Chaos in Kampala: Museveni Behaves Like A Thug!

By: ralph geeplay

A woman bleeds to death in Kampala after being hit by rubber bullets

The recent chaos in Kampala Uganda which saw the hideous beating of opposition leader Kizza Besigye of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) was unfortunate. Anybody would think Africa have stepped into the 21lst century and that such viciousness as persecuting the political opposition for no reasons other then bare political convenience as was recently demonstrated by the Yoweri Museveni regime were things of the past. But no, it just happened in the Ivory Coast (the brutal assault on peaceful citizens including children and women).

These are the stories that put Africa in the news: One man readying himself to hold a whole country hostage, just so he leads at all cost. The opposition is paying the prize for challenging Mr. Museveni.

Early last week, the opposition leader Besigye was barred yet again from leaving his house in a fresh effort by the government to restrict his movements as it seeks to clamp down on the protests.

The administration has placed Besigye under virtual house arrest and practically faults the Freedom for Democratic Change leader as the main culprit for these peaceful demonstrations which are growing in strength daily despite the hard handiness of the Museveni regime.

Pundits say, Museveni can not be taken seriously as a prominent African leader and statesman, because he’s usurping his powers and denying his own people their right to free assembly. A man staying that long in power certainly must harbor dictatorial tendencies, observers say.

Uganda is coming to terms with a democratic fervor running amok across the globe, especially in places where dissent were always never thought of to happen, or welcomed.

Citizens are emotionally charged now more than ever to challenge their national governments as they seek answers in a novel attempt the world over, as far as governance is concern.

The people voices are getting louder and louder as they demand accountability from their leaders. The Arab Spring which rattles the Middle East originating from Tunisia is an example.

Governments can no longer lead at the disadvantage of the people without hearing their protests or pretending to ignore their concerns as the Museveni pattern shows.

But in this regard though, Sub-Saharan Africa has a long way to go and it is refreshing that ordinary Ugandans and its political opposition are showing the way on the continent, that this can be done!

It is uplifting, that the Uganda opposition has stood firm against this African authoritarian. In an attempt to seek answers to Uganda’s myriad problems the main opposition leader, Kizza Besigye just return from a Kenyan hospital to nurse wounds from the army which unmercifully flogged him weeks ago. Soldiers taking order from Museveni attacked his car with hammers and batons, and pepper sprayed the man. The international community’s voice has not been loud enough in condemning these brutish acts which currently become obvious in Kampala. Even dubious, is the quiet voice of African leaders.

Musivene is ruling arbitrarily

It is not surprising, that the Ugandan president have won another five year term to lead that East African country once again. It was expected. The latest presidential election verdict coming from the international observers, including the African Union asserted that the polls were unsatisfactory; add that to the high cost of living especially ordinary commodities and fuel prices and the casual observer will discern, what give rise to “the walk to work protest.”

The Kampala regime is crippled. Just before the election, Mr. Museveni spent 700 million dollars largesse on military hardware which mostly included military jets; hurting the treasury immensely. The reason for the spending is insane and unexplainable! One probable explanation however is perhaps the regime fears that no military power would invade its airspace in the wake of any electoral dispute. There have been murmurs in the country also.

These grievances are coming mainly from the opposition and protesters in Kampala. The Museveni led administration has seen this as a threat to its authority. It is hard to believe Mr. Museveni, when he claims all he is trying to do is make the country safe by violently quelling the dissent.

With these developments it is hard to see how Museveni claim any valid democratic credentials when his conduct and condescension for the very citizenry he wants to lead are been beaten in the streets and barred from expressing their displeasure with way their country is being run? He is going the mile and introducing new laws to satisfy his whims and interests.

He wants to abolish the right to bail for “demonstrators and economic saboteurs”. The move, says Ugandan academics is intended grab powers from the courts, as this would allow the president to further hassle his critics and get away with impunity. This unwarranted viciousness and iron claws against the citizens of Uganda is deplorable. The blood letting of Museveni and his regime whose term runs up to 2016 will see the Ugandan president at the helm of power for 30 years. This would also make him one of the longest serving African heads of state.

Condemnations against Museveni’s actions must come in a united front from the international community.

The East African community of states must speak stridently against this autocrat, because a worsening situation there awaits the region if the violence continues unabated, and that could disrupt the relative peace the bloc has seen in recent years since the Kenyan uprising in 2007 which also resulted from elections fraud.

No wonder, Museveni staunchly supported Laurent Gbagbo few months ago, and demanded the African union back off its attempt that would have seen the former Ivorian leader ceding authority to his rival, who was declared the rightful winner of the elections.

Thank God the Gbagbo episode is history. Yoweri Museveni knows he harbors the same tyrannical cufflinks and disdain for the opposition and his own people, if only they will leave him alone to lead carelessly with political excess, never minding if the people are fed or clothed, then he will be all the happier. An international united voice must say no to this ruffian!

Why The Liberian Press Is Still Not Free

By: ralph geeplay

World Press Freedom Day has come and gone with editorials and commentaries lauding the role of the press in Liberia, its critical role in nation building, and the persecution it suffered in the past.

The hounding and prosecution of members of the Liberian press is not a secret. In its bid to inform the masses, the media have paid a costly prize at the hands of the nation’s autocratic leaders as it sought to carry out its traditional watchdog role in a volatile region such as Liberia that lacks civility.

The hostility facing the Liberian press over the years has come largely from the political power that be, fearing the media would bring to light the shady deals and rampant corruption that has defined the current administration and previous ones.

Much still though is desirable about press freedom in 21st century Liberia, when people in high places continue to malign journalists, which according to Abdoulaye W. Dukule is simply erroneous. “Expressions such as “the press is corrupt…” or the “press is full of lies…” are value-loaded judgments… this is what leads to guilt by association," Dukule wrote in The Perspective years ago.

Even though democratic governance is taking root, the forth estate’s independence is still compromised and its pages influenced, says critics. If the critics are right, it is because the media lack an adequate revenue base needed to speak with the independence and authority it deserves as it challenges the powers that be to govern diligently on behalf of the people. How then with such impediment can it employ the men and women it needs to stand as a buffer to jealously protect its terrain as umpires in a society where fraud is rife and rumors flies like rockets?

Principle among the media critic also is the President of Liberia. On August 23, 2006, she hyped the ante when she referred to the forth estate in Liberia as "check book journalists." Her ardor was fueled by sentiments that the press had defaulted on its customary role of news reporting; accepting perks as its pages were prejudiced by unbalanced stories. She alone knows what informed those views. It is not that the Liberian press doesn’t have pitfalls, but an open-ended indictment as such was gruff.

IFEX, an international media monitoring group followed the issue and wrote, "Sirleaf unleashed the attack on journalists when she delivered the commencement address at the United Methodist University...[she] said Liberian journalists have replaced sensitization with sensationalism and, according to her, in some instances outright lies and half-truths are preferred to accuracy and truth"



The release went further: “The president, who called for reform in the Liberian media, stated that good journalism ethics have been substituted for blackmail and lies" which provoked a media outcry in Liberia. This did not stop U. S. Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield from making the same declaration. In an interview with the Monrovia-based New Democrat, Greenfield echoed Sirleaf’s sentiments when she advised Liberian journalists against the habit of “check book” news reporting. The ambassador added that this could thrust the country into another round of fighting, and also pointed out that corruption was not something that was only done by politicians but also done by Liberian journalists.

There is no way the Liberian press can be independent when local and multinational companies operating in the country starve the press and media of that critical advertising revenue. Advertising revenue is an important component of the operational cost that runs media houses the world over, and daily sales of newspapers in Liberia are paltry with all of them concentrated in Monrovia.

Least we forget on the important occasion as journalists are being celebrated the world over that the Liberian press has paid its dues: its members have been beaten, jailed and its press houses burnt to the ground all these years by the autocrats that ran the Liberian state into the ground. To strengthened the rule of law in the country it is incumbent upon the national government to take up the issue of revenue ad with the private sector as a way of encouraging a truly independent media so that its traditional role of balance and credible news reporting is neither compromised nor hijacked by the greedy few who seek to buy the press and therefore ruin its good name.

Winston Tubman Finally Gets His Bride!

By: ralph geeplay

George Weah Cries


Why was George Weah crying in Kakata a few days ago? Can anyone tell me please? I am curious because it is not like he just lost a close relative, or lost his eyesight and will not be able to see the sport that made him rich and famous. Weah is crying perhaps because Winston Tubman has taken over his party and would now be the standard bearer of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC).

In late June 2009, when the football legend signed a communiqué for a merger between their two parties in Accra Ghana, I wrote then that Tubman had one goal, and that was to top Weah’s party ticket as the ultimate standard bearer going into 2011. Weah loyalists rebuffed me at the time and thought I was silly for making such statement. I have been vindicated and my political forecast has now come to pass.

The Congress for Democratic Change members and officials who thought I was silly can now all rest assure that Weah would never be the eventual candidate of any party, including his own CDC during these forth coming elections because he has serious issues and baggage.

The recent CDC convention in Kakata that saw Weah weeping was deliberate. And everyone knows it. The 111 to 118 votes that put Winston Tubman on top was a way of finally pushing Weah to the side. According to analysts, it was intended to save Weah the embarrassment had he still insist at all cost that he wanted to head the ticket when it was evident that he George Weah brings nothing to the presidency other than name recognition and his football fame.

It can be recalled and it is no secret that the first alliance between Weah and Tubman failed because he (Weah) told Tubman explicitly that he wanted Tubman as his number two, and according to insiders, Tubman told him “no.” The former Liberian diplomat thought ‘that Weah was crazy.’ Weah felt slighted and dumped Tubman for another presidential candidate, Charles Walter Brumskine of the Liberty Party.

As he has done previously, Mr. Weah ran back to Accra, Ghana, a place he love to sign political agreements and consummated yet another communiqué on November 10, 2010 with the Liberian lawyer, with the duo declaring they would run “on the same ticket.” Of course, the deal came to the exclusive preserve of Mr. Brumskine.

Philip Wesseh, editor of the Monrovia-based Inquirer newspaper said while the option for a viable ticket existed between the two, he was holding his breathe, “Until the final whistle was blown.” And true to form, the deal lasted less than two months, with Mr. Weah still declaring he had the numbers on his side to win the presidency. Tubman, the seasoned diplomat did not give up hope and continued to court Weah, even as he expressed regrets in an interview with the New Dawn newspaper in Liberia.

At no cost was Tubman willing to let George Weah out of his sight. Weah was the running mate he desperately needed. He has never hidden this point. He would wait and strike when the time was right. And then it happened suddenly, when Weah dumped Brumskin yet again. Lenn Eugene Nagbe, the former Secretary General of the CDC was so incised over the decision he resigned from the CDC.

And therefore, the political journeyman, Winston Tubman whose political trail dates back to the grand old True Whig Party of the settler class, the National Democratic Party of the Master Sergeant-turned-President Samuel Doe, and the Liberian National Union, surfaced in March of this year at the headquarters of CDC in Sinkor, Monrovia declaring he was joining Weah to unseat Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and her Unity Party.

Liberian Diplomat Winston Tubman

“No doubt Weah has a populist appeal,” says a political science professor at the University of Liberia. “It is just that his blind ambition for the presidency is absurd, a trait which is typical amongst Liberian politicians.” Weah, he says has no track record of leading and has no experience in government either. “The fact that people think you can instantly come from anywhere and just lead is a charade. You need to be tested first. It is successful mayors of major cities, leaders of political subdivisions like governors, or in our case superintendents and veteran senators who usually run for their country’s presidency.” Some of these obnoxious politicians, he says, “have been at least ministers, ambassadors or directors of public corporations, but Weah has no public or private experience.” Tubman, he continues, “gives him cover.”

All the key actors in the Liberian political opposition sees the former Monaco FC and AC Milan point man, George Manneh Weah as an asset, and also sees him only as the number two man whose proletarian appeal they crave. They see the football icon as one who lacks the diplomatic skills and the commanding presence of a major player in Liberian politics. “We don’t want another Samuel Doe, who will learn on the job and bring our country to disrepute,” Punctuate a nursing student at the Methodist founded Cuttington University College in Suacoco Bong County.

Winston Tubman has got the deal he wanted and is ready to make a push during this election. He is educated and savvy; but does not have the charisma and personality to be taken seriously, while Weah brings name recognition plus grassroots appeal to the race. Tubman also knows the alleys and backdoors of Liberian politics and if he wins the presidency, Weah could learn a thing or two from an old hand.

It is going to get interesting as the presidential campaign in Liberian starts soon. The progressive “evangelist,” Dew Mason thinks he has the gravitas to dislodge Ellen from the Executive Mansion and has grouped about four political parties already under the umbrella of his National Democratic Union. Charles Walter Brumskine says his Liberty party, which came third the last time around is ready to play ball picking a young senator from Bong County Franklin Siakor as his running mate.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has sharpened her own sword having declared herself the “formidable candidate,” challenging the opposition boldly after they claimed she is too old. To which she replied, “We will see who will run faster.” May the best man win!

Liberia Lone Star Outclass Nigeria Super Eagles

Lone Star's player trash talking generates scuffle

The 2011 WAFU Cup competition kicked off in Abeokuta on Thursday with the Eagles beating the Lone Stars of Liberia 1-0. The match was a closely fought one and the only goal in the match was scored by in-form striker Ekigho Ehiosun in the 20th minute of the first half.