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I know Museveni well.

I know Museveni well.

I was, at one time,

His Permanent Secretary.

 

As his Permanent Secretary,

I had to read any speech

He was to deliver in public.

The first speech he gave me

Was the one to be delivered

At Kisubi School.

It was on the Government policy

To move to the Left.

As I skipped through the speech

And glanced at the author

It occurred to me

That he was not a very easy person

To describe positively.

 

It was easier to describe him

By negatives.

He could not be accused

Of possessing

Much creative imagination.

Nor of being a great reasoner.

Loose observations

Which might pass in conversation

Found their way in an article

Written, corrected, and ready

For presentation by him.

 

I returned the speech to him

Without any correction

And with my approval of it.

 

I then took advantage

Of the occasion to discuss things

Generally with him.

He did not have high opinion

About many around him.

He sneered almost at everybody.

I would say, “But surely

The Vice President is doing everything

With obvious successes,

To increase the population

Of exotic cattle

In the hands of farmers.”

 

Answer: “He is a snake”.

Question: “And what about Onama ...”

Answer: “That is a C.I.A.”

After the coup, he was asked

About Milton Obote,

Akena and Oyite

On whom Amin had placed millions.

His comments were pithy:

“Obote is reactionary.

Tried to pass a progressive.

Failed badly.”

“Akena is not a politician.

Why talk about him?”

“Oyite is bourgeoise

Military automation.

Never serious.”

 

He practised the art

Of sneering at everybody

So much so that it obtained for him

The reputation

Of being a great judge

Of character

From those people who are impressed

By such art.

 

His conversation

Kept his listener attentive

And on occasion entertained

But didn’t appeal

Much to the imagination.

 

But he was ever persistent

And it did not take me long

To discover

That he was eaten up

By ambition.

 

His ambition

Was so intense

That it became

A substitute for talents.

His whole heart seemed

To have been devoted

To the attainment

Of the goal of his ambition.

 

The characters of men

May be compared

To the facial features of men.

Just as no two features

Are quite alike,

So are there no two characters

Which are quite alike.

None of the twelve million

Ugandans Can be taken by a person

Who knows him for another.

 

Yet grotesque deviation

From the common Characteristic facial feature

Of a forehead, two eyes,

A nose, a mouth and two ears.

Are indeed very rare.

Here and there you may encounter

An unusually large or small

Eyes, or nose or mouth or ears.

 

The same with characters.

Inborn in all of us

Is the passion for love,

Hatred, jealousy, avarice,

Pleasure and pride and so on.

Yet one mind may

Predominantly display

One of these passions

That the other passions

Are dwarfed completely.

 

In the case of Museveni

The passion developed

To morbid degree

Is one for political power.

The monomania

To rule over others.

 

We have expressed ourselves

Rather strongly

On the subject of Museveni.

We have not done so

From any unfriendly feeling.

On the contrary,

We have been at pain

To project him as he is

Or, at least, as we see him.

 

We do not agree

With those who proclaim him

As a man with a political base

Outside Uganda

Or that he is

An overrated politician

Without the personality

Necessary to maintain him

On the eminence

Of the political battle field.

 

We believe, on the contrary,

That his being known as one

Of the Ugandan political leaders

In exile

Was due to his contribution .

To anti-Amin activities.

In any case, competition

For Ugandan leadership

Amongst some two thousand exiles

Is a very different thing

From competition

For Ugandan leadership

Amongst twelve million Ugandan citizens.

Excerpts from  o’s FROM OBOTE TO OBOTE