EGESA RONALD LEONARD: An open letter to Hon. Mathias Mpuuga 

Dear Rt.Hon. Mathias Mpuuga Nsamba,

Allow me to be among the first Ugandans to bring you the glad tidings of the resurrection of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. May the risen Lord give you the grace and composure to read my letter to the end and take it to heart.

I first heard about your name in my teenage when you were a young and vibrant minister in the Buganda Kingdom cabinet. In those days (mubudde buli), I admired you, Medard Ssegona and Owek. @cpmayiga because of your oratory. I am not so sure there is any reverence left for any of you because the passage of time has made me wiser and required you to walk the talk. Have you? Read on…

For the purpose of this letter, I will highlight two examples; first, @cpmayiga used to tell us on Friday evenings on CBS that a leader of people ought not to be driven around at breakneck speed in convoys as though he is a thief. In the fullness of time, he became the proud beneficiary of @KagutaMuseveni’s benevolence in these things and he started cruising around in a convoy complete with lead and chase cars yet he is the much loved Katikiro of Buganda and not a thief!

Secondly, you, @MathiasMpuuga, the spokesperson of the defunct Activists for Change (A4C) and 4GC who campaigned against corruption, electoral theft and  other ills of the reign of @KagutaMuseveni has become the best bad example of trusting politicians. It is profoundly shocking that you see nothing immoral about sitting in a meeting, less than a year into your service as a Leader of Opposition to determine the ‘service awards’ that would be given to yourselves at the end of your tenure as LOP! Elder brother, when did you lose your conscience?

I have it on good authority that you had accepted to take responsibility and step down, but your friend and former employee that happens to be your boss at Parliament laid siege around you and convinced you that your resignation would be akin to throwing her under the bus. In fact, I was shocked when I read your letter accusing @HEBobiwine of what you know very well to be the predicament of good self sir( being under siege).

By failing to walk the talk, you have diminished the hopes of two generations i.e. your own & the one following yours. You are now not any different from the bush war ‘liberators’ that ended up liberating only their families from poverty & not the national liberation rhetoric that they fed us with in our school years.

I sympathise with you, but then I hasten to remind you that no matter how far you travel in a wrong direction, you can always retrace your steps and move in the right direction.

Before I sign out, let me now look at the bigger picture and agree with you that @HEBobiwine is under siege and is being manipulated by forces that want to throw you out of the party. If that is the case, I would then expect a mature and seasoned person like you to know that it is never do or die. You have to recall the words of The Gambler by Kenny Rogers and know when it is time to take a walk, fold them or run.

I think your journey in the @NUP_Ug has come to an end. You should not burn bridges or seek to destroy the party because you might want an alliance with it in future. I respectfully urge you to take the long and solitary walk of shame for the service award, rest assured that you will be a victor in the bigger scheme of things.

This battle can be lost for you to win a war. Obsessing yourself with winning the battle will most likely make you lose the war. Remember the words of Sun Tzu that strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory and tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat!

I beseech you to watch your thoughts and those of your closest friends. Please heed the advice of neutrals like yours truly because it is devoid of bias. Omuganda agamba nti ensowera ekwagala y’ekuggwa ku bbwa.

Happy Easter!

Your fellow citizen,

ERL
#UgandaParliamentExhibition