“If you can’t beat them, join them.” There is endless wisdom in that statement alone. The election dust has settled: votes have been cast, tallied, and winners have been announced. Those who have lost in the process are faced with disappointment, which, of course, they must deal with.
The most influential and powerful leaders are not those who can fight but those who can recalibrate. The storyline of “Agende,” meaning “let him go,” has to end because at least the newly elected NRM has a mandate of office until 2031.
A dialogue at the table has more effect than shouting at the gate. The opposition in Uganda has painted this scenario better by only being noisemakers without leveraging for Ugandans, thus causing more harm than good.
Joining the NRM to serve Ugandans is not a sign of surrender, but rather strength, because finally, at the end, it is the various constituents who come out winners and create a better country for all of us. Joining the winners gives the opposition a unique power of being the architects of national growth.
The opposition must move from friction to function because the NRM already has the governance framework in place where ideas are going to be turned into reality. Some of the programs are already moving on, and joining these programs as overseers contributes not only to but also more to the national development agenda.
Being opposition extremists is a failed strategy that has been deployed previously by the former opposition forces, tracing it back to the old days of the Democratic Party, the Forum for Democratic Change under the leadership of Rtd. Col. Kizza Besigye, and now by the National Unity Platform under the leadership of Hon. Robert Kyagulanyi.
Over time, the opposition has seemed to thrive from and by insulting the National Resistance Movement and critiquing politics, but as a famous saying goes, “It is only a fool who does the same thing several times but expects different results.” This has not helped Uganda’s democratic growth but rather made it worse.
The economy grows with stability, and the opposition thinks otherwise. They believe in the techniques of causing violence and instability; to hell with those ineffective techniques. Recently, the opposition leaders have planned riots and demonstrations in the central business district of Kampala, and the assessment of these is the wails from the vendors who recount massive losses from their spoiled merchandise that is never compensated for.
When leaders, both in the ruling party and opposition, find common ground, it creates a good ambience and fresh fragrance that facilitates economic progress.
The conflict season is over, and the time is now to move into the new era; politics is on. There are many more things that bring the Ugandans together than those that divide us, so why not focus on the greater good of coming together for the things that unite the population?
The energy those in the opposition invested in the campaigns cannot go unnoticed, but it is time to channel it into more places where it will yield, and that is by serving Ugandans by joining those in the various offices.
Remember, history remembers the realists who put the needs of the masses before the party colors and interests. Plus, all the good deeds are divinely rewarded, which is an even higher purpose calling.
The NRM manifesto for this new term is “Protecting the Gains,” and being a welcoming party, the doors are still open, and they are ready to roll out a carpet for anyone ready to contribute to it.
Joining the winning team isn’t about abandoning your opposition party and its principles: it is about finding other effective and other means through which you can use to deliver some of the things you promised to the voters.
In conclusion, the question everyone should answer remains: Is it going to be another five years of stalemate or five years of collaborating with the winning team for implementation and delivering results?
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