How Museveni strategically neutralized toxic opposition attacks on social media

By Andrew Baba Buluba

Whoever is behind President Yoweri Museveni’s bold decision to go bare-knuckle against the hostile anti-regime agents on social media must be a genius.

Just a few months ago, social media was deemed a no-go area for pro-regime activists, and Facebook in particular was nicknamed NUP leader Bobi Wine’s empire where speaking bad about him and his policies was deemed an abomination.

Whereas the President is known for being spot on and not taking chances, he had earlier seemed to surprisingly ignore these very powerful public fora which had given hostile forces a blank cheque to exert terror on regime supporters.

Opposition activists such as Peng Peng, Fred Lumbuye had made the fora their rare reserve and crucified whoever dared confront them with pro-regime facts into submission.

As for Bobi Wine, social media became the major Communication channel as his financial means seemed to warrant that alone as a way of cutting expenses. With Museveni enjoying full access to conventional methods such as TVs, Radio, and print media, he seemed unbothered.

Even the very powerful social media activists of the ruling party under their NRM- SOMA umbrella had been forced into a miserable submission, resorting to sharing regime friendly information amongst themselves for fear of being skinned by the ruthless opposition armies on social media.

Surprisingly, what seemed an insurmountable challenge has taken the versatile Head of State to turn tables!
His regular engagements with the public on Facebook, Twitter and recently Instagram have unbelievably led to a jump in pro-regime numbers on social media and afforded regime activists the luxury of expressing themselves intimidated.

Besides, the manner in which he has handled business on the youth dominated medium has made the biggest difference. The President has tactically refused to use an insulting language even when rebutting all hateful negativities laid against him by rival camps.

Last month, a certain Facebooker had wondered why Uganda was so cursed to have a “President so dense like Museveni” but in response, the charismatic head of State invited the errant Muzukulu to his farm in Rwakitura when the Coronavirus pandemic subsides so he would establish that he could still survive outside the presidency!

Such conduct has made most of the former social media demigods slide into oblivion or hiding with much public attention turned to real issues discussed over the hate previously dominant on the fora.

Numerous groups heralding the regime’s achievements have since sprouted on social media mobilising for the NRM’s reelection with the formerly toxic atmosphere returning to normal save for a few extreme cases that could be attributes to individual indiscipline.

Infact, it’s this mature approach by the President that could have forced National Unity Platform Publicist Joel Ssenyonyi to come out and try to reign in on abusive party fanatics against using hostile languages though he seemed to be late for the damage caused was already irreversible

To crown it all, President Museveni last week launched the “MZee Nalo” mobile application that will help boost his campaigns in a COVID19 induced restrictive political environment where the internet will be a major platform to reach out to voters after public rallies were barred.