Will Ogoola achieve talks dream in 2019?

As the year 2019 starts, the peacemakers rooting for national dialogue, led by former Principal Judge James Ogoola, will start all over again.
They have ended 2018 on a rather low note after what was originally meant to be a grand launch of what has been dubbed the national dialogue progress did not live up to the billing.

Sunday Monitor has learnt that the ‘inauguration’ of the dialogue team that took place in State House on December 18 only happened after intense rope-pulling.

Sources say what is called the Working Group of Six (WG6), the group that is organising the envisaged national dialogue, was divided on the idea of going to State House until a few hours to the event.

WG6 comprises the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU), currently chaired by Mufti Shaban Mubajje, and The Elders’ Forum of Uganda (TEFU), chaired by former Principal Judge James Ogoola. The other four groups are the Citizens’ Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU), the Interparty Organisation for Dialogue (IPOD), the National Consultative Forum (NCF) and the Women’s Situation Room (WSR).

The members, who were opposed to going to State House argued that President Museveni, who would be their host and would inevitably preside over the function, is likely to be one of the most important issues for discussion in any national dialogue, and having the team inaugurated by him at State House would rob the process of the much-needed goodwill from the people of Uganda.
Mr Ogoola, together with Mufti Shaban Mubajje, were left in a tight spot by this development.

Sources say Mr Ogoola, Gulu Archbishop John Baptist Odama, Dr Maggie Kigozi, a member of the Women’s Situation Room, and a few other colleagues were locked up in a meeting with Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda until about 10pm on the eve of the “inauguration” at State House.

Our sources, who are very close to the process, say junior officers from the Ofiice of the Prime Minister and from the Working Group of Six were left out of the crunch meeting in which Dr Rugunda is thought to have implored the dialogue team to show up at State House for what was supposed to be a simple event.

At State House, Dr Rugunda reportedly told the dialogue team led by Mr Ogoola that, the team would get the government’s commitment to the dialogue process from President Museveni himself, after which a joint communique would be issued to that effect. Some of the members of the team were taken aback, sources say, when President Museveni instead used the occasion to outline what he expected the dialogue to achieve.

In their interpretation, the President’s actions indicated that he was in charge of the process, which they fear could undermine the confidence of other Ugandans in the process.

The other issue that has emerged since the State House event is that members of the dialogue committee have, until now, not received a copy of the joint communique that was supposed to be issued, although Deputy Attorney General Mwesigwa Rukutana read it out at the function.

The sources we talked to say they want copies of the same to act as an enduring commitment by the government to the dialogue process.

Still difficult mission
The mission of the national dialogue team, as they have explained it in different forums, is to get Ugandans talking about virtually everything, of course including the politics of the country.

Mr Ogoola, for one, has been at it for long, starting with when he was still an active judge in 2005, when instead of doing his duty of hearing the rape and treason charges that had been brought against Opposition activist Kizza Besigye, he attempted to mediate between the accused and President Museveni.

The charges had been brought against Dr Besigye by the Directorate of Criminal Prosecutions (DPP), and Justice Ogoola knew that according to the Constitution, this office is independent and its work is not to be influenced by the President or any other office/individual.

But he chose to try to mediate between the two political giants over the matter because he understood that the charges against Dr Besigye, who had just returned from exile in South Africa to compete against Mr Museveni in the 2006 election, were more of a continuation of the politics of the day than a legal matter.

Mr Ogoola’s mediation efforts did not succeed then, but he did not give up. He retired as a judge but continued to seek ways of especially bringing President Museveni and Dr Besigye to the negotiating table.

In the lead up to the 2016 elections, Mr Ogoola pulled off a first by organising the first-ever presidential candidates’ debate which was attended by all the candidates.

Back in 1996, such a debate organised at the Sheraton Hotel was only attended by Mr Muhammad Kibirige Mayanja after President Museveni and Dr Paul Ssemogerere snubbed it. Mr Ogoola’s efforts in the lead up to 2016 also threatened to be a debacle after President Museveni skipped the first one, and it was a big relief to the organisers when he attended the second.

The effort that led to the debate, however, was somehow undercut by accusations that a deal was reached before the debate that President Museveni would not be asked tough questions, particularly by Dr Shaka Ssali, the Ugandan-American who hosts Straight Talk Africa show on Voice of America television.

Mr Ogoola has proved to be an enduring figure in the search for dialogue, always seeming to ignore accusations and continually reaching out to the different players.

Our sources say about two months ago, Mr Ogoola led a team to Dr Besigye’s office of Katonga Road in Kampala, again to discuss dialogue. Sources that attended the meeting say Dr Besigye stopped only short of telling Mr Ogoola that he is incapable of getting President Museveni to participate in meaningful dialogue, but that at the end of the meeting he wished the retired judge and his colleagues luck in their pursuits.

As 2019 begins, it will be interesting to see how Mr Ogoola and his colleagues pick up the pieces in their push for national dialogue, and particularly whether they may succeed in bringing President Museveni and Dr Besigye to the negotiating table.