Why opposition leaders are secretly supporting Museveni in the north

By Christopher Omara

It has finally emerged that several key opposition leaders from northern Uganda have secretly met and agreed to support President Yoweri Museveni, the ruling NRM party sole presidential candidate, come 2016; this development has rocked the opposition camp in the region.

The political cracks became more apparent during the most popular radio talk show “TEYAT” on 102 MEGA FM in Gulu on 9/05/2015, confirming earlier reports that senior FDC leaders recently held talks with President Yoweri Museveni in Gulu to chart possible strategies to boost his presidential campaign in 2016.

Among these leaders were the five FDC councillors who allegedly accused their leaders of incompetent, sabotage, financial mismanagement of public resources, power struggle within the opposition parties, lack of self respect by party leaders and various scandals that have become humiliating to them.

Among the FDC leaders who held talks with president Museveni were Mr. Olweny Balington P’ Ongwech, Mr. Nyeko Keneth, Wadok Francisco Awori, Christ Owen and Franscis Komakech. Infact, the list is long that included controversial and outspoken personalities from different political parties.

For some of us who have been keen on following political events in northern Uganda, the current dilemma within the opposition parties is no surprise, it has certainly sent a very strong message that the opposition boat is sinking and it may not be salvaged anymore due to various factors at play and further demonstrated at the FDC meeting at Paragon Hotel on 11/05/2015, in which some senior leaders were locked out of the meeting.

While the focus is now on the 5 FDC councillors, there are already glaring evidence that all the other political parties have been affected across the sub-region.

It’s also reported that most of these opposition leaders have openly expressed their gratitude to president Museveni over the NRM ideological and administrative superiority as guided by the principles of nationalism, pan-Africanism and the inevitable socio-economic transformation of society under his effective leadership.

It has not been common to clearly articulate the reasons for switching political sides by most of the earlier opposition leaders who met president Museveni, making this recent development more significant and damaging to the opposition leadership.

Switching from the opposition to the ruling party is not in itself bad and no one should be ashamed of it as long as such decision is based on clear ideological appreciation rather than selfish interests. The most important thing is for the opposition politicians, particularly within Acholi sub-region to begin to think in terms of Uganda rather than tribes or clans as demonstrated in most of their public statements and behaviours.

The challenges of household poverty, land conflict and underdevelopment will persist in our sub-region due to poor political leadership that requires urgent change. It should be realised that since 1986, most of our leaders within Acholi sub-region never accepted that changed had occurred, and continue to perpetuate a situation of mistrust & hatrate between the NRM Government and the local population for selfish political gains; the strategy partly promoted incompetent anti-development leaders to ascent senior positions of leadership.

The recent drama in Apaa village in Amuru district in which some elderly women were influenced to strip naked before minister of Internal Affairs Gen. Aronda Nyakairima and minister for lands Daudi Migereko was one such example of a renewed strategy for the 2016 elections.

Opposition leaders are now under unprecedented pressure for unclear direction, but some of them have shifted blames and accused the deputy speaker of parliament Hon Jacob Olanya and Gulu RDC Catherine Lamwaka for fighting them. That only sounds like political manipulation and merely cheap politics of looking for sympathy from the unsuspecting electorates. They are fully aware of the tension within the opposition parties in northern Uganda.

There are further evidence as demonstrated during the ongoing establishment of the opposition party structures at the grassroots in which a number of senior party officials have shunned the exercise as a waste of time and promotion of poor leadership.

Infact, I was not amused by one of the FDC senior leader in Gulu when he told me that it’s better to support the ruling NRM party under the leadership of president Yoweri Museveni than spend sleepless night in following leaders without clear political ideology necessary for the transformation of the lives of his supporters in the villages.

He particularly singled out the recently launched projects by HE president Museveni, particularly the commissioning of Gulu main market, the Shs. 89 billion Gulu-Atiak-Nimule road, the rural electrification programme, the 233 kilometres Olwiyo-Gulu-Kitgum-Musingo road, the upgrading of Kamdini-Gulu road, Lira-Kitgum road and operation wealth creations among others as some of his reasons for switching from the opposition to the ruling NRM although he has not yet declared publicly.

The opposition leaders who have publicly or secretly switched side to the ruling NRM should be warmly welcome by the party. It’s upon the people of northern Uganda to genuinely pause to critically assess the current political situation, to end the perpetuation of poor leadership driven by tribalism, selfishness and hatrate; and not necessarily driven by the interest of the ordinary people they claim to serve and the nation at large.

We may have been hurt as individuals and communities by the NRA/M revolution, but let’s all appreciate that change is inevitable and that no one is born to hate one another in Uganda, we learn to hate one another from our parents and leaders, and we should not be held hostages to that situation as Ugandans.

The writer is a former NRM Senior Mass Mobiliser Gulu/Pader

Mob: 0772473599

E-mail: christ.onara73@gmail.com