Uganda: Politics Of Intrigue Among Political Parties In The Century Of Reintegration.
Uganda: Politics Of Intrigue Among Political Parties In The Century Of Reintegration.
Uganda Today Edition: Uganda: Politics Of Intrigue Among Political Parties In The Century Of Reintegration.
By Oweyegha-Afunaduula
19 March 2024
Like Ignatius Musaazi who formed Uganda National Congress (UNC) and lost control of the Party, with his fellow Baganda at the forefront of overthrowing him in favour of Apollo Milton Obote, Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine, launched National Unity Party but fellow Baganda in the Party are determined to ensure that he loses control of the party.
Do you know which non-Muganda they want to install in his place as top leader of NUP? Do they want it split into two like did happen to UNC whereby Musaazi clique disappeared and Obote’s clique emerged as Uganda People Congress (UPC) after his splinter UNC allied with William Rwetsiba’s small party.
One thing is true. If President Tibuhaburwa Museveni announced during his swearing as President of Uganda for a 5th term that there would be no organized Opposition in Uganda, political parties have continued to be disorganized: UPC, Democratic Party (DP), Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) and now National Unity Party (NUP). Doesn’t this mean that so long as President Tibuhaburwa Museveni continues to rule Uganda there will be no properly organized Opposition in Uganda?
Forget about the internally deceptively organized NRM birth of Muhoozi Kainerugaba’s a Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU). I call it deceptive because the NRM Supremo and Commander of Chief of Uganda Peoples Defense Forces (UPDF) has chosen conspiracy of silence regarding the political reality of PLU precipitated by a senior serving soldier of UPDF.
What is clear is that there is political reincarnation of Ignatius Musaazi in Bobi Wine with the Baganda from Masaka organizing to remove the latter from the epitome of power in NUP. The cause is, probably unsurprisingly, misuse of public money at Parliament of Uganda by a former Vice-President of NUP, Mathias Nsamba Mpuuga, together with other top leaders at the Commission of Parliament. It is as if the Masaka politicians in NUP endorse misuse of public money.
It seems Bobi-Wine’s “crime” was to condemn Mpuuga and the Commission regarding the billions of Shillings of taxpayers money they have accrued to themselves in an unashamed show of political corruption mediated by greed and selfishness
Disrespect of Bobi Wine on account of age and newness in active politics has something to do with it. Obviously, they are forgetting the leaders of Uganda at independence on 9th October 1962 were in their 30s. Obote the Prime Minister was 37. Sure, Sir Edward Mutesa II who became President of Uganda the next year was a little older. They also forgot that although Bobi Wine was not in elective politics, he was for a long doing politics in a different way.
Using music, dance and drama before plunging himself in elective politics. If masses matter in politics, he was already with and by the masses; far more than some of the men and women antagonizing him politically today. His contest for a parliamentary seat in Kyadondo East constituency and, later, for Presidency of Uganda in 2021 showed that he was an immensely popular political figure among the masses. Age did not matter. It was the expectations of the masses that mattered.
These days people mature faster mentally, academically, intellectually, and politically, to name a few dimensions of development, if they take learning seriously. This is largely due to technology, which has enabled information flow, communication and interaction to be more efficient. There is now a diversity of media one can use to learn, relearn and unlearn. Schools and Universities are no longer the exclusive avenues of learning.
Old people who choose to remain with the little knowledge they had when they emerged out of school or University and if ignore renewing their knowledge with new learning, will become obsolete with passage of time just as their knowledge becomes obsolete. They will become secondarily illiterate and a roadblock to progress. Worse still they will become politically underdeveloped and, therefore, a roadblock to effective political leadership and governance.
Unfortunately, in our current politics in Uganda such people predominate.
Their collective goal is not so much to contribute to the political development of our country and people and free it from renewed imperialism, slavery and exploitation but to access political positions through which they can primitively accumulate wealth. All of them. So, they do not only suffer political illiteracy and political underdevelopment but also political bankruptcy.
Besides, the majority are almost unaware that the 21st Century arrived long ago and requires a new cadre of political leaders that are well-informed and knowledgeable, aware and concerned about the fact that this is a century of new and different knowledge production, information and communication, even politically. It is a century of the new and influential digital culture. Instead of working to ensure that we prepare our young people for the century and beyond by implanting a conducive political leadership and governance culture in the country, they are just sowing SEEDS of intrigue, which is what foreigners need to penetrate our country further.
While we want a new politics with a new cadre of political actors, we are having to endure the ignorance and ancient ways of doing politics transplanted from the 20th Century and before. Intrigue is central to this politics.
Besides, crooks, thieves and robbers in politics are praised and glorified. They do not need to be genuinely elected. They will use all means to rob election results. For example, they will pay voters to sell their choices; they stuff boxes with pre-ticked ballot papers; they ensure winners become losers and losers become winners by exchanging results or boxes, and getting the electoral officers to announce what others desire; or they may use violence to scare voters and candidates away so that the results they prefer are announce. In short, they are fraudulent political actors.
All this is a result of the politics of intrigue. This may be traced even in the Constitution of the country and the way political constituencies are demarcated and assigned. In essence all leadership and governance are intrigue laden.
How shall we boast of development, transformation and progress in this century of complex and wicked problems if focus is on ensuring that intrigue delivers to those that use it as a tool of leadership and governance?
For God and My Country.
