According to youth leader Walid Lubega, now is a season of plentiful political harvest in the FDC party. In reference to ex-Lugazi Municipality Mayor JB Asea who recently defected to FDC, Walid said “as youth leaders in FDC we are designating a day in August for a big public ceremony where we are officially going to receive him in the party because he is a big fish and his defection can’t be taken lightly.” In a phone interview with this news website, Walid explained the circumstances under which Asea, an SDP founding member, joined FDC. “It has been work in progress and it didn’t happen overnight. In 2016 he tactfully realized he needed partnership with FDC. We had no problem backing him because we hadn’t fielded any candidate for Lugazi Mayorship. He realized the ground was fertile in favor of FDC and he supported our candidate for Presidency [Kizza Besigye] even when SDP officially was for Hon. Amama Mbabazi. We reciprocated by backing him for Mayorship though he was rigged out in the end. So just like [Kawempe South MP Mubarak] Munyagwa, Asea has never been hostile to us as FDC. When he lost he went to court and the NRM man [eventual winner Deo Tumwesigye] put high costs on him. He was arrested and convicted to civil prison and that is when he saw the solidarity of the FDC.
Our Party President POA and SG Nandala Mafabi kept very close to him until the costs were paid. We got him out of prison. The guys he considered old comrades were nowhere to be seen. They turned their back on him at his hour of need. We got him out of prison and we have since been working well with him to drum up support for our candidates in Njeru Municipality where we have strong candidates for Mayorship and some unopposed councilors,” Walid said of Asea who on Tuesday was at hand to receive Dr. Besigye and other FDC leaders as they came to campaign for the FDC candidates. “He is partly inspired by the experience of his great friend Hon Munyagwa who openly embraced FDC and that increased his chances to become Kawempe South MP. When JB Asea speaks you see clarity and not just opportunism. He has never contradicted himself on the political statements he makes.
He is predictable and means what he says in both public and privacy.” The FDC POA administration is planning to use the JB Asea welcome event to officially unveil him to the voters as the party’s choice for the next Lugazi Municipality MP. And indeed Asea, whose popularity partly derives from the presence of a large Rubgara population in Lugazi, has begun his preparations for 2021 in high gear. He is for instance back to school at Mubs where he sometime back enrolled for a degree in procurement and hopes he will be through by the time next elections come. The SDP founding member (was he SDP national chairman at some point?) is clearly following into the footsteps of his man Mubarak Munyagwa who started out as Kawempe LC3 chairman and eventually rode on the Besigye FDC magic to become Kawempe South MP flooring NRM’s Madina Nsereko and incumbent Sebuliba Mutumba who had served for 15 straight years since 2001. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755.
