There’s good thing unheard about Amin

 

Idi Amin Dada, former Ugandan tyrant shocked the world when he staged a successful bloodless coup in 1971 against Milton Obote who was attending commonwealth Conference in Singapore. Canny, eccentric, controversial, gullible, and illiterate, Amin, just like other postcolonial flunkeys, was a product of the then cold war realpolitik. At a time, Ugandans were sick and tired of Obote after showing cracks in his regime. They acclaimed Amin as a redeemer who became an anathema. For few months, thereafter, unsuspecting Ugandans were on cloud nine after getting rid of Obote. Had they known? Another ogre’s bursting onto the scene to, later, mercilessly butcher and terrorise them for nearly a decade.

            Despite his brutality and controversy, Amin has refused to become a footnote and contentiously etched in the history of Uganda. For the beneficiaries of nepotism and intemperate freedom for his army to act with impunity, Amin was a hero. To his victims, Amin’s a vampire hell-bent to devastate the country and its people as he did for eight years. Those whom Amin bamboozled were elites and Indians whom he later killed and expelled correspondingly. The expulsion of Asians (of course) British citizens infuriated Britain and the West helped Amin to topple Obote whom they deemed a socialist due to his closeness with Nyerere. Amin might have been illiterate but not stupid. He had already befriended the rich Saudi house in Saudi Arabia and Libyan former strongman Muamar Gaddafi under the banner of Islam. What is clear is that Britain cloned Amin.

As the time went by and Amin showed his true colours, he lost Britain’s leverage. The BBC (1^stJanuary, 2005) notes that “by the end of his reign Amin had fallen out with Britain and given himself the title of Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in general and Uganda in particular.” The relationship between Amin and the West was nothing but the nap of two strange bedfellows in the same bed where everyone was scheming to stab another in the back whenever an opportune time avail itself. Amin’s cloners wanted a stooge they would easily manipulate and mis/use for their evil and veiled interests. Thus, Amin’s a varmint of coloniality like he admits his illiteracy and poverty, which motivated or rather pushed him to join the military. Brainyquote quotes Amin saying, “I was a good soldier in the British Army. I was born in a very, very poor family. And I enlisted to escape hunger.” And Amin’s dead right.

 Britain was the first country to recognise Amin’s regime soon. Quoting the Library of Congress, Uganda Forum.org notes that quickly, Britain, Israel, and the US recognised his government. On the contrary, Presidents Nyerere, Kaunda, Kenyatta, and the OAU initially disputed the legality of his regime. Forum.org notes that Nyerere he offered sanctuary to Obote as he hatched a vindicatory plot to facilitate his attempts to raise a force to return to power, which he successfully did and later messed up.

Furthermore, Amin’s former military boss, Major Ian Grahame in the King’s African Rifles (KAR), described him as being as strong, a perfect choice for brutalising his people. Therefore, his cloners thought he would sheepishly receive orders. Similarly, thanks to being illiterate, Amin would create countless enemies within the ranks, which would force him to heavily depend on his cloners. At some points, Amin was a “heavyweight boxing champion 1951-1960” the CNN (June 8^th, 2011) the title he held unvanquished.

Being so credulous and illiterate, Amin became an ideal choice for colonial monsters for their dirty laundry. His alarming and bullish physique enabled him to join the KAR wherefrom Amin went on to become a colonel in the Uganda Army (1962-1971). Essentially, those who cloned and installed Amin wanted a bullish and rancorous ‘buffoon’ like Nyerere used to refer to him, or bumbling buffoon, as once the BBC referred to him, who’d be busy womanizing, fooling around, and terrorising his population so that it can toe the line for his cloners to easily exploitation, rape, and rob his country. And indeed, Amin was exactly that. Like another military buffoon and goon, Bokassa (CAR), Amin had innumerable wives and children and earned the title Big Dad, which he cherished, among others he ludicrously added to his name. 

In sum, I can comfortably aver. There’s something good about Amin. Love or loathe him. Despite all phantastic or true allegations and ignominy, one thing I’ve never heard about Amin is corruption or amassment of ill-gotten wealth. To help me, compare Amin with the current African regimes matters corruption and pass your own informed judgement.

Source: Daily Monitor Sunday today.