If I were to pose a question, who is the greatest African statesman?
There would definitely be multiple nominees, such as Nelson Mandela, Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah, Thomas Sankara, and Sir. Ketumire Masile, to mention a few, but that would be to steadfastly ignore the elephant in the room, the enormous achievements of those other great men notwithstanding. Here is why.
If you place the above-mentioned African leaders on the same pedestal as our own Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, he stands towering above the others like a monument, given his track record that can be summarised as follows;
When Museveni took power in 1986, Uganda was a failed state that was dangerously cascading on the same downhill course as Somalia.
Museveni tackled the huge challenges of the day, rehabilitated the broken-down infrastructure, rebuilt the economy that was in shambles, restored investor confidence, tackled head-on the HIV-AIDS pandemic by controlling its spread and reducing fatalities through a vigorous, well-thought-out awareness campaign.
His government rolled out a mass immunisation program for all the country’s children, presided over political and macroeconomic stability, guaranteed the security of people and their property, ushered in a new constitutional order that safeguards civil rights, freedoms and liberties and promotes affirmative action, liberalised and transformed the economy into a private sector-led economy, and improved Uganda’s international image among others.
While he still had his hands full on the domestic front, on the international scene, Museveni was doing some serious heavy lifting by playing a key role in Rwanda’s liberation war that ended the 1994 genocide and helped to earn Rwandan refugees (who had been exiled for decades) the right to their homeland.
Museveni was not done yet. He was involved in a peace-building mission to pacify Burundi after the assassination of President Ndadaye. He also played a key role in the dislodgement of Mobutu Sese Seko kuku Ngebedu Wazabanga, helped to train a contingent of the African National Congress (ANC) military wing’s Umukontho we Sizwe, translated as “spear of the nation”.
He supported the late Col. Garang’s SPLM/A’s peace efforts for South Sudan’s self-determination, championed the revival of the East African community, sent Ugandan troops on peacekeeping missions to stabilise volatile African countries like Liberia, the Central African Republic, and Somalia, (which has helped to neutralise the Alshabaab terrorists who had started making terrorist incursions in other East African countries).
Museveni’s intervention and effective deployment of the UPDF broke the back of the marauding terrorist gangs that were even threatening maritime transport on the Indian Ocean, and helped to create a semblance of stability and roll back the decades-long unrest, clan insurgents and general lawlessness that bedevilled Somalia since the whirlwind departure of Mengistu.
In addition, Museveni earned huge credit and worldwide admiration for his handling and containment of the spread of the nasty and obnoxious COVID-19 pandemic, just like he did decades earlier with the HIV/AIDS scourge.
Henceforth, in as far as Museveni has positively impacted Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Liberia, South Sudan, Congo, Central African republic, South Africa, Somalia and the East African community, no other African leader gets even close to a record of a single leader positively impacting over 10 countries, except the indefatigable Otto Von Bismarck (Duke of Lavenburg) who masterminded the unification of Germany in 1871 and served as the first German Chancellor until 1890, in which capacity he dominated the affairs of Europe for two decades.
Twitter: @jbkabagambe
The author is a lawyer