We have no opposition in Uganda; they are for convenience
That's why Mr. Museveni is destined to dominate Ugandan politics and the presidency as long as he remains alive.
Op-Ed: The prevailing NUP exchanges, revelations, and fights triggered by the parliamentary exhibition have done nothing but depict most Ugandan politicians from the opposition side as simply personal-centered when they ought to be rather national.
Logically, the main purpose of political parties is none other than to attain political power and manage state affairs where they feel the government is misrepresenting the interests of the majority and/or mismanaging the same, with multiple corruption, nepotism, exploitation, and undemocratic tendencies being part of the indices.
Practically all efforts by opposition parties would be aimed at bringing about a change, either single-handedly or through merged efforts.
Today, when the Ugandan opposition political stage is being served a bitter menu of self-destruction, infighting, internal exposure, and divisionism, the only price will be an additional loss of direction and well-placed fate in the waiting hands of the very people they came to fight with, in this case, President Yoweri Museveni and the NRM.
That’s why Mr. Museveni is destined to dominate Ugandan politics and the presidency as long as he remains alive. Let’s not talk about age because he knows what he came for.
If we can employ the ongoing parliamentary exhibition as a case study, the exhibition, which is doomed to leave the biggest opposition party, NUP, in shambles (if God doesn’t act soon), is just too small a thing to derail cohesion and the opposition to Mr. Museveni.
What the leaks from the exhibition showed us was Hon. Mathias Mpuuga, a parliamentary commissioner and former leader of the opposition, appropriating and accepting to himself (about $500) as service award that is very bad but not bad enough to destroy NUP.
I tend to think that Mr. Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, aka Bobi Wine, and the leader of the NUP are mostly right given the circumstances of such a benefit.
Suffice it to say that Hon. Mpuuga, given some other circumstances, ought to have gotten advice from his bosses at NUP that in any case the service awarding sessions would be minuted and didn’t sit by an eye brink.
Assuming Hon. Mpuuga fell into his own trap and failed to clean up the same by having the commission’s roots backed by supportive laws that would extend similar benefits to former LOPS, it may not be enough to have NUP torn apart, as if the opposition didn’t know its supposed destination unless there were other sores.
The same came to find FDC sharply divided, with Col. Kizza Besigye, Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, and Hon. Ssemujju Nganda’s Katonga road wing wishing the Najjanankumbi camp of Mr. Patrick Amuliat all possible sorts of unthinkable.
In UPC and DP, the same is true. Now our opposition: what are we up to?. Attaining state power or fitting in your small party positions and offices?
In all these party accusations and counter-accusations, the small money factor truly exists, but the population thought you were gunning to manage the national cake, and this simple understanding would call for the dissolution of your small misunderstandings to save the bigger picture!.
The speed, anger, and highhandedness with which people in opposition employ resolving flaws is wanting, and if they had power, only God knows.
The opposition must draw lessons from the’old man of the hat’with all the power he welds and alleged messes of the people around or near him and the magic he employs to keep his desired destination.
When you know what you want, other average issues you encounter must be managed with a spirit of keeping coherence.
Not forgetting that strong appetites for finance and small offices need to be deterred if your callings are not for self-enrichment and convenience.
The Museveni groupings of the Bush war days must have known what it meant to be in opposition or struggle of any sort to keep such appetites low from the Obote regime, which controlled the national budget, and we all see where they are today.
The author is Angel Lubowa, a journalist and political scientist.
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