Bobi Wine and Museveni: The problem is not the oppressor but the beneficiary of the decadence of oppression.
About half a decade now, I became increasingly interested in celebrities' studies; a field of study that has been glossed over by African researchers. Specifically, the intertwined nature of the relationship of celebrity involvement in broad issues from politics, health, activism, feminism and broader issues of development is a green field that calls for the attention of scholars. Scholars of Europe and North America have extensively studied the interconnections of popular culture, democracy, humanitarianism, development, and public politics. However, their counterparts in Africa have paid limited attention to this significant branch of scholarship, despite the increasing involvement of celebrities in democratic politics, social change and development. While not using European and North American knowledge as the standard for judging Africanist scholarly production, my interest has been to provide an African centered perspective to this European American model consumption of art,and possibly elevate celebrity discourses beyond the realm of gossip blogs and spectacles of affect on social media platforms. Within this half decade I have produced two journal articles and presently some more under review in this regard.
Two years ago, I mapped out a paper on celebrity politics which my esteemed mentor Prof Saheed Aderinto has helped to provide guidance and counsel on the level of academic rigor required to do quality academic work on the topic. Through the years, I have paid careful attention to celebrities who turned into politics as well as politicians who have celebrity status like Dino Melaye, Shehu Sani and others. The focus of my research goes beyond Nigeria to Africa hence celebrities turned politicians like Boby Wine are not new to me. The intersection of race, religion, ethnicity, class is not of sight for me as I sought to understand how celebrity social capital as well as popularity impact political career, voting behaviour, victory or defeat in election, post election career e.t.c. Hence, I have followed Bobi Wine's political career for a while now and think I can make informed comments about it.
My post is not about Wine but the environment and the 'dictator' that rule in the domain of the election. I have watched with horror and trepidation the entire electoral process not because it is any different from the nature of Post-colonial "African politics" that I taught to undergraduate students for close to decade but the horrifying dimension or nuisance of this one is difficult to write without elongating the post more than it is already.
What I worry about are the enablers Museveni dictatorship. History reminds us that the cruelest of men in history too have always had their praise singers and choir. From Hitler, Idi-Amin to the most treacherous of them. What I am comforted about as history teaches is that over time the sound of praise singers is always drowned by the truth of victims whose resolve among others is that justice and truth must always rise to the challenge that false voices of praise singers pose to truth. Truth will always stand. Museveni’s enablers are his praise singers most of who are the beneficiary of the decadence that his government has produced. It is often said that good leadership leaves the stage when the applause is loudest but Museveni seems to be there even when applause has wane and when he may never beget an applause even he leaves. I hope that this “movement” to unseat Musevini "succeed" and even if it does not the courage of those who lead this opposition will forever be remembered, research and most importantly it will have laid a foundation that will be built in days ahead.
Posted on Facebook on January 15, 2021
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