Lessons for Opposition from Sheema North by-election

Many Ugandans get angry when politicians treat them as unintelligent beings. For many years now, accusations of taking for granted the Ugandan electors have always fallen into the NRM court. On this occasion, it is the Opposition parties’ turn.

I cannot recall who their own preferred candidate was for the Sheema North MP race before FDC expediently jumped into the lap of a rejected member and candidate of the NRM, Mr Guma Nuwagaba.

Nuwagaba has always been a fervent of the NRM with all his love and energy. He chose, quite rightly, to represent the NRM in Parliament. This was a choice out of conviction carefully thought out and planned.

As the by-election came closer, the NRM party, quite rightly and naturally, reviewed their chances of success in the by-election and decided to replace Guma with Naome Kibaaju who eventually won the seat comfortably.

Then, the FDC party made a terrible blunder which reminded me of our own disappointment when we were Kigezi high school boys and returning to secondary schools in Kampala and beyond. Being poor, we wore sandals and in some cases no shoes at all.

By the time we reached the outskirts of Kampala we would be covered in dust or mud and looking unattractive. Invariably, the school trucks in which we travelled would stop for a break in Masaka or Kampala suburb bars and dancing halls.

We would then enter those entertainment places and find beautiful women waiting for dancing partners. We would then ask to join them in the dance to whatever music was playing on the jukebox. They almost always refused us, sometimes in disgust because of our appearance.

The question, therefore is, how could FDC and its allies not know from the beginning that to embrace an NRM rejected candidate would not make him an instant convert of the Opposition?
This particular candidate only wished two things: One to punish the NRM for rejecting him, two, as a candidate, to become a Member of Parliament. It is for these reasons that he was using the Opposition as a Trojan horse.

That the Opposition did not even contemplate this possibility is clear evidence that they are not ready for government as of now. We are reminded that this phenomenon is similar to what used to happen in Kenya.
Greedy or ambitious pseudo political novices, knowing that a general election was imminent would hurriedly get together and announce that they had founded a national political party to compete in the election.

They would then sell themselves to the existing but more variable political parties, falsely claiming that they had hundreds or millions of supporters who would follow them and vote for their buyer.
They would then negotiate for positions they would occupy in the buyer’s camp or, which was most likely, demand money in exchange for delivering their members’ vote.

What occurred in the Sheema North by-election might have been different, but the FDC’s chances disappeared when its former president Mugisha Muntu abandoned the party midstream.
It was also after most voters in Sheema had forgotten the events in the Arua and Rukungiri by-elections. What people could remember was that, terribly divided and wishing to live peacefully, they chose to survive with the NRM notwithstanding its weaknesses.

If the Opposition parties of Uganda wish to make an impression, they should be strengthening themselves, founding and building local political branches throughout Uganda and campaigning for political power now, and not when the next general election is imminent.

Prof Kanyeihamba is a retired Supreme Court judge.
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