Friends, as I warned you in a previous article, the country is once again thrown into another quagmire of a story to mull over. I predicted here some weeks ago of a ‘big’ story making the corner and now here we’re entangled in yet an uninspiring and completely an unimaginable political story!
I am not certain how this will play out, but the end will not be justified by the means therefore leaving opposition politics completely shuttered.
The battle I am talking about is between Bobi Wine and Mathias Mpuuga.
Bobi Wine (Robert Kyagulanyi) is president of Uganda’s second biggest political party, National Unity Platform (NUP), while Mathias Mpuuga Nsamba is the de facto leader of opposition politics in Masaka indeed Buganda. He just eclipsed all the other big hitters in NUP like Muwanga Kivumbi, Abed Bwanika, Nambooze Bakireke and Medard Segona.
Hon. Mpuuga is not a political threat to anyone but just his larger-than-life persona scares the hell out of many politicians.
It will be naive not to think that President Museveni and his NRM see Hon. Mathias Mpuuga as another big fish, like Norbert Mao, to be netted from opposition political waters.
And I know that Ugandans also know this: Mathias Mpuuga is a politician while Bobi Wine is not. In political grading, Mathias Mpuuga is in Grade 12 (A’level) while Bobi Wine is in Grade 8 (a little higher than P.7). No pun intended but reality dictating here. In popularity and appeal, the scales are way up there for Bobi Wine.
Then of course Bobi Wine has the “masanyaraze- pull factor” which enabled wannabe and mediocre fellows to scoop huge political positions. It is these still stunned fellows that would kill for Bobi.
If it wasn’t for Bobi Wine’s extraordinary personal appeal, many of our legislators would be running kiosks and others still singing their hearts out to earn a living.
The stakes therefore have never been such high.
This matter coming up for mention (as we always hear in court) is not a simple matter one can simply wish away or sweep under the rag.
No Sir! This is a battle of wills pitting Uganda’s most favorite musician- turned political guru verses Ugandan’s most respected political actor.
The genesis of this undying story is that Mathias Mpuuga, a hitherto celebrated hard worker and straight- as -a fiddle politician, was tricked indeed coerced Parliament to give him an ‘underserved’ send-off package; one- off service award- or appreciation ‘gift’ amounting to UGX500 million.
According to Bobi Wine this amount is a direct indication of corruption and abuse of office therefore Mpuuga had to resign from his posting as a Parliamentary Commissioner.
This money was ‘awarded’ to Hon. Mpuuga in 2022 and someone kept it under wraps until when the disclosure will have a maximum impact. The timing has never been perfect to dump opposition politics in the stinking sewerage water almost two years to the next general election.
We can only predict that what is happening to Hon. Mpuuga is simply the honeymoon. Something untoward is being cooked and all opposition politicians will taste it before 2025.
Bobi Wine is calling on Hon. Mpuuga to do the ‘right’ thing and resign from his Parliamentary Commission portfolio. This is a lucrative position because the fellows who seat on this body determines the salaries and other fringe benefits of everyone working inside or even leaning to the Parliamentary walls.
But all shall be well from my own perspective.
One important Bible verse reminds us of the importance of ‘selflessness’ and valuing others above ourselves. This one Bobi Wine must take into consideration.
It also tells us that it is morally wrong to have ‘excessive’ pride in oneself. This one Hon. Mathias Mpuuga must take into consideration.
The Bible verse is this one:
“Do nothing out of selfish
ambition or vain conceit.
Rather, in humility value
others above yourselves.”
-Philippians 2:3)
This is the simple message both Bobi and Mpuuga should take and go back to serve Ugandans. They have a formidable enemy in Yoweri Museveni therefore Ugandans are not interested in their ‘petty’ squabbles.
Hon. Mpuuga is adamant that he did nothing wrong and he never did. This money would worry Bobi Wine if at all it compromised Mpuuga from doing his work. The time he served as LOP, apart from being accused of hobnobbing with Speaker Anita Anet Among, there was never any sign that Hon. Mpuuga was compromised.
If truth be told, there is a sinister group inside NUP fighting Hon. Mpuuga and after he is floored, another person will be picked on.
This simple logic Bobi Wine is supposed to be guardedly aware of. This is not mere office politics but a deep cancerous wound which is already eating away FDC, DP, UPC and only excusing small indeed insignificant or ‘unpalatable’ parties like NEED, JEEMA, CP and ANT.
Invariably, Hon.Mpuuga like all Ugandans in position of authority, are ‘entitled’ to eat our money with no corresponding work done.
If Mpuuga is wrong, then all MPs are wrong so is government which often allocates money to run all political parties with MPs.
I don’t know about you but I have severally met really ‘serious’ opposition fellows eating from Affande Salim Saleh’s bowl. They organize the rest us to hate on Museveni during the day but at night they sneak into State House: men wearing wigs to appear like women and women spotting beards to appear like men!
This is the true story of Ugandan politics Honorables Norbert Mao of DP and Jimmy Akena of UPC were only too courageous to display openly.
Besides, if Mpuuga vomits this money (I hear he hasn’t even got the money), someone else is waiting to steal it. We will never be told that the “money Hon. Mpuuga refused was used to build some classroom blocks in Namutumba district!” It will instead be given to another ‘underserving’ fellow or charlatan who will use it to pay for an apartment for his London- based side-dish (concubine)!
I know as day following night that, this story will soon fizzle out though it will leave the two NUP protagonists, Bobi Wine and Mathias Mpuuga, completely changed. If not very careful, their political fortunes will have only one way: downward spiral.
And the winner or beneficiary, once again, will be NRM and President Yoweri Museveni.
Where is the problem really for Mpuuga to have his beak wetted when it is the in-thing in Uganda? Everyone who is anybody is deeping his or her dirty hands in the country’s honey pot.
What bothers me is the condescending attitude of lining up Mpuuga before the firing squad when the squad itself is made up of even worse criminals. We know many of them filling up the ‘opposition’ space but were ‘rewarded’ with way much more cash than Mpuuga!
This is what Ugandan politicians don’t know. Collectively they have failed Ugandan voters at every turn.
When they get ‘small’ power, they start to see themselves as ‘great’ people. Do you recall how President Museveni made fun of Lord Mayor Elias Lukwago and his “ebijjegere- official neck chains” and how he used to think that he was very important?
Who has forgotten a really ‘insignificant’ man called Abdullah Kitata who once said that he only feared two people in Uganda: President Museveni and former IGP Gen. Kale Kayihura?
Sorry my friends, Ugandans like Napoleon Bonaparte, haven’t learnt anything and forgotten nothing!
If they had, they wouldn’t have transformed ‘People Power’ into NUP creating the room for Bobi Wine and Mathias Mpuuga to clash. In fact the state operatives wouldn’t find room to manipulate or compromise them. Now they seat at one place (their new offices at Makerere) and government operatives can easily pick them one by one like a porcupine (Lugave) at an anthill!
BY WAY OF CONCLUSION:
What does the law say? It says that Mpuuga was wrong to accept or allocate himself the UGX500m.
What does commonsense say? It says that Mpuuga was also befitting to ‘eat’ that money like everyone else is doing.
What would Bobi Wine say or do? Bobi must find a middle ground and work with Hon. Mpuuga for a better Uganda. If Bobi and his NEC exonerates Mpuuga, the story will soon be forgotten but the reverse will surely burry NUP.
When I started writing these articles, I told you that I came to change Ugandans (mind-set change) in many aspects.
Except that the folks I was targeting here don’t read because are too busy global- trotting or enjoying Kampala limelight; walking with their chests raised high like a person who thinks that he has it all figured out.
Many people continue to abuse me for even suggesting that President Yoweri Museveni is a genius. They don’t want to hear anyone telling them that Museveni has ruled Uganda for nearly 40 years because he is smart. The choose to hide their heads in sand like a “clever” (not stupid) ostrich!
Now that Hon. Mathias Mpuuga is getting guillotined for accepting a supposedly Museveni ‘gift’, who will hold Bobi Wine accountable for accepting an earlier Museveni ‘gift’ of nearly UGX350 million to pay URA taxes on his armored land cruiser?
“Owudiisa ani – whom are you fooling? You’ve been inserting your fingers in “something something” and now you’re asking us what is smelling?
Why would anyone who wants to defeat NRM or remove President Museveni from power, find the time to involve themselves in self- destructive antics indeed suicide missions?
Why would Bobi Wine even consider firing Mathias Mpuuga from NUP when President Yoweri Museveni is having itchy hands to get hold of such a luminary?
People like Mpuuga are not antagonized but encouraged to stay no matter their perceived ambitions.
That he aspires to be NUP president one day? Who wouldn’t want that?
A newly recruited army private has his eyes set on a distant possibility of becoming a Captain while any teacher worth his or her salt, dreams of becoming a school headteacher – principal- one day.
LAST WORD: “A good leader is one who inspire others. They will risk their own careers to pursue the leader’s vision!”
– Leadership in Action
Adam Kamulegeya
adamkam2003@gmail.com
0779 104 336
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