By Ssentongo A Kyamundu
I have been in opposition politics for long and tried to observe the trends. My honest conclusion is that, as opposition, we are our own hindrance to achieve the change we want by making Mr. Museveni a demigod of sorts.
Over time, we have been branding colleagues whom we disagree with all tribes and clans of names such as moles, spies, watermelon, pumpkin name it. This does not strengthen our struggle at all but instead portrays Mr. Museveni as an insurmountable being whom we should only leave to God to handle.
Imagine a Ugandan in my village, Kisiwuula who hears Hon Kyagulanyi and his leadership telling him to get endagamuntu (National ID) that it is the means for him/her to “wear the crown” as it is the details on the ID, namely NIN, that will be used to determine who gets to the voter’s register.
After that, then comes Dr. Besigye and his leadership telling him that it is day dreaming to imagine that you can defeat Museveni in an election. By that logic, it would mean that if he (Dr. Besigye) failed to remove Museveni by the ballot, others must fail too.
After such confusion, another people power supporter comes and alleges; Besigye works for Museveni to fulfil their 50-year master plan. Do you think the listener to those malicious narratives will vote in an election to remove Museveni or even participate in any activity to end the junta?
A few days back, we had a discussion with my political friends about the current political trends. A friend from FDC (name withheld) asked if we trusted Gen Muntu in people power. My fellow JEEMA and People Power activist Habib Asega answered in the affirmative. The FDC friend then told us how the General was a mole that is spying for Mr. Museveni. He alleged that all Museveni’s former army commanders have died mysteriously but Muntu is still alive. That this qualifies him for a mole. You can imagine!
On a daily basis, we donate our colleagues in the struggle to Museveni and blame one another for retarding the revolution. This has painted the junta head as a demigod who is everywhere and controls all political undertakings both in NRM and opposition. The ordinary citizens are demoralized everyday by ourselves in the effort to propagate our narratives as superior and correct.
My humble request is that, we should cease donating those we disagree with to Mr. Museveni. Even those that go to him must be talked to and rehabilitated for Satan won’t cease tempting the son of man and therefore we should continue calling the son of man to a right path. That way, the conspiracies of Satan shall be defeated.
My researched view is that Mr. Museveni is neither a weakling nor stupid. It would be suicidal to underestimate your enemy. But he has many things that he is struggling with and failed to solve, even with all resources at his disposal, which resources he deploys with impunity.
He is at his weakest now, with his own powerhouse sharply divided and even afraid of his own shadow. You should have seen the look on his face during the Kusasira concert at the Serena. That is not how a man fully in charge with a demi-god status looks.
Mr. Museveni is just a human being, and is failing in many things. He will fail in more. Don’t elevate him to demi-god status. His obsession with staying in power is actually his biggest weakness. It is exactly that, that we should be exploiting to cause his downfall sooner than most would think.
The writer is a Justice Forum/JEEMA spokesperson.
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