‘All these politicians belonged to different parties’
Mr Mayega
Former Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) Vice Chairperson for Buganda, Mr Henry Mayega, recently crossed from UPC to the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party. Risdel Kasasira caught up with the former Congressman to find out, among other things, how he feels after joining the NRM, a party he once riled with abandon. Excerpts:-
UPC president Olara Otunnu was recently quoted in the media saying you will not be of any help to the NRM because you are not known even in your village. What’s your comment?
Actually, it’s him who is not known in the country because he has been out of this country for quarter a century. He ran away long time ago and he returned when some of us had already established ourselves politically. It’s him actually who is unknown to many people in the country. Even in Muchwini where he was born, when he went there the first time he came, people did not know him. He does not know that majority of Ugandans are people who were born during President Museveni’s regime and do not know old actors like him.
We have run Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC), which he himself overthrew. He planned that coup of 1985 and executed it. Fortunately, Mr Museveni removed this bunch of coup-makers and threw them out. When he claims that I’m not known, it is very interesting because he knows that when I left UPC, I carried away all UPC district chairpersons from Buganda, and definitely, these chairpersons would not have left because of an unknown person.
People say you crossed to NRM to look for money. What is your comment?
I have heard those things. Recently, I was on Capital Gang (radio talk show) and somebody called in and said I had crossed to NRM because I wanted a job and money. But look, when I joined UPC, was I looking for a job? And here I am after serving for 25 years in the party. And I do not think even the NRM has that money people talk about. They should know that I’m employed as of now, and I’m not a poor man. So, when someone says that I’m looking for money, it shows a high level of naivety.
My crossing is based on a number of things which I have I tried to explain. One is that that man (Otunnu) is a procrastinator because he cannot be in full charge of the party. I remember us agreeing that we join IPC, three months later, he pulled out because he knew he was not going to be the flag bearer. He comes and says we should not participate in elections, and later, you hear he has gone to collect the nomination forms.
He later says together with his executive, let us carryout branch elections throughout the country and they end up carrying out elections only in the north and east. But he should know that the west and Buganda are part of Uganda. These people, especially this man commonly known as OO, is a procrastinator who takes a position and later abandons it.
You remember a few months after he had taken over the leadership of UPC, he was announcing the formation of something called National Social Movement. Surely, if you have been given leadership of a party like UPC, why would you need another organisation in order to make a political impact? This man is a procrastinator. He is not fit to be president of Uganda. Nobody should be fooled about this man because we know him.
Your former colleagues in UPC have wondered why you left them in the struggle and they now see you as a traitor
Let them respect my choice. Politics is about choices. This was a democratic right to choose and they know it is an inalienable right, which cannot be denied to anybody.
All these politicians you see here at one time belonged to different political parties. The first president of UPC, Apollo Milton Obote, initially belonged to the UPU then, UNC and later UPC. And there are many such people. Let them respect my choice.
Do you see Otunnu as the president of this country in 2011?
Otunnu is not a leader. He is a good bureaucrat and I think he can excel at the United Nations, not a party leader. He absolutely has no capacity to propel Uganda Peoples’ Congress to power. He has no capacity to run a political party and that is why UPC has become the net loser of supporters because everybody seems to be running away apart from those who are hanging on to the glory of the past. But that individual known as Otunnu has no feelings for it. He has not been part of it. He was part of those who overthrew it (UPC) in 1985.
He has not gone through various party structures. For instance, he has never belonged to any party branch. But some of us have worked with and belonged to the district structures; I have been a member of Presidential Policy Commission, Constitutional Steering Commission. I have been actually a deputy president of UPC. I deputised Dr James Rwanyarare. I have been a member of the national council. I have gone through all the party structures. But this individual is not known anywhere in the UPC circles. But as I speak now, I have left UPC and I’m a member of the National Resistance Movement (NRM).
How did you feel that night following your announcement that you had crossed to NRM?
The night was a peaceful one. I felt I had removed a big luggage from my head. And I do not remember having peaceful nights in the last so many years because there had been lots of problems in that party. Some of us did not have peace because our own party was fighting us. That night of October 25 was very peaceful. I had a sound sleep.
Have you received calls from your former UPC colleagues and what are they saying about your crossing?
I received lots of messages on the day I crossed. I think they underrated my capacity to withstand such kind of stupid threats. But we have gone through this before. We fought for opening up of political space so that the parties can be allowed to operate freely and during that time, we went through bigger threats than these small threats. Somebody was using the Internet to send me threatening messages but why would you do that? I made a choice, it is finished. I belong to the NRM party.
Isn’t it painful to leave a political party that was part of your life, a party that you fought for decades and a party that built you?
It is painful because I had belonged to UPC for the last 30 years since I joined it in 1980. If you are talking about 2010, that’s a space of about 30 years. It was painful that the party we helped to build was being misguided. We had gone through a lot of things and some of us had decided to leave.
Life must continue, I have made a choice, it’s finished. I cannot continue belonging to something which is sinking. Somebody recently corrected and said UPC is not titanic, but rather a capsising boat because calling it titanic means it is a big thing. This is just a small boat because of desertions the party has experienced for a number of years. The whole thing is finished.
