Besigye and Muntu should be honest

In 1986 when the National Resistance Army/Movement (NRA/M) had just come into government through to 1989 when Major, now Colonel (rtd) Amanya Mushega was the Chief Political Commissar (CPC) of the nascent army, he used to tell Ugandans who cared to listen to him that those “emerging from the dark pit underground shouldn’t complain about insufficient sunshine.”

At the time, then UPC assistant secretary general and ‘iron lady’ Ms Cecilia Ogwal was the Opposition firebrand castigating NRA/M as a “monolithic military dictatorship,” and vigorously demanding an immediate return to “multiparty democracy,” although UPC had greatly undermined it, even banned at some stage, and declared Uganda a one-party State. For daring to oppose the UPC, and criticising president Milton Obote even on the floor of Parliament, some MPs had lost their lives and many fled into exile. At the local district and lower levels, UPC chairmen and “UPC Youth-Wingers”, as they were notoriously known, became a law unto themselves, while the army (UNLA) and the National Security Agency (NASA) became a vagabond and uncontrolled State outfit.

Ogwal as the only Opposition voice when most UPC elements were fugitives, and embarrassed of their two awful performances in government, (1962-71) and (1980-85), was unrivaled in snide political language. Only Amanya Mushega, Lt Col Kizza Besigye, and Col Kahinda Otafire, while justifying and defending the NRA/M “revolution”, could attempt to measure up to her language. By the way it was Besigye as NPC who on October 3, 1990, addressed a press conference and issued a written statement ‘banning’ political party activities in Uganda, and as one of his political officers then, I have kept that statement up to now.

At the start of the on-going election campaign, Dr Besigye, the indefatigable FDC presidential candidate, had said he returned to run in an election he had despised as of no good value because according to him, he had seen a last chance to remove President Museveni who he accuses of ‘destroying’ the country, its economy and governance systems.
Besigye and his sidekicks have accused Museveni of personalising Uganda as if it were a private estate and that Uganda is an empty shelf of its former good, rich, vibrant and promising self.

And so, on his campaign trail, Besigye, until a week ago, had never acknowledged any achievements by Museveni even when they are abundantly available. Exploiting the ignorance rife among some emerging Ugandan elites, Besigye has drummed false accusations that Museveni has “diverted and abandoned” the good political programme that made them go to the bush in 1981. In making this claim, Besigye seeks to assert that he is the only one who knows what took them to the bush, and the programme should have remained static and NRM should have perhaps travelled in a straight line over the last 30 years in government.

Many may have noticed that since Besigye went up north and found that the issues, mainly rebel insurgency and the related social costs that he exploited and made him ‘popular’ in the past had been dealt with, and therefore no longer thorny election issues, Dr Besigye has changed his language.
He has now learnt to appreciate that Museveni has delivered although he tries to downplay the achievements; for instance when he says the tarmac roads Soroti-Lira (103km), Karuma-Arua (235km), or the Vurra, Arua, Koboko, Oraba popularly known as VAKO road (98km) as ‘rats paths’.

Apparently when Besigye went to West Nile, he hadn’t known that region now has electricity, and so having been surprised chose to demean and described the 3.5 megawatt hydro power supply from Nyagak dam as ‘candle light’. Nyagak Power Dam already supplies Pakwach, Nebbi, Paidha and Arua towns, while cable extension is being made to Koboko, Yumbe, Maracha, Terego and Moyo. And so, I am tempted to say that for the people of West Nile who have just got electricity and tarmac roads, there shouldn’t be reason to complain, more so when there is on-going work to cover lost ground.

As leaders, Besigye and FDC president Mugisha Muntu while in Arua, couldn’t confess to the veterans that there are tens of thousands of them who already got their gratuity, and continue to receive monthly pension, and that they (Besigye and Muntu) are among those lucky ones. I will spare the rest of the senior officers who receive their pension and have not sought to stir up trouble among junior officers as Muntu and Besigye have tried to do while on the campaign trail.

Mr Opondo speaks for the NRM party. [email protected]