Living the Bobi Wine Bubble

In an interview with the Daily Monitor newspaper of 26^th August, Bobi Wine attempts to lay out his policy agenda on a wide-ranging spectrum of issues. Reading responses, you see a political youngling trying to straddle to the starting line into the political unknown. He talked about many things, though the common quotidian was lack of depth of the basics. In politics, whereas we talk about group formations in the form of parties, pressure groups or movements, there is always a vanguard that has a charismatic leader at the helm. So to have an amorphous outfit with the intension of taking power in less than fifteen months is a lot of heavy weather for dreamers. Till now, Bobi Wine has not come up with a comprehensive policy framework to chart-out his vision for the presidency, but instead a clutter of bits and pieces that are so incoherent to make a parish councilor win an election.

He dismisses the centrality of election financing. He reduces money in an election to bribery and patronizing the electorate. He misses the bigger picture of mobilization, networking, and monitoring. It should be pointed out that FDC that by any measure is stronger than PEOPLE POWER in terms of popularity and national outlook has never had 100% electoral positions filled. This is partly explained by deficiency in party financing. In most cases, parties don’t have agents at every polling station which compromises their ability to monitor every vote cast. So Bobi Wine should realize that in democracies like the USA, fundraisers determine the depth of mobilization and visibility.

It’s true we have a bloated parliament that affects public expenditure, however, to reduce representation is a delicate balancing act, the same with ministerial posts. There is a need for inclusivity where everyone sees themselves in the national mirror. It becomes messy if a region or tribe feels excluded, it’s a societal mindset. When Bobi Wine criticizes the debts acquired to develop the infrastructure, what is his policy alternative, could we borrow to develop infrastructure that will eventually build capacity to pay back the debt or we should avoid debt and remain undeveloped? These are tough questions that require more than ordinary minds to decipher. Development is a creature of tough and deliberate actions and decisions. So if we don’t have the money to develop, we need to build capacity through a myriad of policy decisions to address the hitch. So what policy alternatives does he offer? It is easy to criticize, but the reality is that debts are inevitable.

To show his political ineptness, Bobi Wine, lacks the grasp of the geopolitics, the prevalence of Ebola in Congo and the constant fear of its spread across the border is not about smuggling, rather it’s about contact between the infected and the affected, who may be legitimate traders or tourists. So reducing it to smugglers is lack of ability to realize that Ebola is a geopolitical problem that is multi-faceted and can only be solved by cordial regional politics.

He talks of granting President Museveni amnesty. Amnesty is given to convicts or criminals, what has Museveni done to warrant an amnesty. This borders on a witch-hunt and it doesn’t win him favors from the NRM diehards. He talks of overhauling the education system. I’m convinced he has not heard of skilling Uganda program and BITVET. The government instituted these programs long ago and has a policy of building an institute per district and these institutes are under construction currently in many districts to equip vocational skills. Vocational skilling is the way to go if we have to absorb the youth bulge especially those who have not gone through formal schooling and those who have acquired non-functional degrees and diplomas who need retooling. It should, however, be noted that not all youth are worth skilling, there are those who are not only unskilled but also incapable of benefitting from retooling. These form the biggest challenge.

It’s true the elderly monthly fees of sh 25.000 is small, but the budgetary constraints cannot allow the proposed sh100.000. priorities shouldn’t be inverted. Bobi Wine talks of returning the death penalty, the truth is that the death penalty is still in our law books, only that it has been in abeyance since 1997 when it was last evoked. This only shows ignorance of current trends. However, the global trend is that the death penalty must be abolished. So we expect, his policy to run against the international wave agitating for its removal.

Bobi Wine should refrain from veiled tribal undertones. Actually, he is the best beneficially of the tribal mix. To insinuate that jobs and political positions are occupied by particular tribes, against Buganda is defeatist in itself. Playing a tribal card alienates him from other tribes, yet he must cut a nationalistic figure. Buganda region alone cannot spur him to the presidency without the support of other regions. This explains why his enthusiasts are basically from Buganda.

From the interview, it is easier to see the glaring gaps that expose Bobi Wine as an upstart that lacks basic policy alternatives, whose ambitions are grounded on quicksand, having no political vehicle to propel his vision. There is a need for a political formation in the form of a party, not just a pressure group without formal structure identifiable by the electorate. The challenge here is that all main actors identify themselves with existing parties and are not bound to stick with PEOPLE POWER, should their personal interests get threatened. Most of them are freelance politicians, jostling for positions and willing to jump ship if any easy way out is apparent. Party primaries are messy and divisive; the losers are quick to dash to any party that offers a chance of winning. This is when reality will dawn him that an election is not merely hot rhetoric.