THE OPPOSITION LEADERS SHOULD LISTEN TO SOME OF US

I wish to repeat here what I have written abut before, "The opposition should plan to have on Presidential candidate who is not a leader of any Ugandan Political parties."  When some of us make proposals they are rubbished by those who think they know a lot and have a right to be listened to!  I for one have trusted my head.  Having seen how President Museveni went about maneuvering t get t where he is, I rejected being party to his moves which saw him capture power.  Ever since, I have not regretted.  Many people including Kiiza Besigye, Hon. Bukenya among others realized who President Museveni is many years after they worked with him.  This way of doing business will remain expensive for Uganda.  Many people are so short sighted that they get to wake up when it is late!

This time round, seeing the developments between Hon. Mbabazi and President Museveni, it only gets logical to understand that changing from Museveni cannot be that easy.  That is the reason I a advising that the opposition should drop that belief that an individual party can get the President out  office.  What ought to be done is to start on a strategy which will see a compromise Presidential candidate who is not a leader of any of the opposition parties.  This will rule out the conviction that any opposition party is greater than the others.  Chances of such a candidate taking it can greatly out weigh those f any of the opposition party candidates.  

The opposition is looking at meetings, however, time is ripe to use sms communication to get to the voters given the penetration of mobile phones.

The developments in the NRM camp are expressed in the article below:

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Amama-Museveni row killing govt – minister

News

Tuesday, 18 March 2014 22:34

Written by Edris Kiggundu

18 Comments

Unimpressed: Asuman Kiyingi (R) with President Museveni

The dire effects of the political standoff between President Museveni and Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi are clear and could grossly affect the functioning of government, a minister has warned.

Writing on his Facebook wall on March 14, the minister of state for Regional Affairs, Asuman Kiyingi, said the two senior politicians needed to work together and read from the same page or else Uganda would suffer the consequences.

“I can state with almost religious conviction that there can be no winner in a fall-out between H.E Y. K Museveni, Chairman NRM, and Rt Hon Amama Mbabazi, Prime Minister and Secretary General NRM. The NRM, the government, the opposition and the whole country will lose out. It is only Uganda’s enemies that may stand to gain,” Kiyingi wrote.

A Museveni-Mbabazi rift, according to Kiyingi, will lead to inertia in the operations of the NRM and the government. The earlier it is resolved, the better. He writes that it is bad that some junior cadres have exploited the situation to denigrate the prime minister on social media, warning it could lead to chaos. He mentions Robert Rutaro, the secretary general of the NRM Youth League, and a one Dan Birekyeraho as the culprits.

“This is how anarchy crops into society. Juniors disrespecting and badmouthing their superiors and little small fellows loading it over everybody! A very dangerous development in the country which all Ugandans must pray about and guard against,” he writes.

He says that while he will support Museveni in the 2016 elections, he loves and enormously respects Mbabazi. Kiyingi, an Independent MP, is the first minister to publicly comment about the friction between Mbabazi and Museveni, which has captivated the country over the past one month.

Speaking to The Observer on Monday, Kiyingi affirmed that these were his views. He said it was in the interest of the country for Museveni and Mbabazi to be on good working terms. He also cautioned that giving Shs 4 million to NRM MPs to popularise the Kyankwanzi resolution that endorses Museveni’s sole NRM candidacy, as was decided last week, could open up new fronts of “hostile engagements” and backfire if the two principals (Mbabazi and Museveni) remained at loggerheads.

Last week, it was resolved that each NRM MP would be given Shs 4 million to popularise the Kyankwanzi resolution in each sub-country in their constituencies

Kiyingi’s statement

We praise and thank the Almighty God that the rains have come after a long dry spell. It is also high time we all talk unity and peace.

The last one month has been very stressful to many Ugandans. For the first time in their hitherto deep and comradely relationship open differences and a simmering conflict emerged between His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni as President and Chairman NRM and Rt Hon Amama Mbabazi as Prime Minister and Secretary General NRM.

From the Kyankwanzi/Ngoma Resolutions, which I supported on this very wall incidentally, to the last three meetings of the NRM Parliamentary Caucus in State House Entebbe, the problem lingers. Now NRM MPs are going to the villages to preach the need for unity and cohesion in the party and government.

This is all good and timely as long as the President and Prime Minister’s minds have met and are now pulling in the same direction and reading from the same page. Short of this, it is an exercise in futility that will only open up new fronts of hostile engagement that will fracture government and the party even further.

I love my President wholeheartedly and will support his candidature come 2016. I also love and respect my Prime Minister and hate to imagine the government side in Parliament without him as Prime Minister and leader of government business.

It, therefore, saddens me to see intelligent NRM cadres like Robert Rutaro, Dun Birekyeraho and others making it a favourite pastime to attack the Rt Hon Prime Minister and Secretary General of their party on social media. It is equally stressing to ask one to make a choice between the two (President and Prime Minister) and single him/her out for ostracisation by some overzealous colleagues supposedly because he/she favours one over the other! This is really absurd!

I am 100% sure neither the H.E President nor the Rt Hon Prime Minister approve of it. This is how anarchy crops into society. Juniors disrespecting and badmouthing their superiors and little small fellows loading it over everybody! A very dangerous development in the country which all Ugandans must pray about and guard against.

The H. E/PM conflict is pregnant with very ugly and nasty possibilities. I can state with almost religious conviction that there can be no winner in a fall-out between H.E Y. K Museveni, Chairman NRM, and Rt. Hon. Amama Mbabazi Prime Minister and Secretary General NRM.

The NRM, the government, the Opposition and the whole country will lose out. It is only Uganda’s enemies that may stand to gain. So friends across the political divide, let us all pull in the same direction and urge and pray for our dear President to handle and resolve this delicate matter at the earliest. Let each one of us do their small part to put down this fire. This is not a laughing matter to play around with.

ekiggundu@observer.ug