Here's the best of Amama Mbabazi

If there is one guy that really intrigues me, it is Security Minister Amama Mbabazi. Oh yeah, he is back at his usual best unleashing tonnes of snobbery.

But I will reserve his latest antics at the NRM MPs retreat in Kampala, for another time. But let us relive the true character of a man who projects himself as President Museveni’s successor. This article was published in the Daily Monitor, and is reprinted here. Cheers.
The Insider.

This is the Amama Mbabazi show

Lights, camera and action, welcome to the Amama Mbabazi show.
He is a star student of his boss and without doubt a man of considerable intellect and work ethic. Highly talented, I must add.

But for all the tutoring and mentoring, he is yet to put up a good performance at the big stage. His boss, the NRM leader Yoweri Museveni, has projected charm by investing in exaggerated mannerisms like rolling his eyes wide open, and will say the occasional “bambi ” or “oooh, oohh” when scoffing at his political opponents; actions that have endeared him to many. But for all the political charm he tries to demonstrate, Security Minister Mbabazi is no Museveni.

Last week Mr Mbabazi put up a dismal performance on the floor of Parliament during the tense debate on the closure of Nation TV. It was like one of comical shows acted by the Theatre Factory at the National Theatre. The Government had defied a parliamentary directive to have NTV switched back on air and was struggling to calm enraged MPs.

Information Minister Kirunda Kivejinja had stunned the House with a statement that only offered desperate explanations as why the multimillion dollar TV investment couldn’t reopen—yet again. As expected, MPs immediately threw out his explanations. They said he was employing another dilly-dallying tactic.

Sensing the amount of hostility Mr Kivejinja was stocking up, Mr Mbabazi impulsively, seized the opportunity to unleash his antics and took on the role of information minister. I pitied Mr Kivejinja. He sat there staring blankly as his power was usurped by a man who in all rank and file is simply junior to the third deputy prime minister.

But Mr Kivejinja never complained.
Mr Mbabazi started by lecturing MPs on the procedure of licensing a television station and only provoked fury. He was soon gesturing in an animated manner; hands open eyes even wider. His gesticulating hand and arms had made words almost unnecessary as he toyed with MPs patience. They heckled and continuously interrupted him with points of order, procedure, clarification and information as they demanded that Mr Kivejinja, the line minister, assumes his place.

“Yesterday [Tuesday] the Prime Minister told us that nobody else would debate these [NTV] things and that the only competent person was the minister of information. Is it right for us to continue listening to a long preamble when the Speaker has asked a straight forward question,” complained NRM MP Kasule Lumumba.

“I would not like my government to change goal posts all the time whenever it is cornered,” bellowed Theodore Ssekikubo (NRM Lwemiyaga). “Why should we be subjected to posturing and gesticulations when the matter is simple?”

Many more expressed their lack of confidence in Mr Mbabazi demanding that Kivejinja rises up and does his job. “Could we request that the minister of information answers us because he holds that portfolio,” Mary Mungyenyi (NRM Ntungamo) demanded.
“I move a motion under rule 66 that we don’t hear the minister for security because he is wasting our time,” Odonga Otto (FDC Aruu) cheekily said.

Defiantly, Mr Mbabazi declined to budge. He stood up sluggishly, poured himself a glass of water, took a sip and then said, “I am a minister in this government…for Otto to ask me to sit down is a clear indication of lack of knowledge of government work.”

Blame Apolo Nsibambi, the leader of government business who supported Mbabazi. Somebody whispered that Mr Mbabazi would put up a good act in one of NTV’s premier soap operas Camilla, as the villain who sabotaged a blossoming love affair. I didn’t disagree entirely. His performance that hot afternoon was very unconvincing. I understood that it is his lack of charm that is his biggest political shortcoming. As long as he operates in the backroom, he remains relevant but when he comes into the fore, the theatre empties.

Watching from the press gallery as the bespectacled Mbabazi kept his nose in the air-- a mannerism not identified with modesty--my memory quickly flashed to the NRM National Executive Committee meeting in January at Munyonyo, when calls were very apparent for his resignation as NRM Secretary General.

A source that attended the meeting said delegates had expressed anger that the party is losing ground to the opposition because "Mr Mbabazi is so sophisticated which makes him a bad mobiliser. The stature of the secretary general is supposed to be someone who is down to earth.
Mr Mbabazi could be a good and experienced public administrator, which is good for diplomacy, but not for mobilisation purposes.”

If anyone was ever in doubt as to why party members accuse Mr Mbabazi of arrogance, his “stellar” performance relieves them of the burden. Oh boy, you should have seen him, the security minister! And yet this is not Jerry Springer.
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