Jakana Nadduli Demise: Are we Experiencing a Classic Case of a Revolution Eating its Own Children?

There is a famous saying thus; revolutions devour their own children and it refers to the fact that after the success or no success of a revolution, there comes a time when the protagonists of the revolution start to grumble and, at times, completely disagree.

Then, as the same people who started the revolution begin to fight each other for power, the same techniques that were used to justify the reason for killing the former rulers are now used for the killing of members of the revolution who have different ideas on how to run the country.

In high school history, there is the case of Danton and Robespierre who had been the major architects of the French revolution that saw the execution of King Louis V1 and his wife Antoinette, in what became one of the most famous revolutions in history. Both men later fell out with each other and Danton was summarily executed.

But when he was being taken to the guillotine, he warned Robespierre that he was soon going to face the same fate, because revolutions devour their own children. And indeed some few weeks later,Robespierre, who had been behind Danton’s execution was also executed.

Moving forward, the NRM revolution has had similar tendencies where people who fought the 1981-86 bush war have politically found themselves clashing against each other. Some NRM cadres have argued that the grievances which led them to the bush war have been sacrificed, forgotten or repeated by the revolution.

Ugandan local musician Ronald Mayinja actually asserts that most grievances that led to the bush-war have actually been repeated by the revolutionary NRM. One of the bush-war fighters, who has been grumbling with the establishment is Al Hajji Abdul Naduli, whose son Jakana Suleiman Naduli died on Mondayafter a spate with the state.

Jacana Naduli had been granted bail for committing offenses related to cyber harassment and spreading sectarianism. It is said that he suffered a terrible accident which could have had a hand in his death. Ordinarily, Jacana was an obvious son of the NRM revolution who shouldn’t have been clashing with the regime which his father helped put in place.

Sad Moments: Hajji Abdul Nadduli (Courtesy Photo)

When the Chief Magistrate slapped Jakana with a cash bail of fifteen million shillings, his father regarded it as a direct attack on him individually, for having made sensitive political statements that didn’t augur well with the establishment. The former Minister without Portfolio and veteran bush war enthusiast is one of the few outspoken Ugandans, who profess total allegiance to Buganda kingdom and its cultural practices.

He is famously known for having advanced the interests of the Kabaka and asserted that there was a secret agreement (traditionally known as the endagaano yomukasaka) which President Museveni secretly signed with the Kabaka to restore the Buganda kingdom with all its interests.

He asserts that the agreement was signed in the middle of the bush-war in the 1980s, seeking to oust President Apollo Milton Obote, and was categorical in leading to the eventual return of the Kabaka as the King of Buganda in 1993, in what later came to be known as the return of ebyaffe arrangement.

In that arrangement, the Republic House, which had been commandeered and converted into a military garrison in 1966 by the Obote government, was returned to the Buganda kingdom, a feat that was deemed practically impossible at the time. Although the Buganda kingdom got MOST of what she was demanding from the central government, it has been grumbling for more from President Museveni.

In the meantime, the Nadulis have always insisted that they had agreed in PRINCIPLE to get a federal system of governance for Buganda, which the central government watered down by instituting the decentralization system which, they argue, brings services nearer to the people. But the monarchists assert that the Federal system had been born out of the Justice Benjamin Odoki`s Commission which gathered that almost 89% of Ugandans wanted the return to the Federal system of governance.

It was expected that the views of Justice Odoki Commission was to be adopted by the ConstituentAssembly (CA) in the due course of debating the 1995 Constitution. This stalemate has made the kingdom dissatisfied with the Central Government to a point where, President Museveni openly revealed that the Kabaka had actually refused to pick his phone calls for an unbelievable TWO YEARS!.

Imagine someone refusing to pick a presidential phone call for two years! It was clearly a sign that all was not well between the Kabaka and the President. The fallout culminated into an unfortunate incident when the Kabaka was stopped from visiting Kayunga district, sparking off riots that led to so many injuries, arrests and deaths.

The Late Jakana Nadduli during one of the Court sessions (Courtesy Photo)

Rtd. Gen David Sejusa aka Tinyefunza actually revealed that Gen Museveni WAS NOT SURE IF HE WAS STILL IN POWER for two consecutive days and was preparing to flee the country due to the incessant protesters. Therefore, its surprising that some prominent Baganda like Hajji Naduli have remained in the NRM government but with the residual frustration that their kingdom was not getting a fair treatment from the central government.

When he was dropped as a Minister, he embarked on criticizing his own NRM Party and decreed President Museveni to step down, something that put him on the wrong side with the powers that be.When his son Jakana embarked on venting his frustrations on the social media and other internet platforms, it was supposedly on behalf of his father, and Buganda.

He eventually was arrested, tortured, incarcerated and slapped with heavy bail conditions. When he was produced before the Chief Cagistrate’s courts, Jakana was seen limping and moving with the aid of walking sticks. Unfortunately he was pronounced dead just on Monday.Having the son of the bush-war veteran vent his frustrations against the government his father brought to power,sounds like a classic case of the revolution eating its own children.

Remember there was man called Leon Trotsky who was the commander of one of the architects of the Russian revolution in 1917, and commander of the red army but he fell out with Lenin and was assassinated by his own comrades in arms while in exile in Mexico. Seeing what is happening to people like Jakana Naduli, who must have been enjoying the spoils of power, clashing with the establishment, simply rhymes with the saying that revolutions indeed devour their own children.

Disclaimer; we are not in any way suggesting that Jakana was killed by the regime in power. We are simply trying to decry the fact that it was unfortunate that he ended up opposing the same regime that his father strongly supported on its way to power. And the fact that the same regime brutally arrested and tortured him during his recuperation period, arising from again, the questionable accident.