It’s no secret that I am not an opposition supporter or sympathizer, I admire the leadership of some opposition like-minded people who always think beyond this kindergarten kind of politics being practiced by some of our great opposition leaders in Uganda who use nasty strategies to make sure that they gain sympathy from people after they are being put in order by security forces because of their undemocratic acts, this current version of the opposition is just a mess because it has no respect for policies and rule of law.
For luck of better words to use I will say that the current opposition leadership is rotten to the core and they have let our nation down. They have let Uganda and people who believe in the opposition down because of their morals and how they behave in public.
A short while ago, I have been always engaging some friends of mine who are members of these opposition parties. I have always been asking them directly what their political strategy is for the future. Sadly I normally get deceitful strategies from them , but their failure to have nice achievable strategies is somewhat expected because they are such disorganized that the most powerful opposition parties that we have in the country all have two sects, Forum for Democratic Change now has another cult called People’s government headed by the chief of Defiance Dr. Besigye, Democratic party has the Mao sect and then the Nambooze sect that seems to be very talkative with less value to the party and then UPC has also got different sects and this proves how they cannot come up with fine achievable strategies.
Uganda may as much desperately need political change, we are potentially a great and wonderful country, but this opposition is beginning to become a glitch, eroding much of the good work that has been done, destroying so much of what we have already achieved as a nation by coming up with unproductive campaigns that aim at destroying properties and unlawfully mobilization of people to participate in unlawful acts of their so- called “Leadership taking strategy”
So I look around me at all of the alternative political options for our nation, the pickings, if any, are very slim but at many times I frankly make a conclusion that its only and only NRM that can govern and lead this country democratically. One would think that with all the so-called intelligence and “brain power”, that some leaders in the opposition parties have, would be used to plan and implement their political strategies that are fine and democratic but nothing of the kind has happened here, all the policies and campaigns that they come up with are a flop because they don’t serve an importance to a local Ugandan who believes in peace and democracy.
Instead what I find is the same old strategy-less political attacks and unlawful acts of disorganizing peaceful Ugandans through their unending strikes and rallies. The NRM will continue to be an emotionally supported party by the majority of Ugandans who will be continually reminded of how they were saved from the other bad regimes that never cared about the local Ugandans, the insecurity that used to be in the country and many more. The opposition strategy needs to be more than just the same old rhetoric by the FDC, there are many more ways of sensitizing and building party structures than use of noise and chaos.The NRM has its strong well founded structures from the grassroots and this makes it and will continue making it a very strong party contrary to what the opposition thinks that its vote rigging that makes it win elections.
I remember one of the big campaigns that opposition has had. It was Code Named, “Walk to Work”. I really saw a very good flop because it wasn’t capturing people’s attention when it was started in 2011 and recently in September Dr. Kizza Besigye again called a press briefing at his Katonga Road offices and told media that he was re-launching the walk to work strategy but it totally flopped because no one was interested apart from himself, that keeps me wondering whether that is the best opposition has got.
Now just today, Monday 06/15/2020 I woke up to some social media messages saying that there will be a very serious announcement by the opposition and I was so eager to watch the press conference where the big announcement was to be made, to my surprise, the announcement was about some two cults that were combining forces to act in front of cameras in the forthcoming elections. “People power and People’s government has made a coalition in the names of the UNITED FORCES OF CHANGE” this was the lead story everywhere in the news and I even kept wondering why some people were calling it an opposition coalition yet real registered political parties were not part of this comical setting.
The United Forces of Change is one of the statements that has been used by several populists around the world to attract the attention of the population but seems this won’t work here because I understand Ugandans are so alert and wise via such political lies used by people to benefit personal desires as it has always been with this very Uganda opposition.
Among their first tactics of taking power is the strategy of making noise every day starting 1pm,this is yet another ugly campaign that has been called by this lovely opposition coalition of the two lost pressure groups starting 7th June 2020, according to them(Kyagulanyi Sentamu, Dr. Kiiza Besigye and his Hand Bag Erias Lukwago), they have mobilized people to always make noise, bang whatever thing that can make noise wherever they are every day starting at 1pm and I was surprised to find out that this is one of the strategies that the coalition will be using to take over power from the very strategic organized NRM.
I personally call this idle talk because it’s not what I think Besigye can do for all the time he has been here entertaining us with his strategies, others I don’t care because I doubt their soberness but some intellectuals that I saw sitting in the press conference made me think twice about their intellect!!! But Uganda is a democratic country that allows everyone to exercise their rights so my eyes a\are on the screens to start enjoying the noise that was declared by our politicians of this generation and at the same time I pray that a collective brain power be put together so this coalition starts working on new, intelligent strategies to win the hearts and minds of the people than those unproductive campaigns they are forcing on Ugandans at such a moment when we have issues like COVID-19.
MICHAEL WOIRA
UGANDA MEDIA CENTRE
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