On January 14, 2021 Ugandans will cast their votes for their next president. The main candidates are Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, 76, the current president and Africa's third longest-serving dictator, and Ugandan prominent opposition politician and music star, Bobi Wine, 38, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi. Early this week, Yoweri Museveni told the Western Media why he remains in power, arguing that Ugandans are fools who lack a sense of direction, the Western media are full of ignorant and arrogants and that the United States has democracy because it was built on slavery.
The widespread arrests and the killings of opposition leaders and protesters marred the presidential campaigns, with the Ugandan dictator Yoweri Museveni accusing foreign powers and homosexuals of being behind the riots and funding the opposition (see AfroAmerica Network here, Uganda: Repression and Violences Against Opposition; Ugandan Dictator Yoweri Museveni Blames Foreign Powers and Homosexuals for Sponsoring Opposition)
A few days before the elections, Yoweri Museveni met the correspondents of Western media and offered his perspective on a number of key questions. His views appeared chocking, but expected, according to experts on Uganda contacted by AfroAmerica Network. One of the media channels whose correspodents and journalists talked to Yoweri Museveni is the US based National Public Radio (NPR), see here. Below are a few highlights of the onterviews conducted on Yoweri Museveni's farm in Kisozi, outside of capital Kampala, Uganda. Yoweri Museveni owns more than 10,000 cows on that farm.
Yoweri Museveni Argues that the United States of America Can Avoid Violence because they benefited from Slavery.
NPR on the peaceful protesters who were killed: "They were chapati sellers. They were carpenters, students. I mean, how do you excuse this kind of violence against your own people?"
Yoweri Museveni: "Yeah, well, in the U.S., they had free labor of Africans for 300 years, so they can build new police stations. For us, we are struggling to build one police station. When we have just built it, you come, and you burn it, and then we'll build another one. So sorry, police"
Yoweri Museveni Blames Foreign Powers, Agents and Homosexuals for the demonstrati0ns during the presidential campaigns.
Following Bobi Wine's arrest and riots, Yoweri Museveni, while speaking during his campaigns in Kotido town in Northern Uganda, said that foreigners and homosexual groups were behind the riots and were funding the opposition rallies to cause unrest in Uganda.
“Some of these groups are being used by outsiders, homosexuals, and others who don’t like the stability and independence of Uganda, but they will discover what they are looking for,” Yoweri Museveni said, threatening the opposition leaders that they will seriously regret it.
With NPR's Eyder Perata, Yoweri Museveni reinforced his points and said: "A chapati seller - when he attacks other people, he becomes a terrorist. They were attacking other people. Because they have been told that this would cause an uprising here - like happened in Libya, like happened in Syria, like happened - so they were agents. They are no longer part of a protest movement. They are now agents of foreign schemes here."
Yoweri Museveni Said that the reasons he remains in power are: Ugandans are fools and lack direction.
This is what Yoweri Museveni told NPR's Eyder Peralta:
"[Ugandans] don't have to work hard. Now, that's a big struggle, which these know-it-all from [the] outside don't know, because in other parts of the world, people are pressured to work either by the environment, which is hostile, or by competition between man and man. But here, fools can survive.""
"With this huge continent with a small population, has got a mentality for its people. They don't have to work hard. Now, that's a big struggle, which these know-it-all from outside don't know. Because in other parts of the world, people are pressured to work either by the environment, which is hostile, or by competition between man and man. But here, fools can survive.""
Asked why he would try to emulate the US and its first elected president George Washingon, but unlike George Washington who left the office after eight years, he plans to stay in power more than 35 years, Yoweri Museveni said:
"Anybody can run [the U.S.]. The problem is that in our case, the direction is not set. So it's very risky, very risky. It actually showed the lack of seriousness of those who [say] that you just go, just [leave power]. People don't know whether to go north or south, and you say, "You just go."
For more visit the US based National Public Radio (NPR), here
@AfroAmerica Network 2020
