1966 attack on Kabaka’s palace is still painful, especially in the hearts of elders. Some Baganda haven’t forgotten and forgiven Obote for what he did to their kingdom.