Nicolas Opiyo’s attack on Muhoozi

THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | On Friday October 11, 2024, lawyer and human right activist, Nicolas Opiyo, posted a tweet of his “short musing.” It was a very personal attack on the intellectual competences of Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the Chief of Defense Forces (CDF) of the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) and also son of President Yoweri Museveni. “All his [Muhooz’s] life,” argued Opiyo, “he has been thought of, by a vast majority of even his peers [sic], as a less intellectually inclined individual, a sort of privileged pumped-up kid- who, had he been made in a different bed to a different couple, would have been a village drunk.”

Who is this “vast majority of his peers” that Opiyo is quoting? Did Opiyo really talk to anyone who has interacted closely with Muhoozi? I am inclined to believe he didn’t. If he did, he would surely get a different answer. So, did Opiyo cook-up this evaluation? I don’t think he did. This is because in my many years of relating with him, I have found Opiyo an honest person not capable for making up such a lie. So he must have talked to people who claimed to know Muhoozi and bought their story line hook and sinker.

Opiyo knows (or should know) that many people would be inclined to tell negative stories about Muhoozi. This would be out of malice, envy and/or ignorance, not out of intimate knowledge of him. There are also many people who would claim or feign intimate knowledge of Muhoozi to score social points and to also make their claims sound credible. I am inclined to believe these are the “peers” of Muhoozi Opiyo is referring to.

Opiyo knows I am a very close friend of Muhoozi. I can say confidently that very few Ugandans have had prolonged intellectual engagements with Muhoozi as I have done over the period I have – 32 years. Hence, if  Opiyo was genuinely interested in giving the public a well informed opinion about the intellectual competences of Muhoozi, he would have called me. I have suspicions on why Opiyo did this hatched job. But I consider his subjective motivations less important. For now let me explain the person Muhoozi since he has been my sparring intellectual partner for decades.

Muhoozi is one of the most intellectually gifted Ugandans I have held discussions with and debated. I have found him to possess all-round intelligence – combining excellent cognitive/analytical ability with exceptional social and emotional intelligence.

Let me begin with his cognitive intelligence for which many people have spoken with ignorance, prejudice and malice. I think his cognitive skills come from two factors: He has an incredible thirst for knowledge and learning. This has made him a permanent student. He is always questioning, prodding and interrogating issues. Me and him always share books and documentaries. Reading is like physical exercise for the brain. The more you read and watch analytical documentaries, the more your brain expands. We do not agree on many things – so our discussions are always intense, some of them conducted without any debatorial etiquette.

The second thing that makes Muhoozi a ferocious intellectual is his personality. He is an extremely good listener. And I believe this is the reason many Ugandans have been denied the gift of his sharp mind. He lets people talk. Many who have met him have been impressed by his exceptional attentiveness when they are talking to him. Put him in a group discussion, he will listen carefully when others are talking. When he intervenes to make a point, it will be very brief yet the most insightful. He has an incredible ability to compress a powerful argument or insight into very few sentences –  so every word he speaks is pregnant with meaning. That is the true definition of an intellectually gifted person.

This understanding came to me in the mid 1990s. Between 1997 and 2000, myself, Muhoozi,  Robert Kabushenga, Kiwanuka Kiryowa and Simon Kaheru had a discussion group. All these guys are ferocious intellectuals. We used to meet in Kabushenga’s apartment in Bugolobi every week to discuss national, regional and international issues. The subject would be political, economic, military or geo strategic. It is these discussions that revealed to me the dynamic intellectual in Muhoozi. His arguments were always backed by a wide range of facts, revealing a mind not just deep in analytical power but also nourished with a good diet of knowledge.

Since then, Muhoozi and I have spent the years sharing documentaries, books and debating a wide range of subjects. One of the captivating topics is military history and strategy. Muhoozi is not just voluminous in the breadth of his knowledge but most critically, penetrating in his insights. With the exception of David Tinyefuza, Sabiti Mutengesa and perhaps a general called Ogik, I have not met a UPDF officer who has exhibited such great intellectual gifts – a total command of even the minutest details of a given military campaign combined with a sharp grasp of not just the military strategy behind it, but grand national strategy.

As a result of these interactions, and to keep myself up to date in these discussions, I became an avid reader of military history. When I sit down with Muhoozi, we reminisce every detail of the ancient military campaigns: of Caesar and Pompey, Alexander and Darius, Hannibal and Scorpio, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Zhukov, Rommel, Guderian, Montgomery, Manschtein, Giap, Mao, Shaka Zulu, Kabalega, Cabral, Museveni, Kagame! It is unfortunate that by keeping away from publicity, Muhoozi has denied Ugandans an insight into his intellectual prowess. If I were to criticize him, I would say he is selfish with his intellectual gifts which he doesn’t share with the vast majority of Ugandans.

Immediately he was appointed CDF, I interviewed him for a book we are doing on this history of the UPDF. In just a few minutes and without much thinking, he gave me synopsis of what UPDF stands for, how it intends to deal with the changing global situation of emerging great power competition, his plans for it etc. I was just blown away. I’ve been thinking of publishing it in The Independent because the book we intend to publish will not have such a wide audience. When I showed it to a friend, he said: Andrew you must have been the one who wrote these things. I asked him why? He said Muhoozi is not capable of such intellectual articulation.

I was shocked but not surprised because I know that the worst of danger to intelligence is prejudice.  Also, I was not surprised even though I was shocked by Opiyo’s opinion. What surprised me is Opiyo, an otherwise sober, calm, balanced and thoughtful person could publish such ill-informed views without seeking the opinions of those who know Muhoozi well. He proved to all who know Muhoozi that another worst of dangers is offspring of little knowledge. The horrible parts were personal insults of Muhoozi because I didn’t know Opiyo to indulge in such cheap ghettoized posts. Otherwise many people make these ignorant  and prejudiced claims about Muhoozi’s intellect yet they all claim they “hear.” I’ve not met a single person who has engaged Muhoozi in an intellectual discussion who can claim him to be intellectually weak.

Beyond his sharp cognitive abilities, Muhoozi is gifted with excellent social and emotional intelligence. His ability to read his political and cultural surroundings and act with astuteness is unmatched. I have been the lucky beneficiary of his advice on how to handle situations and individuals in particular circumstances. On many occasions he has advised me on the best way to deal with his father, and to understand why the president makes the choices he makes, when I was rushing headlong into a mistake and thereby failing to get the decision I sought. And his emotional intelligence, the ability to read people and their moods and make them feel understood and appreciated, is inspiring. Everyone he meets doesn’t feel his power. He knows how to make everyone comfortable around him. Space does not allow me to delve into the details of his social and emotional intelligence. I will reserve that for another day.

If I had power to hang Muhoozi, it would be over what he has denied Ugandans – his sharp and analytical mind backed by his humility in spite of who he is. If he interacted with people more, talked to them, shared ideas, he would move mountains. And he doesn’t. For that, I will forever be disgruntled. Why? Because it allows the claims and biases of haters and envious people to gain credence. I am going to publish his interview with me about UPDF in the next post. It is an interview which he gave the least thought. If at his most careless he could display such brilliance, what would come from him if he sat down to write a paper?

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amwenda@ugindependent.co.ug