By Sam Evidence Orikunda
When I was young, my father frequently warned us against talking about our family affairs when we’ve visited another home. In fact if he found out that any of us the children went into someone’s home and started discussing family secrets, that child would earn a heavy punishment.
This made us cautious and also made to understand what to discuss and what leave when you’re outside home. You would rather keep silent when a topic of that nature was brought in a discussion of none members of your family.
When I grew old I realized that even in the national politics it’s against the law to trade the country’s secrets to another country. In fact I realized that people make oath never to disclose country’s secrets and even in the government Civil servants are not allowed to speak everything known to them. One is subjected to make an oath and sign the oath of secrecy. Breaching any of that vow leads to dismissal from the job or imprisonment or both. That’s how serious it is and that’s how my father prepared us for something we didn’t know at that time when we were young.
While speaking at the Geneva summit for human rights and democracy Bobi Wine ill-talked his own country and even openly told lies about things that have never happened in Uganda with the intentions well known to him. What disturbs is that he leaves Uganda for diaspora freely. A country which he says has no respect for human rights and democracy but later comes back to begin where he stopped without anybody interfering with his routine work, not even the government spokesperson giving a response to the lies that he made in face of the international community.
On return from Geneva Bobi Wine rushed to Gulu to commiserate with the father of the late speaker. If indeed Uganda is a failed state as he tries to put in the face of the international community how did he manage to catch up with time? It would have taken him several days to do what he did but because there’s peace and infrastructure development it’s very much possible to do what he did.
On his way to Gulu to mock the family of the late Speaker of Parliament, Bobi Wine did not meet any military roadblock to stop him and ask him Questions of where he was heading to and what he was going to do. That was the order of the day in Idi Amin’s regime.
In the clip I have watched, Bobi Wine foolishly compares president Museveni with dictator Amin and other dictators in the world. However at the end of his speech I didn’t see anybody clapping for him for that, maybe they understood that he was trading lies for attention and funding.
However this should no longer be regarded as normal and Bobi Wine should stop this bad habit of talking-ill against his own country while in diaspora. If our judicial system is still working Bobi Wine has a case to answer on what he talked about at the Geneva summit for human rights and democracy.
If indeed President Museveni is a dictator as he told people in Geneva, Bobi Wine wouldn’t have been allowed to fly out of the country given the fact that the state would be aware about what he was going to do. He should be reminded that in some countries the opposition doesn’t have freedom to leave and move in the country freely like he does.
Some presidents in the world have no space for the opposition; some are either killed or incarcerated for the rest of their lives. Bobi Wine shouldn’t take advantage of the good leadership of president Museveni to trade lies in the face of the international community something that will affect the country’s international relations and diplomacy. He should be called to order and answer some of the crimes that he has committed in his speeches at different international conferences.
If all that fails, He should be reminded that it’s indeed good dictatorship to leave the country at leisure speak all the gibberish against the state and return at leisure without anybody questioning him. What he calls dictatorship must be the best democracy in the whole Africa and the world because it’s unusual.
The writer is a deputy RDC Kyenjojo District.
