Prime
Besigye speaks out on Bobi’s presidential bid
Dr Kiiza Besigye (L) and Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi. File photos
What you need to know:
- A day after Mr Kyagulanyi’s declaration, political analysts and former presidential aspirants advised him to brace himself for the hurdles which lie ahead of him such as insecurity, arrests, financial and emotional
Opposition activist Kizza Besigye has spoken out on the declaration by Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, that he will run for president in 2021, underlining the legislator’s “huge potential” and what he needs to work on.
Dr Besigye, who has run for president on four previous occasions, has come under attack by some groups claiming to be Mr Kyagulanyi’s supporter who are pushing that the veteran Opposition politician steps aside to create space for Mr Kyagulanyi to lead the charge against President Museveni.
Mr Kyagulanyi and Dr Besigye, however, have remained civil towards each other, except on a few occasions, such as when during the campaigns for the Arua Municipality by-election in September last year, Mr Kyagulanyi signaled the crowd that Dr Besigye was wooing for another candidate to follow him and support Mr Kyagulanyi’s preferred candidate. Mr Kyagulanyi later apologised over the incident.
Asked to comment on Mr Kyagulanyi’s declaration, Dr Besigye said on Friday: “He (Kyagulanyi) has a huge potential indeed, being young and focused on active political struggle... The potential is there, how he proceeds along the political career largely depends on what he does. It is still too early to predict what kind of trajectory he is going to have.”
He added: “I have also been pointing out to him that he must have some kind of organisation that he works with to achieve the political goals he wants. Up to now, he still thinks that he will be an individual without any kind of organised group.”
Last week, Mr Kyagulanyi told Sunday Monitor that he and his team had resolved to challenge President Museveni in the 2021 presidential elections. He said he and Dr Besigye were in talks, although he declined to divulge the details of the talks and what they were aimed at achieving.
A day after Mr Kyagulanyi’s declaration, political analysts and former presidential aspirants advised him to brace himself for the hurdles which lie ahead of him such as insecurity, arrests, financial and emotional
During the same interview, Dr Besigye said: “My brother Bobi Wine is now a keen political actor, who reinforces the struggle that has been going on all this while. I have been engaging him to appreciate some of the experiences we have gone through and what it would take to reach where we are now. I have not failed to press it upon him that he needs to do more than just calling people to go and vote.”
On whether he will stand in 2021, Dr Besigye said he is not very keen on it.
“I am not anxious to be a candidate; not at all. I did not even want to be a candidate in 2016; it took a lot of effort of some people in this country to push me back onto the scene. I was in South Africa in 2006, I did not want to come back (to contest). Delegations from here came and convinced me, coaxed, persuaded me and cajoled me into coming back and eventually I came,” he said.
“I do not want to be a candidate, in fact, I will be extremely happy any day not to be a candidate ever again,” he added.
