In the Monitor today

06/11/2010 16:00 

Daily Monitor:  - National |Age gives me an edge over competitors, says Bidandi 

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1047590/-/view/printVersion/-/108t8qy/-/index.html 

NATIONAL 

By Michael J Ssali  (email the author <URL: javascript:void(0);>) 

Posted Saturday, November 6 2010 at 00:00 

Masaka 

Whereas some people might think running a country could be a rigorous task for someone of advanced age, Progressive Peoples’ Party candidate Jaberi Bidandi Ssali says this is what gives him an edge over the others vying to for the presidency. The 73-year-old politician told his supporters in Masaka on Thursday that he has been witness to many of Uganda’s political problems and he is best qualified to solve them. He said many of Uganda’s problems were caused by politicians who had risen to the presidency at a relatively young age. 

“Take the example of Apollo Milton Obote who became head of government at the age of 37,” he said. “Within a few years of his rule he dismantled nearly every institution in the country, including traditional institutions that had never opposed him and he finally became the country’s main problem.” 

Litany of examples 

Mr Bidandi, a former confidant of President Museveni, who fell out with the latter when he amended the Constitution to run for a third term in 2005, said: “The other example is that of Idd Amin who became president at the age of 44 years. The last example is President Museveni who took over leadership of this country at 42. He has created new traditional rulers and divided up Buganda and other ethnic groups and his regime is looting everything.” 

Because of his age, Mr Bidandi said, he will only serve a single five-year term. “I will be 78 by the time my presidential term ends and too old to demand another term,” he added. “I am going to be another Mandela of this country.” 

Mr Bidandi said he also had an impeccable record while working in public service—noting that he never allocated himself a plot while overseeing the sale of buildings and land when he served as minister for local government. 

“I handled issues involving large markets like St. Balikuddembe and many others but I never grabbed anything or took any bribes. And I have always been contented with just one simple residential house—the one I built more than 40 years ago and the one I still live in today with my wife. I have no school going children and so I am a man of very simple needs who will never be tempted to steal anything.” 

Buganda cautioned 

He also cautioned voters to be wary of individuals who claim they have signed pacts with certain political parties to guarantee Buganda Kingdom’s interests. “This is not the first time we have seen people getting into agreements,” he said. “There was a similar agreement in 1962 between Mengo and the UPC. Its aim was for Mengo to block their fellow Muganda, Ben Kiwanuka, from becoming the prime minister of Uganda.” 

He added: “Now Mengo is at it again trying to make sure that no Muganda ever becomes a leader of this country. Why do we Baganda, like yams, want to creep around other plants to get to the top? In the eighties other people made an agreement with Museveni to return all Buganda’s property and to grant federal status to Buganda. Are they now returned?” 

Mr Bidandi also said President Museveni and Dr Kiiza Besigye, the IPC presidential candidate are birds of the same feather. “If you ask Museveni to show you his political mother he will point at the bush. If you ask him which breasts he suckled he will point at the gun. Then if you ask Besigye who his political mother was, he will also point at the bush. If you ask him to show you which breasts he suckled, he will tell you it was the gun. The two men are therefore identical twins; one is Wasswa and the other is Kato. Having been disappointed by Wasswa why should you trust Kato fully knowing that they were born and raised by the same woman?”