{UAH} Allan/Gook/Pojim/WBK: From Facebook-Samson Mande

Another president of Uganda in the making was asked; "You took some time to pronounce yourself on the Mbabazi, Besigye rivalry.?" And Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago answered: "The emergence of Hon Amama Mbabazi in a new form with national ambitions created a huge opportunity for us to hasten the demise of NRM. It would cause the crumbling of the Movement empire because he is one of the key pillars on which the system was built.

 But that is not what he wants to do; he says he wants to reform the Movement?

 Yeah, this is where we have a problem. Instead of helping us dismantle the Movement empire, Mbabazi's message was to strengthen it, reform it and force President Museveni to retire and then carry on with the system.

 Is there a problem with reforming NRM so that it abides by the principles you say you are fighting for?
Certainly there is a problem because NRM is not a political party. It is not a political party that you can reform to engender the growth of multi-party democracy in this country. No. It is a monolithic empire; a kind of, as (Kizza) Besigye says, a kind of a cabal of individuals who created some kind of a system to syphon off our resources and to control State structures; in fact a military junta as Besigye says.

 So Mbabazi has no capacity to transform a military junta into a democratic political institution. That was an illusion from the outset. That is not possible. So the Go-Forward brand is indeed good for the politics of this country, but not in the context it is viewed in and presented by its progenitor, Amama Mbabazi.

 The Go Forward phenomenon, the way I see it, should have proclaimed that the Movement system is stuck, Museveni is expired, but the country should move on. It should have set out to terminate Museveni's life presidency and kill the Movement system to enable the country to move on.

 The illusion of the Go Forward brand is to imagine that there can be sustainable continuity in the Movement system by just transforming it to return to its original ideals. It would be good for my brother Mbabazi to recast his idea to recognise this important reality.

 Secondly and related to that, the implementation of the idea ran into problems in its infancy. I thought it was originally intended to cause a tremor within the Movement system (NRM). And that is where Mbabazi's strength originally was. The trembling he caused; the signs that came in the response of President Museveni when Mbabazi was rumoured to be interested in challenging him within NRM. Museveni responded like somebody who had serious cancer that was eating him up but he did not want to mention that he had it.
Indeed, Mbabazi rattled Museveni and caused confusion and he had started acting out of panic. He rushed to Kyankwanzi and began the sole candidature move, removed him from Cabinet and from the secretary general position, and other things. When Mbabazi announced that he was running Museveni had to dash back from South Africa and addressed a press conference at night attacking him.

 So the Museveni who had pressed the panic button can now breathe within NRM. You know it is your opponent who defines the battleground and battle line. Museveni had defined the battle line against Mbabazi with NRM. He actually drew a line in the sand. Ugandans waited for Mbabazi to cross that line. Mbabazi should have crossed it. He did not.

 Museveni's Achilles heel, as he showed by the way he reacted to Mbabazi's challenge, is within the Movement. Mbabazi should have continued hewing away at the Achilles heel. Mbabazi should have taken on Museveni within the Movement structure.

 He was actually supported by the myth that he was the engine of NRM and that he had control of all the Movement structures. There was a myth that he had set up all the NRM structures and some would imagine that he knew every NRM chairperson in every electoral area. He should have continued to exploit that perception and pressed on within the party. He should have paid the Shs20m nomination fees to challenge Museveni within the party.

 As Museveni panicked within NRM, Mbabazi kept quiet and appeared to watch every step. He seemed to behave like a leopard. A leopard can lie still in the bush, waiting for the prey and the opportune moment and once that time comes for it to pounce, the prey has no chance of escaping. That is how Mbabazi was perceived, like a leopard, ready to pounce on Museveni.

 All of a sudden, Mbabazi veered off that path and failed to stretch Museveni to the limit. He ought to have pushed on to cause a situation where Museveni would have no choice but to drive him out of NRM and to call off primaries completely.

 Unfortunately, Mbabazi decides to turn the tremor to the Opposition. That gave Museveni a sigh of relief. Instead of eating into Museveni's power base to cause an exodus from NRM, he decided to eat into Besigye's power base within the Opposition. The dynamics then changed. Within the Opposition, Mbabazi finds there are contradictions and rivalries – FDC versus DP, Mao versus Lukwago, and many others.

 Now he aligns himself with the forces that had scores to settle with Besigye. And the captain of those forces is Mao. He assigned him the role of recruiting lieutenants for him. Now who are the lieutenants recruited? The likes of Mukasa Mbidde (DP vice president), the likes of (Michael) Mabikke (leader of SDP), and many others.
There are some credible people within the camp. Our brothers Hon Medard Sseggona and Hon Mathias Mpuuga, for instance. But Mao takes centre stage in everything. He had the audacity of saying once Lukwago joins TDA he moves out. They turned the Mbabazi project into a forum for fighting their traditional nemeses.
Mao wanted to use TDA, Mbabazi, every available tool, to crush Lukwago and Besigye, and Mbabazi fell into that trap. The war now turned to Besigye. And this was very unfortunate. So Museveni relaxed."

Moses Ocen Nekyon

Democracy is two Wolves and a Lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed Lamb disputing the results.

Benjamin Franklin

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