{UAH} Pojim/WBK: Amama’s first address: A lukewarm delivery that received mixed - People & Power
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Amama's first address: A lukewarm delivery that received mixed
Presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi addresses his supporters at Nakivubo stadium in Kampala on Tuesday. PHOTO BY RACHEL MABALA
When US president Barack Obama took to the podium to accept his nomination in 2008, he did so with the calmness of an excited presidential hopeful— taking a 360° look around the Mile High Stadium he, for more than a minute, waved, nodded in approval and kept shouting "thank you" to the cheering crowd. It was electric.
When he spoke, it was with energy and emotion, delivering a message of hope, how it was "time for change" and proclaiming how he was accepting the nomination with profound "gratitude and great humility"— the exact words John Patrick Amama Mbabazi used as he started his "the time for change is now" speech at Nakivubo Stadium on Tuesday.
Out of synch
However, Mr Mbabazi failed to put his best foot forward on the raised Nakivubo dais and passionately announce his arrival as a political messiah to deliver the country to the much-desired land of peaceful political transition and change, as his speech claimed, and set off his campaign with a spark. He was simply out of synch with his audience.
"Three things make a great speech: audience, body language and text. He was good at the text, but Nakivubo didn't give him the right audience for the text he had," said Mr Asuman Bisiika, a professional speechwriter.
Mr Mbabazi began his address telling the country to have hope. To be seen as a person who will deliver the country's first peaceful transition.
"Before us is the most wide-open race in our political history, one that I believe gives us the greatest chance to achieve a historical first in Uganda: peaceful transition of power. Indeed, this is what I seek: a change in government through peaceful means and a change in governance," he said.
On he went explaining how the country needs urgent change.
"The time for change is now," he said. "With our society increasingly divided and militarised; with a government increasingly hostile to its own citizens; with the erosion of rule of law and the separation of powers; with our soldiers and police being forced to do things that violate their mandate to serve and to protect; with the rich getting richer and the poor simply becoming worse off. The time for change is now."
Those are issues that could be at the heart of the country but not to Becky Nabuduwa, a city businesswoman.
"I did not hear anything promising in his speech. Uganda's problems of unemployment, poor hospitals and schools cannot be washed away by mere promises," she said. "Mbabazi cannot exonerate himself from his past. If he claims he was under Museveni and watched him do what he did, steal what he stole then he knows what to call himself. If you move with a thief, you are possibly one."
Mr Peter Ochieng, a boda boda cyclist in Namuwongo, says people should move on from the past and embrace whoever is most likely to bring change.
"Mbabazi promised us change which everyone needs and wants now. Every Ugandan yearns for this. Whoever brings it is welcome. He wants to change leadership, rule of law which most of us are fed up of. He has my blessings," he said.
Medical attendant Daniel Otika too agrees with Mr Mbabazi, "He kept saying the time for change is now. In all honesty, it is time for change."
Breathed freshness
Further still, they say, although he lacked charisma in the speech, he breathed some freshness and spoke to groups that are rarely mentioned in political campaigns—the army veterans.
However, Dr Mwambustya Ndebesa, a Makerere University academician, faults Mr Mbabazi's speech, saying it failed to tell the country how he will bring about the change.
"He has been promising to give us a different direction of things but from his speech, it seems he is saying he will implement what has been there differently. There is no policy shift," he said.
"I would have expected him to say that the following laws like the Public Order Management Act will be amended. He did not give a fundamental shift, no new promise for a new governance system."
Similar views are shared by Sabiti Makara, an associate professor of Political Science at Makerere University, who said Mr Mbabazi sounded like a continuation of the system without any significant departure from its policies.
"The problem with this guy is that he is too lukewarm and does not come out to present any radical transformation," he said.
Mr Mbabazi's speech touched on the issues that are at the heart of the country's problems; unemployment, a poor health system, a militarised country, a ruthless police force, among others.
To some audiences, though, it is not about what you say, it is about how you say it.
"The Nakivubo audience was for rhetoric and sloganeering and through that, he was supposed to weave the message he wanted to send and that way, he would directly speak to the audience," Mr Bisiika said.
From branding to the use of social media platforms, the Mbabazi campaign is seen as one borrowing from president Obama's when he first campaigned in 2008, and it's being seen as one changing the way of doing campaigns in Uganda.
However, going by his first rally, one thing is clearly missing in Mr Mbabazi—enthusiasm—and it will affect his message delivery if he does not work on it.
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