DP will either make or break Norbert Mao
Feb 28, 2010
<b>By Vivian E. Asedri</b><br><br>THE hasty decision by Kampala Mayor Nasser Sebaggala to quit the Democratic Party (DP) a day after losing the contest for party presidency to Gulu LC5 Chairman, Norbert Mao is a prelude to more jaw-falling developments to come in DP that will make or break Mao.
By Vivian E. Asedri
THE hasty decision by Kampala Mayor Nasser Sebaggala to quit the Democratic Party (DP) a day after losing the contest for party presidency to Gulu LC5 Chairman, Norbert Mao is a prelude to more jaw-falling developments to come in DP that will make or break Mao.
First of all it manifests the real and insurmountable task Mao shoulders as the party’s fifth president, to unite the party, which is almost at the brink of disintegrating into oblivion.
For Sebaggala also to announce that he planned to form his own party that he said would represent the Baganda people shows the myopic leadership culture within DP to believe that without a Muganda at the helm of DP leadership, the party ceases to exist or function.
This defect, which has been simmering for a while in the party’s National Executive Council points to the fact that instead of the aggrieved factions swallowing their super-ego to rally behind Mao to unite the party, they are planning their own delegates conference in April.
The Lulume Bayiga faction is backing the UK-based and former Uganda Young Democrats national speaker, Sam Lubega as their president.This makes me to predict that more new political parties may emerge out of the parent DP before the end of this year.
Whereas such party in-fighting is actually healthy for internal democratisation process of an institution and is nothing new, the magnitude to which DP have taken theirs is a recipe for disaster because it will most likely drive a number of the party’s loyal supporters to join other parties like the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) and National Resistance Movement (NRM) which have more national appeal.
Moreover, a political gamble by Sebaggala to form a party with Buganda’s interest as its core foundation is self-defeating as Buganda is not Uganda, but rather a region that forms the republic.
True, every region in Uganda has problems that are unique to their locales: For instance Karamoja region is still bedeviled by cattle rustling, Kigezi, Kabarole and Bunyoro sub-regions are grappled with frequent land disputes emanating from increased population and internal migration patterns.
Should these regions establish their own political parties to resolve these problems? I do not think so. Much as these are localised issues, they have national implications.
One would think DP leaders are wise enough to see a nation as a human body system.
When a wound exists in the leg, antigens from all over the human body team-up to heal that wound because its presence makes the body less vibrant and sick.
The wound’s repercussions will not only be limited to the leg alone as it will make one walk with a limb, cause headaches, body pains, general body malaise and other unhealthy outcomes.
As such the parties Uganda needs today are the ones whose manifesto transcend these local issues and address nation building problems to fight poverty, fill our hospitals and health centres with badly needed medicines and equipment, fight the endemic corruption, make education accessible and affordable to all from primary to university, rebuild our rail and road systems, modernise our agricultural sector and create conducive environment where private and public sectors create jobs to address our high unemployment. Only a political party with such a national outlook has the chance to pull Ugandans to its ranks.
What appears to be misleading politicians like Sebaggala and Lubega is the erroneous belief that because Baganda are the majority ethnic group in Uganda, a party formed for Baganda would help jettison them to State House.
This brings me to Mao’s fate. When I served as the editor-in-chief of Makerere University students’ newspaper, The Makererean under Mao’s guild presidency in 1989/90, I once jokingly told him that he had such profound leadership potential that it would not be long before he made a big impact on the national political scene. As my predictions then have come to reality with him serving as Member of Parliament and recently as LC5 Chairman of Gulu district, I wonder if Mao’s leadership potentials are not being wasted in DP with his election as the party’s president general.
While I wish and pray that he uses his wisdom to steer DP out of imminent death, the temptation to think that his presence in DP is like giving a jewel to a pig because it would not appreciate its value, can not be avoided either.
It makes one wonder if Mao is not in the wrong party. Obviously some ego-driven DP leaders do not seem to appreciate
I would, however, be happy if time proves my analogy wrong because a strong and united DP with a youthful breed of leaders like Mao is what political parties in Uganda need today so that democratisation institutions and the processes of checks and balances can buttress for the good of Uganda as a peaceful nation.
The writer is a medical information technologist,
San Diego, California, US
dikumvi@gmail.com
THE hasty decision by Kampala Mayor Nasser Sebaggala to quit the Democratic Party (DP) a day after losing the contest for party presidency to Gulu LC5 Chairman, Norbert Mao is a prelude to more jaw-falling developments to come in DP that will make or break Mao.
First of all it manifests the real and insurmountable task Mao shoulders as the party’s fifth president, to unite the party, which is almost at the brink of disintegrating into oblivion.
For Sebaggala also to announce that he planned to form his own party that he said would represent the Baganda people shows the myopic leadership culture within DP to believe that without a Muganda at the helm of DP leadership, the party ceases to exist or function.
This defect, which has been simmering for a while in the party’s National Executive Council points to the fact that instead of the aggrieved factions swallowing their super-ego to rally behind Mao to unite the party, they are planning their own delegates conference in April.
The Lulume Bayiga faction is backing the UK-based and former Uganda Young Democrats national speaker, Sam Lubega as their president.This makes me to predict that more new political parties may emerge out of the parent DP before the end of this year.
Whereas such party in-fighting is actually healthy for internal democratisation process of an institution and is nothing new, the magnitude to which DP have taken theirs is a recipe for disaster because it will most likely drive a number of the party’s loyal supporters to join other parties like the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) and National Resistance Movement (NRM) which have more national appeal.
Moreover, a political gamble by Sebaggala to form a party with Buganda’s interest as its core foundation is self-defeating as Buganda is not Uganda, but rather a region that forms the republic.
True, every region in Uganda has problems that are unique to their locales: For instance Karamoja region is still bedeviled by cattle rustling, Kigezi, Kabarole and Bunyoro sub-regions are grappled with frequent land disputes emanating from increased population and internal migration patterns.
Should these regions establish their own political parties to resolve these problems? I do not think so. Much as these are localised issues, they have national implications.
One would think DP leaders are wise enough to see a nation as a human body system.
When a wound exists in the leg, antigens from all over the human body team-up to heal that wound because its presence makes the body less vibrant and sick.
The wound’s repercussions will not only be limited to the leg alone as it will make one walk with a limb, cause headaches, body pains, general body malaise and other unhealthy outcomes.
As such the parties Uganda needs today are the ones whose manifesto transcend these local issues and address nation building problems to fight poverty, fill our hospitals and health centres with badly needed medicines and equipment, fight the endemic corruption, make education accessible and affordable to all from primary to university, rebuild our rail and road systems, modernise our agricultural sector and create conducive environment where private and public sectors create jobs to address our high unemployment. Only a political party with such a national outlook has the chance to pull Ugandans to its ranks.
What appears to be misleading politicians like Sebaggala and Lubega is the erroneous belief that because Baganda are the majority ethnic group in Uganda, a party formed for Baganda would help jettison them to State House.
This brings me to Mao’s fate. When I served as the editor-in-chief of Makerere University students’ newspaper, The Makererean under Mao’s guild presidency in 1989/90, I once jokingly told him that he had such profound leadership potential that it would not be long before he made a big impact on the national political scene. As my predictions then have come to reality with him serving as Member of Parliament and recently as LC5 Chairman of Gulu district, I wonder if Mao’s leadership potentials are not being wasted in DP with his election as the party’s president general.
While I wish and pray that he uses his wisdom to steer DP out of imminent death, the temptation to think that his presence in DP is like giving a jewel to a pig because it would not appreciate its value, can not be avoided either.
It makes one wonder if Mao is not in the wrong party. Obviously some ego-driven DP leaders do not seem to appreciate
I would, however, be happy if time proves my analogy wrong because a strong and united DP with a youthful breed of leaders like Mao is what political parties in Uganda need today so that democratisation institutions and the processes of checks and balances can buttress for the good of Uganda as a peaceful nation.
The writer is a medical information technologist,
San Diego, California, US
dikumvi@gmail.com