The decision by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to name long time rival Norbert Mao, also President General to the opposition Democratic Party came with no less shock that was deserving.
Mao, also two time Presidential candidate was named to Museveni’s cabinet as Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, a docket that had remain vacant since June, 18, 2021 when the new cabinet was announced.
Professor Ephraim Kamuntu was dropped in the new changes, only getting Public Service Minister Muruli Mukasa fill the void nearly a year later, though only in an acting capacity.
Fishing Mao into government was immensely celebrated by loyalists of the ruling side but almost in equal measures with the insults and curses from the opposition who accused the former Gulu Municipality MP of backstabbing them to dine with their enemy.
A highly improbable forecast has since been tipping the son of the Acholi land to be the man in line to replace President Museveni should he opt to retire in 2026, or later on. Already, Muhoozi who only last week got elevated to the army rank of a four star General, and also high up in the Museveni succession queue in March this year had hinted at a possible Mao presidency through his Twitter.
“My big brother Norbert Mao is the most brilliant opposition leader in Uganda today. He has Presidential skills,” Muhoozi tweeted then.
In his charismatic style, the DP stalwart hailed the then Commander of Land Forces as a difference between ” those that know and those that understand.” He also said he was open to working with the man who is severally tipped to become the next president.
” This tweet has drawn a clear line between those who know and those who understand. I am glad Muhoozi doesn’t suffer from generational myopia.”
As one Twitter user put it, the exchange by the two were equivalent to the devil endorsing one of the Bishops to become the next Pope and there were indeed reasons to worry about the safety of the Vatican. And a few months later, what many in opposition feared most came to pass as motor mouthed activist appeared before the Parliament’s Appointments Committee to say “… for God and my country…..”
It has, however, in the past couple of months turned out that Mao , once bedeviled by the opposition disintegration could be the man with the biggest say in who should be president in the immediate post-Museveni Uganda let alone becoming one himself.
For long, Northern Uganda, who had perennially opposed Museveni’s reign until last year’s general election had always seen Mao as the man through whom their lost political power (Obote) can be revived. This was, however not after late Jacob L’kori Oulanyah had ascended to head the Legislature. The grief surrounding the death of Oulanyah in April served to unite the region, and Mao in particular reaped biggest, thanks to his role in deliberations that preceded his death and return of the body. Infact, it’s been reported that it was during this very sombre atmosphere that elders from the north arrived at the idea of dialoguing with Museveni to deploy their charismatic man into the government fold.
It is thus safe to opine that the region is for the first time in the post Obote Uganda United politically, with Mao seemingly the pole bearer of that cohesion that will be instrumental in deciding who wears Museveni’s crown when it’s time for him to give way after four, or even more decades.
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