Music diploma holder can’t be Uganda’s president - Mukula

What you need to know:

In a veiled reference to NUP presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, Capt Mukula says 'presidency' is not a theater.
President Museveni also said there is no opposition he can't defeat.

The ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) vice-chairman eastern region Capt Mike Mukula has asked youth in Bugisu sub-region to vote for President Museveni in the coming general election on grounds that he’s more qualified than any of the other 10 people challenging him for presidency.

In a veiled reference to Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine, who's aspiring to unseat Mr Museveni who has been in power since 1986, Mr Mukula on Wednesday said: "Someone with a diploma in Music Dance and Drama [MDD] wants to lead this country called Uganda. This is not a theater."

Mr Museveni would later take to the podium at the same venue and reinforce Mukula’s blistering remarks.

"You’re taking drugs and you say you are a youth? So, we need a youth who is disciplined ideologically and spiritually. That is what I would like you to be and that is what I have been telling my children and grandchildren."

The incumbent president Wednesday - also made a withering assault on the other 10 opposition figures lined against him in the January 2021 polls.

"There is no opposition I cannot defeat. What are you opposing?” Mr Museveni said.

He continued, “When we were in Luweero fighting, we had some Uganda People’s Congress [UPC] there. Even though we were fighting, I would go to the UPC people and ask them what are you fighting for?” Mr Museveni said before he pondered, “Like now what are they opposing exactly? You should talk to them."

President and NRM Presidential candidate Yoweri Tibuhaburwa Kaguta Museveni. PHOTO/KELVIN ATUHAIRE.

Both Capt Mukula and Mr Museveni were addressing NRM youth leaders in Bugisu sub-region at Mbale senior secondary school.

The pop star turned politician is widely seen as Mr Museveni’s biggest challenger as the nation fast-gears towards the elections slated for January 14, 2021.

Mr Kyagulanyi attended Kitante Hill School, where he attained his Uganda Certificate of Education [UCE] in 1996. He then joined Kololo Senior Secondary School, where he attained his Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education [UACE] in 1998.

For his post-secondary education, Mr Kyagulanyi attended Kampala based Makerere University, where he studied Music, Dance and Drama, graduating with a diploma in 2003.

However, Mr Kyagulanyi enrolled in Law school at the International University of East Africa (IUEA) in 2016; where he got in contact with his then-lecturer David Lewis Rubongoya, who has since become NUP's General Secretary.

With the race to the polls getting heated, experts owe Mr Kyagulanyi’s growing popularity to the fact that the country has the youngest population in the world, and that could have a significant impact on the outcome in the polls.

According to the Electoral Commission [EC], Uganda has up to 17, 658, 527 registered voters going into the 2021 polls. Youth aged between 18-35 take a lion’s share of this with at least 67 per cent.