Friends For Peace In Africa

This show went on to host a cross section of people from celebrities to the ordinary house wives telling their own stories with pictures that related to many viewers in their own troubled lives. Its tales of the successful served equally as an inspiration to a great number. Currently, the show is viewed by an estimated 42 million people spread over 145 countries on all six continents.

According to the Times of London, Oprah earns over $275m a year and for all her effort is valued at over $2.7b- making her one of the richest African Americans of all times. Indeed she was the first Black person in America to become an American dollar billionaire. The influential Forbes Magazine once ranked her as the worlds 45th most powerful and influential person.

That is why many are puzzled at how this rich, young, popular woman is calling time on the show when the going is still good. What makes it even more intriguing for Ugandans, is that Oprah has set 2011 as the year she intends to bring down the curtain -25 years since she begun. 2011 is an election year in which Museveni will mark a quarter century of an unprecedented, uninterrupted presidency.

Unlike Oprah, Museveni is going no where. Museveni will always find it hard to leave ‘casually’ as he once put it and it is not difficult to see why. He has no genuine friends or trusted followers. Period.  Oprah’s endearment to her ‘followers’ is the result of genuine and meticulous hard work, coupled with respect and the passion to please.

That capitalist tendency to capture and maintain the market by constant innovation and improvement of one’s product to suit change in times and tastes and remain relevant is the driving force behind Oprah’s popularity. She can therefore remain confident that she will always have a following wherever she goes because she has mastered the art of persuasion.

On the other hand Museveni’s method of attracting supporters has always been one of force, fear and manipulation. He came to power by the gun and has used the same military might to stay there. The effort to win disputed elections, with ever dropping percentages sends Museveni a frightful message.

A lot of what passes as support or obedience to Museveni’s government is actually motivated more by fear and not necessarily respect. Most of the institutions that serve the needs and comfort of ordinary people like the police, the judiciary, hospitals and sectors like agriculture have become impotent due to under funding and mismanagement under Museveni.

To have access to what the State must ordinarily deliver as a right, citizens must humiliate themselves, be nice and vote wisely –for Museveni. In that same spirit Museveni recently told a gathering in Masaka that they deserved electricity unlike the people in Kampala who abuse him! In other words subservience and docility has earned them the favour of achieving a right. This is what is called blackmail by those who control state resources.

So, If Museveni ceased being President, he would loose the stranglehold on Uganda’s military and financial resources. The ability to bribe, blackmail and hold citizens at ransom would immediately cease and so would his following as he would have nothing material to provide the plethora of turn coats, court jesters and sycophants who sing his praises to maintain the status quo for their bread and butter.

This for a man who has prided himself as being the only one with a vision to lead this country would be such a painful thing to bear. Therefore, unlike Oprah who can retire or start something new without fear, Museveni has no choice but to stay in the prison of the presidency.

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