Latigo: I am not on Amama's campaign team!

By Prof. Morris Ogenga-Latigo

Last Monday, many people spoke to me in tongues. I did not know that they had read the Red Pepper newspaper allegation that I was to head the presidential campaign of Amama Mbabazi (JPAM) in Northern Uganda.

Asked by The Observer newspaper a week earlier, I had clarified that I had not communicated with the man since 2012 when I wrote to him as Prime Minister.

I guess the speculation is because of my absence in the TDA process, given my stature in the opposition, even though I have surely been commenting on TVs, radios and newspapers. Of course, in current political uncertainties and the TDA rollercoaster, clarifications help.

During the last FDC delegates’ conference, I actively supported Mugisha Muntu for flag-bearer because he is our party president. In 2011, I, in spite reservations, equally supported then party president, Kizza Besigye, and campaigned selflessly for him and FDC throughout the north.

I have always asserted that a party must be led into elections by none other than its leader; otherwise that party has no business maintaining the person as their leader. After all, Apollo Milton Obote twice became Uganda’s president merely because his UPC party won elections.

In backing Gen. Muntu I, and many others, also knew and openly argued that, in TDA, Dr. Besigye stood virtually no chance of being endorsed by those who refused to support him as joint flag-bearer in 2011, and that, with him, FDC would lose out in the TDA candidate selection process.

Of course the numeric and ideological dynamics within FDC handed us Besigye as flag-bearer; and the delegates’ conference and Besigye himself equally endorsed FDC participation in TDA, thus bequeathing us the challenges we now face.

The first ever presidential election in Uganda was in 1996. Then, I, Cecilia Ogwal, Maria Mutagamba etc., worked flat out for Dr. Paul Ssemwogerere, the joint opposition Inter-Political Forces-Cooperation (IPFC) candidate.

I joined that campaign because, in their struggle, NRM/A had been openly sectarian, had singled out us Acholi as “the enemy”, and had unleashed war in our land to destroy the fabric of our society. Ssemwogerere promised to end that war peacefully, and we supported him in return.

At that time, Kizza Besigye, Amama Mbabazi, Mugisha Muntu, Gen. Tinyefuza, and many now in the opposition, were leaders in NRM/A and none supported our wish for change and quick peace.

When Dr. Besigye emerged in 2000 to contest against Yoweri Museveni, we all rallied behind him, although we were DPs and UPCs, and even when he had no structures on the ground. To us, he was the best vehicle to express our wishes and disaffection, and push forward the noble struggle for change, democracy and equity in the governance of Uganda.

Whereas people of the north and east gave Besigye full support in 2001, like Ssemwogerere in 1996, he did not win in his Rukingiri district and in his region. Even then, when in 2005 a new political dispensation emerged in Uganda, with the formation of FDC when NRM and opposition leaders joined forces to work for a vision of “One Uganda one People”, our people continued supporting Besigye.

This was largely because FDC embraced our aspirations for a peaceful end to the conflict in the north, and for equity in sharing of development and management of the affairs of our country.

In 2006, Besigye, as FDC president, was a tested leader best placed to move us forward. We embraced him and equally gave him our full support, but he yet again failed to win significant votes from his own district and region.

In the run up to 2011, the core wish of the Acholi for peaceful resolution of the LRA war came to pass, and with it went our key political demand and campaign agenda. No doubt, ending the war was a factor in the electoral shift witnessed in the north in 2011, coupled, of course, with NRM’s violence and intimidation, false promises, and unleashing of money on a deeply impoverished population.

Since then, the core demands for change away from a highly sectarian, oppressive, corrupt, divisive, and tired NRM regime, and from socio-economic injustices and disparities, have remained amongst our people. At higher leadership levels, the issue of peaceful post-Museveni transition also now looms large. All these the Acholi people are objectively factoring into their decisions.

As we move towards 2016, our voters will strive to make clear choices in terms of their needs and wishes, attractiveness of the presidential, parliamentary and local council candidates, and the comparative advantages and sense of hope each campaign offers them.

To most, their hope and self-assurance were deeply renewed by the TDA process that also banished their fear and saw them confront police and their teargas and bullets in Pajule, as the people of Soroti and Jinja later did. Conflict within TDA undermines this new-found strength.

More importantly, we the opposition must deal with the reality that, with peace, people in the north have seen some tangible progress, particularly roads being tarmacked (Soroti-Lira, Gulu-Nimule, Gulu-Kitgum,  Kitgum-S.Sudan etc.) that Museveni will dangle in his campaign. We must therefore raise the bar of the campaign in order to hold onto old support and draw new ones to our cause. Bickering, posturing and confusion will not help.

On the other hand, having voted for Dr. Besigye and the opposition in four elections without success, the North is legitimately tired and skeptical of the same unrealized vote promises from Buganda and the West. They need something new to cling onto, to put their trust in, and to renew their faith and hope.

Of importance shall be a new message and approach from Besigye that reassures and attracts; an Amama promise of leading progressive NRMs away from the Museveni camp to the opposition that will assure change; or a reassurance to beneficiaries of this regime and Ugandans generally that change will not undermine peace but ensure mutual respect, reconciliation, unity, freedom, continued progress and real equity in the sharing of benefits.

For a candidate at the presidential or parliamentary level, any discordance with the above is a recipe for failure, regardless of which party or cause one belongs to.

In a sense, therefore, many Acholi parliamentary and local council candidates, having advocated for TDA, and with Otunnu, Mao, Okello-Okello and Bishop Ochola visible in the process, will align with the best interest and wishes of their voters. To attempt to intimidate or ostracize them is politically very unwise!

With Museveni and the 2-candidate (Amama/Besigye) TDA approach, the challenge will be to capture the hearts and minds of the Acholi; a process that will only be achieved through leaders that the people trust.

The Acholi will wait to see which candidacy recognizes their importance in Uganda’s nascent oil and gas sector, with more than 50% of the discovered oil being in their land; and whether you are not part of shameful conspiracy to hide the reality of Acholi oil and deny our people and region the infrastructure development (CPFs, pipelines, roads etc.) that must arise from its exploitation.

The Acholi will also be keenly watching if the tragedy of war that is their legacy will continue to be opportunistically and cynically capitalized on in PRDPIII to benefit non-victims, and whether policies in your manifesto truly address their traumas and the gross disparities in education, health, prosperity and development that engulfed our land because of the LRA war.

To lay claim on our people because of might, money, history, or mere allegiance, without a clear basis at all, will be a true exercise in futility.

Former Leader of Opposition, 8th Parliament.