First former FDC Party President finally announced that he had
quit FDC with a new outfit called the New Formation being his destiny.
Secondly, more than ‘60 high ranking’ FDC leaders from Ankole also left
and joined Muntu’s New Formation. All this brought so much joy and
chest-thumping from right within the Opposition; you thought they had
finally deposed the NRM.
Sadly, the major story in all
this is what actually constitutes a victory for the Opposition in Uganda
is not in effect one that seriously affects the ruling party. Because
the NRM under President Museveni has become an insurmountable colossus,
the Opposition has resigned to picking up crumbs from the spoils. The
major crumbs at their disposal are good salaries and perks, including
per diem-laden foreign trips, duty free cars, etc, from Parliament. A
big one too is the funding that goes with the offices of the Leader of
the Opposition in Parliament (LOP) and the Opposition chief whip plus,
chairing ‘juicy’ committees in the House.
Then there is
the funding from global organisations that are interested in democracy,
given to political parties with representation in Parliament. Want it
or not, most of the shifts within the ranks of the Opposition are in the
long-term induced partly by pecuniary considerations.
The
Arua Municipality by-election, one of the straws that pushed a wedge
between Mugisha Muntu and FDC that saw Kasiano Wadri carry the day as an
Independent, let many secrets out of the bag. Some of the FDC stalwarts
against Wadri standing like Goeffrey Ekanya argued on national
television that Wadri had already ‘earned enough’ yet the party’s
preferred candidate Bruce Musema had quit a job and was just starting
out.
Now the New Formation in a bid to strengthen its
position, has opted for the easier path of recruiting from within FDC.
In other words, they are making news by preaching to and converting the
converted. It is movement without significant progress. This is akin to
the victories in the by-elections and their intrinsic value to the
eventual removal of the NRM party from power. Whenever an Opposition
candidate wins, it is like the village bully has been given a black eye
in a bar brawl, but he still remains the undisputed village bully.
More
Opposition MPs simply mean that you have a bigger number of people with
parliamentary privilege pointing out the weaknesses of the NRM and
concluding that it must be removed from power. There is nothing very new
that the MP brings to the table in terms of ideas that threaten the
NRM. They simply bruise NRM’s ego, but things largely remain the same.
This is what I told a certain international television network in an interview when Kyaddondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu, aka Bobi Wine, was allegedly tortured and incarcerated. The interviewer came with a mindset on a presumption that ‘this time round’ President Museveni had finally met his match and that he was on his way out in a matter of time.
This is what I told a certain international television network in an interview when Kyaddondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu, aka Bobi Wine, was allegedly tortured and incarcerated. The interviewer came with a mindset on a presumption that ‘this time round’ President Museveni had finally met his match and that he was on his way out in a matter of time.
Their questions were informed by the fact that
Bobi Wine was youthful like the majority of Ugandans, spoke their
language and entertained them. Despite rephrasing their interrogations,
they were disappointed when I said this would pass in a matter of time.
This is because Bobi Wine has not been tested to show if he had the
capacity and structures to simultaneously influence numerous victories
countrywide. Also he has not been to areas that were perennially NRM
like the Karamoja sub-region.
His major advantage was
that people needed a new voice and face promising change and he happened
to spark at the right time and place. He also was not saying anything
the rest had not said before be it Kizza Besigye, Nobert Mao or even
Mugisha Muntu. It is just that the words needed to come out of a new
mouth and face in a different tone maybe.
Now the same
thing is happening with FDC and the New Formation. People yearning for
change will move with any inkling of change visible even if the change
is in form and not substance. That is why companies rebrand the same
product just to make people have a feeling that something has changed
even if that something happens to be the shape of the beer bottle.
If
Bobi Wine, Muntu, or Besigye acted like a government and came up with
programmes backed by revolving funds that say distributed
day-old-chicks, hoes and seedlings to the unemployed and the peasants as
a practical solution to their predicament, that would be a new
formation in the Opposition politics. Mark you NRM with its military
machine would probably not allow them to reach the people as has been
the practice. But leadership is about jumping hurdles to give solutions.
Merely reminding the people of their plight using a
different political party, language or leader is simply playing well in
their own half. It does not affect the opponent. It may even lead to an
own goal!
These things are not easy. Like Ewa Letwoska once said, politics is not fancy shopping windows, it is back-breaking work. The Opposition still has its work cut out.
These things are not easy. Like Ewa Letwoska once said, politics is not fancy shopping windows, it is back-breaking work. The Opposition still has its work cut out.
Mr Sengoba is a commentator on political and social issues. nicholassengoba@yahoo.com
Twitter:@nsengoba
Twitter:@nsengoba
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