Different strokes in Opposition: Bugiri and the lies that bind us
It was Winston Churchill who famously said “you must look at facts before they look at you”. Before the nominations for the Bugiri Municipality elections, there was hope that the Opposition would rally around one candidate to face the NRM. It seemed obvious that JEEMA president Asuman Basalirwa would be a uniting factor. But far from unifying the Opposition, Basalirwa’s candidature polarised the fragmented Opposition even further.
Why did everybody assume that Basalirwa would be a rallying point? Basalirwa has been in the political trenches since 2001 when he tried to be Youth MP. From there he was on the ballot in 2006, 2011 and 2016. All these previous attempts to get elected to the national legislature were unsuccessful. But Basalirwa persisted like a dynamo.
Outside of Parliament he embraced the wider struggle of the democracy seeking forces. During the walk-to-work protests, he was very active.
He was and has remained a fixture in the courtrooms fighting to free Opposition protesters from detention. He has earned the right to be called a comrade in arms.
But alas when the election schedule for the newly created municipality was announced Basalirwa was abandoned by many of his comrades, especially those from the FDC.
The Democratic Party on its part endorsed Basalirwa and deployed a team on the ground to render full support. Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi also threw his weight behind Basalirwa. Later, the Uganda Peoples Congress joined the fray on the side of Basalirwa.
On nomination day it was a battle of the crowds. The top three contenders from the NRM, JEEMA and FDC each wanted to show their capacity to mobilise big crowds.
Observers agree that Basalirwa’s crowd stunned those who had dismissed him. The Basalirwa who naysayers had dismissed as a Kampala-based activist lawyer with no home base appeared to take an early lead in the race to capture the high ground.
In the run up to the nominations Basalirwa received a lot of bashing, especially from the supporters of the FDC candidate. The 2016 parliamentary election results were published showing the paltry votes Basalirwa got in the polling stations in the new municipality. In contrast the FDC candidate was presented as a clear favourite because of the many votes she garnered in those same polling stations when she sought the Woman MP seat for Bugiri.
But that was two years ago. The ground had significantly shifted. The young people who got their national IDs at the age of 16 were now eligible to vote. The inspirational message and story of Mr Kyagulanyi turned the campaign into a battle to disrupt the power embodied by the NRM in government and the FDC in the Opposition.
The cracks in the Opposition ranks became more glaring.
Where was the united front? After the nominations former FDC president Kizza Besigye, former Makindye West MP Hussein Kyanjo and Mukono Municipality MP Betty Nambooze hastily convened a press conference at Fairway Hotel. They claimed that they were still trying to seek common ground in order to rally around one candidate. But they also put a caveat saying that if there’s no agreement on a single candidate, there should at least be a measure of civility and mutual respect. But that did not thaw the icy relations between the two camps. They were closing the stable door after the horse had bolted
The campaign hit its lowest point when FDC deputy secretary general Harold Kaija told a rally that there are only two sides in the election - FDC and NRM. He said if you don’t vote for the FDC candidate then you should vote for the NRM candidate!
Some people think that you’re only a politician if you pick a fight with everybody. We have more in common than we care to know. The problem is the lies we choose to believe about ourselves and about others.
