Shortly after Independence, historians argue, Uganda became a failed state on two accounts—the politics of identity that characterized political parties at the time and the failure for leaders to solve internal contradictions.
The country grappled with these two problems from 1962 until our leader, President Yoweri Musveni, who is also the chairman of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), found a cure—that is why since 1986, Uganda is stable and unified.
But, I will get back to this in my subsequent articles. For now, let me show why the leader of the National Unity Platform (NUP), Robert Kyagulanyi’s ineptness has been exposed by the way he has handled his fall-out with the former Leader of Opposition, Mathias Mpuuga, who is also the Nyendo-Mukungwe Division MP.
I will start by pointing out his failure to handle internal political contradictions. At independence, the leaders were in their 30s, and 40s. The first President, Sir Edward Muteesa and the Prime Minister Dr Apollo Milton Obote were all young. We all saw how they made mistakes.
And these mistakes cost the country dearly. It was a clear indication of how leaders fail when it comes to managing internal contradictions in organisations.
It is from our history that many political observers expected Bobi Wine to draw lessons and handle the internal contradictions properly. But going by the current events within NUP, Bobi Wine has literally handled the Mpuuga question badly and wrongly, and it is too late now.
The party is headed for a mega fall, hardly three years since it was formed during the run-up to the 2021 general elections.
Given the fact that the Mpuuga-Bobi Wine fall out has no attachment to the sh500m alleged cash that was advanced to Mpuuga as a ‘service award’ by Parliament, it is clear that it remains a political contradiction with Bobi Wine suspecting that Mpuuga is building a parallel political structure to oust him as party president.
So, how do deal with such a life-threatening political contradiction?
Internal contradictions or external shocks must be dealt with in a somber manner in order to avoid spill overs and party paralysis.
But, what did Bobi Wine, he pegged his personal vendetta against Mpuuga on the sh500m, and he also took on social media to lambast a political leader on mere allegations. He was also too fast to judge. He never gave internal party processes chance to grill the matter and come up with an internal mechanism of dealing with it.
Today, NUP is in a crisis. The emotional support by majority of their voters has also relocated with many arguing that in Bibi Wine, they didn’t know that they are building a monstrous leader.
Bobi Wine intolerance is growing large and it has thrown the nascent political party off balance—in terms of organizing and galvanizing all opposition parties ahead of 2026 general elections.
Across the country, NUP is expected to lose most of its initial leaders without gaining new ones. Its strongest base, Buganda region, has also roundly sided with Mpuuga, with some allies questioning Bobi Wine’s approach to the Mpuuga saga.
In fact, NUP finds itself with exactly the same problem Uganda’s first Independence leaders faced in 1962—failure to manage similar internal contradictions.
Like any inept leader with no clear ideological grounding, Bobi Wine’s response to Mpuuga saga has been to purge dissenters. This is a harbinger to more desertions, if not mass migration of politicians out of NUP.
With the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) already fractured, one would have imagined that the emerging vacuum would be filled by NUP.
However, Bobi Wine’s ineptness has instead fueled this vacuum as he puts his emotions ahead of reason.
Instead of widely consulting seasoned politicians before he speaks or makes any dictatorial stance, Bobi Wine has instead given credence to fellow gangster musicians such as Nubian Lee and fire base extremists such as Eddie Mutwe plus his naïve wife, Barbie, to guide the party on delicate matters such as the Mpuuga saga.
In the end, NUP has ended up in political limbo.
The author is the deputy RDC for Manafwa district and a member of the Kasangati rotary club.
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