Nelson Chamisa has lamented the way some African leaders are governing and how regional blocs like AU and SADC remain ineffective in dealing with what he called a self-made problem of dictatorship, The Standard reports. Speaking in an exclusive interview with the publication the youthful MDC Alliance Boss drew parallels between Uganda and Zimbabwe and said:
Africa has a new challenge. In solving our old problems of colonialism and imperialism, we have created new ones of dictatorship.
Why does Museveni and some of his cousins in Africa, southern Africa and Zimbabwe included think that they are bigger than the country?
That is the problem in Uganda and in Zimbabwe among other countries in Africa where individuals want to appear bigger than the country.
The capacity must be built, political will must be cultivated and their interests must be motivated so that they provide African solutions to African problems.
That is the challenge that is there. It is a cause for concern. Manipulating elections by these dictators is a big issue.
It is a symptom of a bigger problem, unwillingness to allow the new to be born, the old must retire for the new to rise, but we have the generational conflict that is manifesting even in inter-party politics in Africa, they can’t allow the new to bloom and conspire against young bloomers.
This whole G40 concept is actually an illustration of discomfort around young people.
Even contradictions that you have seen in liberation movements is refusal to pave the way for young people, who are treated as stakeholders instead of stockholders.
They make nations and institutions weak because they are weak. What kind of a country leaves a legacy of killing its own people and stealing from the people?
Let us leverage on the wisdom of the founding fathers and deliver that idea to have modern economies, modern infrastructure, universal visa, one good Parliament to deal with African issues — that is the Africa we want.
Speaking about the events in Uganda where 37 people were killed during protests, Chamisa said:
What is happening in Uganda is not good. The African Union slogan is ‘Silence the guns’ yet you see there are certain individuals who are loading the guns and are trigger-happy with the gun as if it’s a guitar.
Museveni must know a gun is not a guitar.
You and your cohorts and brothers, a gun is not a guitar and do not spray bullets at unarmed civilians in the streets of Africa like you are spraying seeds at your farms.
The AU says let us silence the guns, but you have cowards firing at innocent unarmed civilians. That’s what cowards do. There is no normal country that deploys guns against its people like what we are seeing.
The AU and SADC have remained quiet on the deadly protests that engulfed the East African nation’s capital following the arrest of a popular opposition leader Bobi Wine.
More: The Standard