MAALO TRAGEDY: High Cost of Mubajje’s Naivety as Gaddafi Mosque Goes on Auction Block

MAALO TRAGEDY: High Cost of Mubajje’s Naivety as Gaddafi Mosque Goes on Auction Block

Uganda’s Mufti, Sheikh Ramathan Mubajje’s is full of maalo [naivety]. Put differently, maalo aptly defines the grey-bearded country’s top Muslim cleric.

Intelligent people sensed that quickly, warning Mubajje about wolves dressed in sheep’s skins as
they encircled the Muslims’ priceless assets with the view of prizing them away. Not only did Mubajje recklessly reject such a piece of wise advice but went on to hook up with even more of such politically highly connected wolves. Aware that Mubajje is full of maalo, rendering him an easy target for manipulation, the wolves’ powerful bosses went ahead and showered the Mufti with favors such as cars, money, and military guards, making him even much more gullible and rendering him much more unable to resist exploitation.

Goodness gracious me, Mubajje’s disturbing naivety, as I write, is threatening to cost the Muslims of Uganda the Grand Beautiful Gaddafi Old Kampala-based Mosque, an absolutely priceless, sweetest, lasting, and memorable living gift from their departed Muslim brethren, former Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi. Had Gaddafi been still alive to the present, he would have pressed the riot button already, seeing
his precious gift to his Ugandan Muslim brethren and sisters threatened with a disturbingly
looming auction. The startling action arises out of another disturbing action involving the lease of square miles of Muslims’ land but whose proceeds, also, Mubajje and Co. have not to date satisfactorily
accounted for. The above-stated lease of land in Sembabule in the southern-western part of the country is what the speculators are currently using as a basis for not only selling off the imposing Grand Gaddafi
Mosque at Old Kampala Hill but a couple of other precious Muslim properties spread across the country.

Under Valuing

Thanks to the naivety of Sheikh Mubajje, the land that was exchanged for merely two hundred and fifty million shillings, the speculators are currently demanding compensation amounting to a cool nineteen billion Uganda shillings. Look, speculators invest to reap big profits not to lose money. But thanks to Mubajje’s naivety, he couldn’t figure out this, going on to fall easy prey to their exploitation, giving way to the massive problems he himself and the entire Muslim community of Uganda are currently trapped in.
Things are so bad that the land speculators have since secured a court order, permitting them to sell off Gaddafi Mosque, disposing of a couple of other Muslim properties should the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council [UMSC] fail to pay them what Court directed should be paid to them. To be fair to Mubajje, he was merely trapped in this whole dirty thing in exchange for a few crumbs by his former Secretary General, Sheikh Ramathan Mugalu during the final stages of its execution.

Naivety and Betrayal

Mugalu was the one who personally brokered this deal, bringing it up to the naive Mubajje at the final stages of its negotiations, securing the gullible Mufti’s consent and signature, putting the Mufti squarely at the exact nucleus of this whole saga. Mubajje had earlier before causing this mess, hooked up with another well-known shrewd businessman in Kampala, doling away a couple of other pieces of priceless Muslim assets to him. Even though everyone else knew very well that the above-mentioned man had hooked up with Mubajje with the sole purpose of landing his notorious fingers on the Muslim land and
properties, thanks to the Mufti’s naivety, he absolutely never listened to any good counsel to get rid of that man. Such an unwise relationship has since embarrassingly landed Mubajje of all people in court, charged with disposing of Muslim properties to the same man.

Betrayal and Power Struggles

So lucky was Mubajje that the man who landed him in court problems was a friend of the Powers-that-be he would have otherwise wound up rotting in jail. The Powers-that-be talked to court, freeing Mubajje and their man, avoiding being accused of persecution of Mubajje had they stopped at bidding for their man’s release alone. The classic case of marriage of convenience wound up finally on a calamitous and acrimonious note with the man who had all along earlier before posed as a great friend of Mubajje, financing people to stand against Mubajje for the post of Mufti, dragging Mubajje to court, accusing the
Mufti of stopping him to stand for the post of the Chairman of Uganda Muslim Supreme Council [UMSC].

Luckily for Mubajje, his fake old friend had fallen out with the Powers-that-be at that point in time, saving the Mufti from losing out to candidates the man had sponsored out of revenge of being elbowed out of the race for the Chairman of UMSC. Never joke with bad men, Mubajje himself facilitated the appointment of his fake friend to the UMSC board as its chairman yet the same man paid him back, financing his opponents to prize away the big UMSC position from the man from Mbale, facilitating his botched fall from grace to grass. In the final analysis, much as a lot looks like it’s at stake, no one is going to be permitted by the president himself, Gen Yoweri Museveni to dare to seize and sell off the Grand Gaddafi Mosque at Lugard Hill, Kampala.

Presidential Diplomacy and Crisis Management

First and foremost, the president cannot permit such a thing to happen since it can end up potentially alienating him and his government from the very wealthy Arab world at the same as the Europeans in the West are causing many problems to him and his government on account. Of the Anti-Gays law and human rights issues. The president is going to leverage these issues to gain political capital as 2026 beckons from the Muslim community, paying off the people holding the court order, and rescuing the House of Worship. Neither is the president going to permit anyone to sell off any other property belonging to the Muslim community on account of this court order.

In any case, the president can easily use his former lawyer, Chief Justice, Alphonso Owiny Dollo, or Principal Judge, Dr Flavian Zeija, his humble servant, to use their offices to call off the problematic auction. On a serious parting note, what is going on should teach all of us across different faiths to resist
religious leaders who are easy to manipulate and therefore easy to trap with money to sell off what they are entrusted with to hold in trust for us and for posterity.