Anti-Mafabi_Re: {UAH} Gen Muntu, Oguttu are unUgandan
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9:35 AM |
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Mr writer,
A good trial, but not this time.
Nyar
Philip Wafula Oguttu, aka Waf, will go down in the annals of our history as one of the very few Ugandan politicians to have accepted a major political appointment only after sustained pleading from, not just the appointing authority but, even more intriguingly, the person whose job he was being asked to take.
Last Friday, Waf, the Bukooli Central MP, was named the new Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Parliament, replacing the somewhat out-of-favour Nathan Nandala-Mafabi.
Although sources revealed that Muntu was intent on reappointing Mafabi, the outgoing LoP was adjudged to have fallen out with too many of his colleagues in Parliament to continue leading them.
Mafabi had a fair chance of reappointment largely to placate his support-base as dropping him would easily be construed by his supporters as political witch-hunt.
Mafabi is seen by many as representing the “easterners,” who are purportedly marginalized, in the quest for a fair access to the national cake.
But we know that there’s nothing like a socially homogeneous eastern Uganda, which can constitute a political bloc or share a similar sense of political marginalization, the same way it’s quite ludicrous to talk about “westerners.”
It’s understood that FDC party president, Mugisha Muntu, did inform Mafabi of the impending decision to drop him and also informed Waf that he was to be appointed the new LoP. But Waf remained adamant. He wanted Mafabi reappointed.
It appears that Muntu calculated that given the heightened jostling and lobbying for the LoP position, it was wise to appoint someone least interested in the job. Waf was seen as the compromise candidate, one who is, on the one hand, very close to Mafabi but also agreeable to many MPs in the Muntu camp.
Naming Waf was the easier thing to do. Persuading him to accept the appointment turned out to be a nightmare. By protesting his own appointment, moreover to a highly-coveted position of the “opposition Prime Minister” that comes with a few perks and quite a bit of power, Waf did something very “unUgandan.”
Yet it wasn’t the first time he rejected a big political appointment. Waf declined President Museveni’s appointment as Uganda’s ambassador to the Maghreb countries in 1988.
Back then, Waf reportedly reasoned that having spent a great deal of time in exile, he didn’t want life outside Uganda anymore and couldn’t afford to be far away from his mother. So, could he have accepted a local appointment? Maybe, maybe not.
However, in protesting last week’s appointment as LoP, we may surmise that he might have rejected a local presidential appointment too. Also, in a country where retiring gracefully from active politics is a rarity, there are rumours that Waf will not contest to retain his Bukooli Central seat in 2016.
Apparently, he plans to take leave of active politics after serving just one term as MP. In appointing Waf, Muntu has set an important precedent that, if emulated, can bring some sanity to our heavily-checkered and distorted politics.
The cheapness of our politics is only matched by the rapacious pursuit of personal benefits using political office. And the poverty of ideas in our politics is only eclipsed by the commercialization of electoral politics. Petty political wars have overshadowed societal common good.
By turning competition for political office into turf wars for supremacy and personal aggrandizement, honest leadership and service to the nation have been edged out of our national politics.
Waf did something “unUgandan” by protesting his own appointment, but the appointing authority too did something unusual in our politics. For many observers and key players in FDC, Muntu had only two choices from which to appoint LoP.
First, reward someone who spiritedly superintended his election as FDC president; that’s Serere Woman MP, Alice Alaso, who’s also the party’s secretary general and therefore the most senior party official in parliament.
Second, yield to the blackmail of Mafabi’s supporters by retaining the incumbent LoP ostensibly to assure party cohesion and heal the schism that started after the November 2012 party presidential elections.
In politics, unpopular decisions tend to be politically suicidal. Muntu’s appointment of Waf was not only an unpopular decision but also not politically pragmatic. It could cost him. Yet it was a prudent decision for those who stand for progressive politics and want genuine leadership.
Muntu is unlikely to register much success as FDC president precisely because he thinks things must be done differently. Unfortunately, ours is a country where doing the wrong things pays and insisting on the right thing yields punishment.
Not many politicians would resist the pressure to pay back those whose support brought them to office. And few can call a bluff on those trying to act like hostage takers.
___________________________________Gwokto La'Kitgum"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower
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