Museveni and Ceasear’s ides of March 15, 44BC

Op-Ed: In 49BC, while fighting in Gaul (modern day France), Julius Ceasear stood at a total crossroad when the Roman Senate ordered him to leave his army behind and return to Rome as a civilian. Giving up on an army whose building, existence and strength he wanted everyone to credit to his sole and personal efforts, returning to Rome without it, was equivalent to giving up power, something completely out of Ceaser imagination.

Instead of surrendering power, Cesear crossed the Rubicon river with his army, a line no Roman general contemplated would be crossed. “A dice is tossed,” he boastingly said, “I am just like that. There is no going back.”

What followed was a brutal civil war with his former ally Pompey, whom he even chased to Egypt.

For a moment, everything seemed like Cesear was unstoppably powerful, but here was the CATCH.

THE GREED TO TAKEOVER EVERYTHING with ABSOLUTE CONTROL including everyone’s aspect of livelihood together with all national resources created him a lot of enemies (open and concealed) at all segments of political, econmic and in the social power structure.

Even people he thought were his friends like Marcus Brutus begum to turn against him because of his unquenchable absolutism.

On March 15th, 44 BC, while appearing before the Senate, Ceaser was stabbed to death by a group of senators. Stunned that even his step-son and good friend Marcus Brutus was in the plot, Ceasar choked out:”kai su,teknon?” (Even you, my child?”)

But on the steps of the Senate, the most feared and powerful man in the ancient world was dead in the pool of his own blood.

His assassination threw Rome into chaos, and instead of restoring Rome as a Republic ,it paved the way for the rise of the Roman Empire, something Ceaser had dedicated his entire adult life to avoid

Julius Cesear’s decision to cross the Rubicon River gave him victory in the short run, but COST him and his family everything, including power.

Mr. Museveni’s successful capture of power on January 25th,1986, through a gorilla warfare against the background of doubt and discouragement from different quarters emboldened him, giving him an imagination of invicibility. (More like the crossing of the Ribicon River.

Although the fradulent currency reform of 1987 was the first plot by the NRM/A to empoversh Ugandans, “the short cuts” in the extension of Museveni rule from 1989 to 1996 was the real first political experiment to the now revealed life presidency, absolutism and despotism in the Luwero consensus’ grand scheme of things.

This prepared ground for eventual removal of the presidential term limit from the Ugandan grand law, the personalisation of governments parastals and other public assets in the guise of privatization and the scrapping of the age limit was the climax of Museveni’s victory in his conquest of Uganda and its citizenry.

With those done and achieved without any personal or political cost to the regime, Mr. Museveni imagined that there could not be a battle he could not win in pursuit of his despotic ambitions against Ugandans.

The intentions to amend article 102 (b) of the constitution of the Republic of Uganda were declared alongside the need to amend art. 26, targeting citizens’ right to own properties, and land was of great and specific interest.

Although he wanted both, he wasn’t sure they would all be handed to him at the same time. In his heart, therefore, he was ready to temporarily settle for one, especially that, which would give him another lease of political life at the helm of the country.

The presidential age limit removal served him best given the fact that it would not only allow him to re stretagise to relaunch himself to the land contestation but to also complete his long held monarchical cycle ambitions for which having his son succeed him as absolute ruler of the country was part of the bigger plot of things.

But all said and done, Mr. Museveni is aware that his most inner despotic ambitions would never be full cycle unless he has deprived private citizens of their land . But as a gorilla, Mr. Museveni remembers uproars, which the issue of outrightly taking over land caused in the past.

He therefore sees it smarter to demoralise those who derive livelihood and wealth creation from land. Coffee is only the last cash cow to fall victim to cronies of those running the state.

The tragedy that befell the cotton sector, the tobbacco sector, the Vanilla sector, sugarcane sector, the milk sector, the tea sector, the moringa sector, the mineral sector, while making the boda boda and moneylending sectors artifcially lucrative was far well intended.

Poverty by policy, political scientists can attest, is a weapon of occupation, especially by misrulers. The easiest way of impoverishment, therefore, is depriving and denying the population the most critical factor of prorduction- THE LAND.

Museveni’s ambition of creating a “middle class” is the central motivating factor of all these plots. This prepelled the personalisation of what used to be national assets, the grabbing of public/governments land across the country, degazzetting of previously gazzetted land for private use is the driving motivator behind grand corruption in the coubtry. Other things like political persecution of political opponents and critics, nepotism, state sponsored abductions, and endless scandals in government institutions shall be done to either feed into the large agenda or divert the population from the evil plan.

My pain, however, is that the well-meaning part of our people are acting indifferent, living and surviving by hope, that someday the will of God shall bring the News about Museveni. Doing nearly nothing to stamp their feet for the country.

Mr. Museveni can be forced to hand over this country to people who can manage it better. We can also create a condition to force him into negotiating his own role, but this won’t be through weekly press conferences or through his institutions. The conduct of some of our people reveals very naive people or a compromised lot hired to frustrate the efforts.

Without any doubt, these regime actions have injured many, including within Mr. Museveni inner patronage network. But the image of a vicious and decisive man is what has caused many to either remain silent or pretend to work with Museveni

It could have some percentage of truth that Museveni picked this country from far, but it’s now crystal clear that he is driving it to a much worse direction, and there must be people willing to stop him.

Unfortunately, the majority of the current leadership in the opposition is inadequate for the task.

Yet just like Julius Cesear, who had made pointed and public display of turning down kingship but being more “kind” to dictator for life, Mr. Museveni has kept metamorphosising from a tsudo Marxist, West world supported Crusader, a venture capitalist, “dictator for life” without openly declaring it, to now a republican monarchy openly transferring power to his son a thing driving Uganda way beyond the chaos he found the country in, by January 25th,1986. And since most of the people fiercely opposing him are his former most close allies. Some thought to be his relatives, which makes his fate closely related to how Julius Cesear ended.

Shall Uganda experience its on “IDES OF MARCH…?”

The author is Odaka Asuman, the Secretary General National Economic Empowerment Dialogue (NEED).

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