Muntu: Why I’m not bothered by Museveni’s failures despite my bush war sacrifice

Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) 2021 presidential flag bearer Maj Gen (Rtd) Mugisha Muntu says President Museveni’s diversion from the objectives of the bush war struggle doesn’t discourage him.

Although Muntu was one of the youths who joined Museveni in the five-year bush war that brought the current government into power, he has since fallen out with the regime.

A former army commander, Muntu was a member of main opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) but quit after losing an internal presidential election to Patrick Oboi Amuriat in 2017.

Now expected to challenge Museveni in next year’s presidential election, Muntu says he is not upset with Museveni because he was pursuing the struggles’s aspirations not its commander.

“I went to the bush in pursuit of ideals, not to follow Museveni. Along the way, Museveni fell short of those ideals,” Muntu said at the weekend.

“Gen Museveni correctly diagnoses the leadership problems we face in Africa, but then acts in complete contradiction to the solutions he proposes. I have never felt frustrated by him because I was never following an individual.”

The ANT leader is famous for his emphasis on building structures and his dream to change the country’s political culture. He insists it is important to prepare Uganda for post-Museveni times.

“We must keep working until we have principled leadership. There’s simply no shortcut around this issue. The sooner we start grooming the leaders we want, the better,” he noted.

“Focusing on regime change without building our capacity to manage the change is dangerous. Power is not an end in itself. Until we have people that can take power, manage it responsibly and cause transformation, our country is in peril.”

Seen by some as a moderate opposition politician, unlike the ‘radical’ main opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye, another bush war comrade, Muntu has also urged Ugandans to keep pushing.

He encouraged Ugandans “there’s no reason for Ugandans to look on in apathy as others achieve their dreams” because “as Madiba once said, ‘it always seems impossible until it is done.”