Uganda’s political scene seems to be one big theatre with politicians both young and old, cracking up the mobs, and actually not trying to carry political support along the way but use humor to make fans and friends.
The man on the street ordinarily employs humor to win hearts and affection, politicians use comedy as a ladder to achieve their dreams but then thanks to Ugandans’ love for banter and lose talk, comedians in politics are taking center stage and showing the rest of the country that you don’t need intellect to be taken seriously just appeal to the “gut feelings”.
Such politicians enjoy high rotation on popular humor-laced parodies and news bytes like NTV’s Point Blank. One recalls that that particular program mainly featured drunkards but soon the producers and News Editor discovered a gold mine in politics! And thus today the usual comedians don’t stand any chance against people like Nadduli anymore.
Abdul Nadduli always a lover of the press finds a way to address the country even when it’s clear that he is laboring to get even one point, just one across. His brand of cheap politics has come to maturity in this era of Bobi Wine and it seems he has taken up the proverbial microphone with messages that he knows will appeal to the feeling of people, that inherent distrust of the ‘other person’.
Tribalism is an inherent favorite to most of the masses, especially for those who have gotten bored with the current ‘no issues’ politics and Nadduli knows that he doesn’t really need to deliver some thought-provoking argument about it but just echo the deep-seated sentiments that say education strives to suppress and there one will find a base and audience to take him seriously. It’s comical that as a leader he has to wait for those he leads to lead him on the issue of saying who the next president of the republic should be
Al Haji Nadduli’scurrent point is which tribe the next president of Uganda should come from. This isn’t surprising because he has always tried to find ways to push himself to the center of the nation’s politics as expected. The Luweero man has risen to fame by appealing to the feeling of the masses rather than their intellect and from the look of things, he is not planning on bowing out soon.
When Al Haji Naddui first contested for the Luweero LC5 seat in 1998, he among other things, promised to make man-made lakes in the district so that residents could get cheap fish. Of course he did not make the lakes as he promised, but was able to bounce back in 2002, after defeating his arch-rival Ignatius Koomu for the second time.
Those successes were really because he is a well-informed comedian, not a clever one but one hooked into the strategic information sources, and thus is well suited to give rumbling speeches on-air and at public gatherings about how bad things are and it is not his fault at all but some unknown actors. And as comedians go the Luwero man usually spends more time talking than working, because that is what entertaining calls for anyway.
Nadduli’s outburst about the westerners occupying the Presidency for long is one such tirade. In giving the interviews, he seemed to demand that the media and its opinion-entertainment craving audiences pay attention. The old Hajji inherently was trying to outcompete Bobi Wine who it seems has stolen his thunder.
So how does he get back the attention? Well, he rides the wave.
As Ugandans, we are ought to have a pride that should pass on to generations. Castigating tribal separation will only lead to bloodshed or even a genocide-like scenario. The disadvantage is that the results are unpredictable but grave. In that worst case, lives will be lost but who knows which tribe will be wiped out more.
Sectarianism and tribal insults should forever be put aside and let us build Uganda from objective politics, not tribal sentimental utterances.
