Nigerian writer reminds Gen. Museveni that the U.S. is hunting for Joseph Kony, shown here, for him
Lately, it has been a field day for eastern and Southern African presidents to criticize Nigeria.
First of all, it was President Robert Mugabe who told his countrymen not to be “like Nigerians” as the most corrupt country in Africa. But then you look at the Transparency Index of the two countries: The 2013 Transparency International’s Corruption index for 2013 ranked Zimbabwe 157, while Nigeria is ranked 144. It is a sad index for both countries, but if you are lying on the ground and I am standing, what does that say about you?
Just keep quiet rather than being senile.
So, now it’s the turn of President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda to criticize Nigeria. According to Museveni, it is a major failure on the part of Nigeria to invite foreign troops, the United Nations, to help the country fight the Boko Haram. But Nigeria has never invited the United Nations to send in troops to Nigeria. Museveni should get his facts right. He said, while addressing Ugandans, and as quoted in the country’s state-owned newspaper, New Vision , “I have never called the United Nations to guard your security. Me, Yoweri Museveni to say that I have failed to protect my people and I call in the UN,” and that “I would rather hang myself.”
He added: “We prioritized national security by developing a strong army otherwise our Uganda would be like DRC, South Sudan, Somalia or Nigeria where militias have disappeared with school children. It would be a vote of no confidence to our country and citizens if we can’t guarantee our security, what kind of persons would we be?”
Museveni would fit in very well with the Republicans in America. They forget history easily, like chasing Benghazi where four Americans died rather than chasing Iraq where 3,500 Americans died in a war fought on a lie and more than $1.3 trillion has been estimated as cost in the next decade for taking care of the veterans who fought in the Iraq war.
In other words Museveni is forgetting his own history.
If not for the African hero Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Museveni would not be in the office today that he refuses to relinquish, through free and fair elections rather than throwing his opponents in jail. (It was Nyerere and the Tanzania People’s Defense Force –TPDF– that defeated Idi Amin in 1979, allowing Museveni and other Ugandan politicians to return home from exile in Tanzania).
Then again, let’s see. What happened to the Lord’s Resistance Army? You remember what happened? Museveni must really be going senile.
On October 14, 2011, the Obama administration had to send in 100 troops to Uganda to help combat the Lord’s Resistance Army which has been operating since 1988 when in fact Museveni took office in 1986. In 2010, the U.S. Congress had to specifically pass the “Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act,” signed into law on May 24, 2010, in which, the president said, “the Congress also expressed support for increased, comprehensive U.S. efforts to help mitigate and eliminate the threat posed by the LRA to civilians and regional stability.” Based on these facts, I don’t understand why Museveni has yet to hang himself. But maybe now that he has the facts, he could do it quickly and allow Ugandans to have peace.
Again up until today, the U.S. and other countries have offered to help Nigeria; but only the U.S. has sent in 80 troops to Chad. When it comes to peacekeeping in Africa, I don’t believe that Museveni would even say that Uganda comes close to what Nigeria has done for the African continent.
So President Museveni rather empathizing with your fellow African president and his people, zip your mouth if you don’t have anything good to say.
Okay, Nigerians are waiting for Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta to jump in to the fray.
Dr. Chika Onyeani, from Nigeria, publishes The African Sun Times in New York
