By John Ricardo Munyegera
A section of Ugandans have been all along blaming the ruling political party (are there any political parties in Uganda even!) The personal opinion of one leader overrides the decisions of the party and when it gets to the members of such an arrangement, it gets worse.
In the same line of argument I will address both the National Resistance Movement Organization – NRMO and the Forum for Democratic Change – FDC. The anticipated change agitated by opposition is actually, like jumping out of the hot flying pan of NRMO, directly into hell fires of FDC. These people are the same yet the whole country is at stake waiting for the so-called liberation and fundamental change. Indeed the politics of eating continues here.
Both political parties for now lack internal democracy. When the NRMO fronted the idea of sole candidate and the President Kaguta Yoweri Museveni was simply unopposed. So, there were no elections as per the Party primaries and the February elections.
In the same way, when you look at FDC, it was slightly different as something new was born in the guise of FDC flag-bearer and the President of the political party. Many thought this was political maturity and indeed democracy in the party but; save your energy for another day; Dr. Kizza Besigye had to resurrect and indeed became the FDC flag-bearer.
In the past, it was a case of the president of the party to automatically get to the final podium as the FDC presidential candidate. This also tells the fact that the members were easily duped into something to favor just an individual rather than the party principles and ideology. We can agree that Dr. Kizza Besigye has almost outgrown the party in terms of being a famous opposition political leader and regarded as the most famous identity of FDC but, can other people in the party have the same support and consistence as he has? It’s indeed difficult to answer that.
The NRMO organized the primaries for other posts especially the members of Parliament across the country. Yes, this was a venture noting as to have been embedded with vote stuffing, rigging and all electoral malpractices. Many ministers faced the dagger and indeed failed in the primaries. Those who were discontented resorted to aspiring as independent candidates in the different positions.
Hell broke loose when they failed again in the national elections. This was an indicator of proper disorientation of politicians in the land as they ought to think that they are the only ones to lead. For the case of FDC, they almost took the same direction. In many cases there were no primaries at all. For the so-called big people in the FDC, the primaries were almost not there. Many voices came calling for the fundamental change yet the acts of these members were almost the same to those of NRMO.
One or two examples can be adduced to this like Hon Alice Alaso, were from nowhere Hon Nganda mentioned that she needed no primaries in her district because she was national material. At the end of the day, the NRMO candidate had to win as the people saw such exposed unfairness. If we can all remember the case of Mr. John Kikonyogo and Mrs. Joyce Ssebugwawo for the Rubaga mayor-ship also aroused eyeballs and indeed showed the lack of internal democracy and transparency. Hon. Nganda Ibrahim even though no doubt was to win the FDC primaries in Kira municipality; he almost beaten up his opponent in Kireka A (Kireka A – mu-kirema); almost to what happens in the NRMO. From the same point, many members of FDC faced the same in the whole country in general.
The politics of personal connections: The politics of who knows who in the political parties matters most in these two leading political parties. Even though you’re known in the community you hail from, no one listens to you in so-called big-man political syndrome in Uganda. Those who have identified themselves as the big men in the party behave and believe as if they as well own the party. From the start of the NRMO, many of those elected are connected to the center. In fact many corrupt officials in the party seem to be from within and they are difficult to stop. Corruption in Uganda is systemic therefore to fight it is like fighting the government. These corrupt people are the ones with the resources and the money to buy the voters as well.
With FDC, this is the same case. Many of the FDC members came from NRMO; therefore they carry on with their acts and the same way of operations. Literally, many of the supporters of FDC even those not known popularly by the FDC top officials; then one suffers straight away. In the recently concluded eastern youth Member of Parliament elections; it proved no different to all political parties camps.
The FDC flag-bearer actually was simply bought off yet he fraudulently got the flag under the guise of being connected to directly the big men in FDC. Leaders like Hon. Salaamu Musumba, Hon. Abdu Katuntu or even Hon. Wafula Ogutu did nothing to solve the problem simply because they were less-concerned. Even at that, the FDC electoral commission officials favored Mr. Idi Ouma and he organized his own elections in Mbale. How do you expect a contestant to organize the primaries in his workplace and you think he won’t win or rig the results? No wonder he was offered a few coins (12 millions) and he accepted not even to be present at the venue in Jinja. The other FDC aspiring youth MP was advised by the party strong-holds not to stand as an independent and in the end of the day; FDC had no candidate. This is almost operating in the basic ways of NRMO were democracy is forfeited for money.
I can therefore conclude that both NRMO and FDC are the same. They are both endangered with the systemic corruption. What ate up the NRMO officials is the same vice trending in the FDC officials over favoritism, lack of internal democracy, poor leadership skills and indeed failure to address internal party organ issues. At times you find FDC supporters busy fermenting rumors over corruption and lack of democracy in NRMO forgetting their own party. The moment you try to listen and say something; they jump over your opinion and say you’re named an NRMO supporter or the government sycophant. I’m such optimistic that even though the needed change comes; we’re ordained in the same trend of politics in the country.