He is The Biggest Threat to Successive Governments in Uganda Since 1979

Muhammar Gadaffi is the Big Brother of Africa with considerable power to make or destroy any politician on the African continent. He has money and influence and can change any political landscape and get it crafted according to his whims. Any African leader who does not show enough respect for Gaddaffi is obviously in trouble. Thabo Mbeki tried to play around with Gadaffi, he sent a dollar coated spell into the ANC and we saw him removed. Museveni now is In real trouble because he is trying to challenge many of Gadaffi’s views. We shall come to this later in this article.

Gadaffi and Idi Amin

Talking about the medelling of Gadafi in Uganda’s affairs, I wish to note that since the ascendency of Idi Amin onto the political scene of Uganda in 1971 through a military coup, Gadaffi has had a continuous influence in the political affairs of Uganda without a break. He was very pleased with Amin when he moved very close to turning Uganda into an Islamic country  run by decree without any elections. He lavished Amin with dollars and Military hard ware to instill in the ill-educated Amin, a false sense of invincibility. In 1978 when Amin invaded Tanzania and invited the wrath of President Julius Nyerere upon himself fooloishly.Gadaffi was the only Ally of amin that sent troops and arms to defend the country against the Tanzanian led Ugandan exiles under former President  Obote. Many Libyan troops were either killed or captured as POWs. Along with Amin, Gadaffi lost very badly and therefore, did not have kind feelings for the post  Amin governments in Uganda.

Gadaffi and the Fall of Obote II

In 1981, he got the golden opportunity to undermine the regime of Obote II when President Yoweri Museveni waged a guerrilla warfare on the UPC government claiming that the 1980 elections were rigged. Never mind that even with such a loud foul cry, he (Museveni) could not even be elected in his own area as MP of his own Party. All through the 1981-1986 bush war, Gadaffi was the chief financier of the rebellion in Uganda. He would deliver money and fire arms directly to the rebel bases by air. His sustained support saw Museveni take over power in January 1986 and the diplomatic and personal relationship between Museveni and Gadaffi continued to be robust all these years.But like the saying goes, in politics, there are no permanent friends and permanent enemies.

Gadaffi and the Plots to Over throw Museveni

Current events on the African continent following the election of Gadaffi as the Interim chairman of the African Union has brought in a very interesting twist into the relationship between Museveni and Gadaffi on the one hand and between Libya and Uganda on the other. The tap roots of these increasingly alarming flow of bad blood between Museveni and Gadaffi has more to do with the ego of Gadaffi. He rules his country without competitive elections and  criticisms. Any criticism of Gadaffi gets percieved as some kind of unforgiveable blasphemy. He has for long been nursing this dream of  the United States of Africa with him as the undisputed leader, but several times at African Union meetings, Museveni has opposed him.

He was recently on the Ugandan Media as having an intimate affair with the Queen of Toro, one of the Ugandan traditional Kingdoms. Queen Kemigisha Best flies to Libya regualrly and the palace of Toro was built with funds donated by Gadaffi. His contacts with the Queen of Toro has been very irritating to the royals of Toro kingdom, but they also know that Gadaffi’s support to the Kingdom is so enormous that no one can dare confront him for playing about with their Queen.

Gadaffi also built the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council Headquartes with a big Mosque called Gadaffi Mosque. When  he came to officially open the Mosque two years ago, he caused religious contraversies when he denounced some verses of the Bible referring to Jesus as a prophet. This almost caused a demonstration from sections of the Ugandan Christians. He expected Museveni his host to gug Ugandans over such insensitive remarks-when this did not happen, he left the country unceremoniously at night without even the knowledge of Museveni his host.

Gadaffi has recently discovered that Uganda has rich oil wells in Western region of the country. The companies prospecting Ugandan Oil are from the UK. But recent reports coming out now reveal that Gadaffi has shown tremendous interest in this oil and wants  Libyan Firms to be the ones directly involved in the actual extraction of the Ugandan oil. President Museveni who wants to use the oil wealth to spur development in the country made it clear to Gadaffi that anybody who wants to get involved in the extraction of our oil must follow the right procedure. This did not go well with Gadaffi who has now resorted to using Tradtional Kings in the oil rich areas of Bunyoro to push forward his agenda to control Ugandan oil.

Recently while celebrating his 40 years anniversary as leader of Libya, Gadaffi invited King Iguru of Bunyoro to Libya. King Iguru of Bunyoro went and was given a red carpet reception. Since the King of Bunyoro returned from Libya, he has been a changed man, driving some of the most expensive cars in the country. This gifts are not for nothing. He wants the Banyoro through their King to hand over the concessions for extracting oil to Libyan Firms and he can only do this by creating difficult political problems for Museveni. He also believes that the Ugandan oil has links to the North African oil wells and any extractions in Uganda would dry up the Libyan oil wells. It is not clear whether this is an empty theory or somethng for real. Museveni is already aware of these inflitrations by Gadaffi. Infact for the first time in nearly 30 years, Museveni defied Gaddafi by denying him opportunity to host traditional kings in Uganda sometime last year. Secondly, Museveni also turned down the invitation by Gadaffi to attend the 40th anniversary of the Libyan revolution. It was from this incidences that Ugandans learnt that something seemed to be wrong between the two revolutionary friends.  

Matters came to a head when Intelligence discovered that Gadaffi had given the King of Buganda some huge amount of dollars to mobilze Buganda Youth to distabilize the peace. Infact the recent riots in Kampala were not accidental-they were externally engineered and government of Uganda now believes,Gadaffi is determined to unseat Museveni with  the intention of replacing him with stooges who would make his access and control of the new found oil wells of Ugandan much easy.

Museveni may not be the best man to continue leading my country, but many Ugandans know he means well for Uganda except that he has a team of government officials who are corrupt and self aggrandizing. It is their actions that bring the great leadership qualities of Museven to nothing. But many a Ugandan had better have their Museveni, the devil they know than give opportunity to Gadaffi to bring a Somalia like scenario to our land. We shall resist any Gadaffi machinations with all our blood.