By Aggrey Baba
Democratic Party (DP) President and Justice Minister Norbert Mao has taken a swipe at Ugandans mocking the National Unity Platform (NUP) for joining the Interparty Organisation for Dialogue (IPOD), describing them as misguided.
While addressing the media at the party’s Balintuma Road headquarters on Tuesday, Mao, who now chairs IPOD, said many opposition supporters (foot soldiers), and leaders have turned politics into a game of insults, forgetting that national dialogue is not a sign of weakness but a mark of leadership maturity.
Mao said the NUP leader, Robert Kyagulanyi, has been surrounded by people who mislead him with street advice, often pushing him into politically embarrassing positions.
He observed that the same people have repeatedly convinced the NUP principal that sitting in the same room with President Museveni (whom he referred to as the ‘dictator’) amounts to betrayal, yet Museveni remains the president of the country and must be engaged when national matters are being discussed.
He compared the IPOD arrangement to the Interreligious Council, noting that just as leaders of different faiths meet and talk about their missions, political leaders must also find time to sit and talk about the country’s future. Mao said that politics cannot be built on social media slogans and bitterness alone.
He added that the mockery directed at NUP by some political actors from both the NRM and some opposition factions, for joining IPOD shows how the new generation of politicians has confused stubbornness for strength. Mao described dialogue as the only political bridge still standing in Uganda’s divided politics, warning that those who burn it are simply destroying the road to their own future.
The Minister also faulted Kyagulanyi for allowing his foot soldiers to influence major decisions in Kavule, saying a leader who listens more to street voices than his own conscience ends up walking in circles. Mao compared the NUP Kyagulanyi’s situation to the biblical Moses who, instead of making independent decisions, listened too much to the Israelites and ended up turning an 11-day journey into a 40-year desert wandering.
He cautioned that Uganda’s political journey is also being delayed by leaders who act based on emotions rather than reasoning. According to Mao, the country would be far more developed if leaders and citizens alike stopped misleading each other.
The DP president further revealed that his party is undergoing internal restructuring to rebuild discipline and restore confidence among its members. He said DP is now a home for those who believe in dialogue and progress, not those who thrive on hostility. Mao noted that many members who left DP ahead of the 2021 political wave to join Bobi Wine’s People Power, which later evolved into NUP, have quietly started reaching out to return, admitting they had been deceived by political excitement.
Without naming names, Mao said several of those who once mocked DP are now back at the Balintuma pleading for a second chance after discovering that the so-called new politics had no solid foundation.
He also revisited the dark history of northern Uganda, saying that the same spirit of arrogance that once prevented dialogue between President Museveni and rebel leader Joseph Kony is what still drives many politicians today. Mao recalled how Museveni was once discouraged from talking to Kony by hardliners (abawuzzi bobunyama) who told him he could win the war without negotiation, an attitude that (according to Mao) prolonged the war and caused decades of suffering to the people of Acholi.
Mao said Ugandans must learn from such history, insisting that dialogue remains the only way to rescue the country from its political wilderness. According to him, those who continue mocking NUP simply don’t understand the cost of pride in politics.
He stressed that Kyagulanyi still has a chance to correct his course if he stops listening to emotional foot soldiers and starts thinking like a leader. Mao said the opposition’s biggest enemy is not Museveni, but its own addiction to populism and mob influence. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
