NUP, FDC chaos has vindicated Museveni

In the past six months alone, the Opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has self-destructed, while the leading opposition party National Unity Platform (NUP) has begun its journey to implosion and could get into a free-fall phase like their FDC counterparts if they do not re-group quickly.

With these very cinematic events unfolding before our eyes, President Museveni on the other hand must be rubbing his hands with glee, waiting on whichever Opposition will emerge from the rubble to compete with a well-oiled NRM machine in the 2026 elections.

Ironically, in the thick of the Opposition chaos, the NRM launched a registration exercise across the country, with the party aiming at shooting past the 11 million membership subscription, at the same event Museveni called for calm, urging officials to avoid the dash of grabbing and taking in opposition converts.

Museveni made the comments well aware that the rain, pounding opposition camps will raise the need for warmth and NRM remains the only point of convergence to those shivering from FDC and NUP, and maybe ANT, only that its grassroots mobilisation strategy has proved more cumbersome to comprehend than their ideology.

In December 2017, while at a dinner to celebrate the passing of the Age Limit Bill, then Government Chief whip Ruth Nankabirwa implored Museveni to punish dissenting voices within the NRM structures, an idea Museveni thwarted immediately, telling her there was no need because there is no opposition in Uganda.

Museveni added that many people stuck in the opposition are only disgruntled, confused with no correct position in Ugandan politics, devoid of any correct ideology and with no track record of what they have done on national issues, hence, he said, will be wiped out in the next five years.

Intriguingly, being in Uganda’s opposition has been tagged as having unrivalled intelligence, because there is an assumption that the volume with which these opposition leaders breakdown the people’s issues (albeit laced with obscurantism) is in correlation with the effort they put into solving them.

Unfortunately, none of the opposition politicians in any party worth its name has walked the talk by providing practical alternatives to the problems they so well articulate, in the end, it has ended with Museveni being the cause of hell on earth! Again this drives us into the politics of who, rather than what!

This kind of situation has exhibited itself in both NUP and FDC in the last 6 months, all parties rocked with allegations of corruption and nkonkonkuluism ( who is who). The bigwigs in the respective parties are now more interested in galvanizing their positions by purging their ambitious juniors, of course, helped by alleged disciplinary issues.

The opposition in this country has been built on sand, while President Museveni has built the NRM on a solid foundation based on issues, past mistakes of leaders and opposition alike and he is aware that an opposition that lacks focus on issues, tenets of satisfactory internal democracy, lacks solutions to internal dissent, one that builds its base on identity as the case of NUP will soon suffer from ulcers.

And here we are, none is talking about the East African Federation, wealth creation, Value Addition, or socio-economic integration, because these are not issues to them. The issue is who? Mpuuga or Bobi Wine? Besigye or Amuriat? Nandala or Ssemujju? Bwanika or Zaake? Meanwhile, President Museveni is upcountry auditing the NRM work among the Wanainchi in the battle for wealth creation in homesteads.

The present turmoil in the opposition was seen coming, it is called the fear of the future and it leads to shortsightedness while Museveni’s availability has been from what he calls the current affairs of history which leads to farsightedness- vindication!