By Mulengera Reporters
Kira Municipality MP Semujju Nganda has praised Bobi Wine for holding his ground as a leading opposing candidate and for continuing to give Gen Museveni sleepless nights.
But at the same time, Semujju while speaking on CBS shared useful insights drawing from his experience in being very close to Dr. Kizza Besigye when he was the leading opposition candidate for President. At that time, Besigye had all the momentum and whoever wanted to win the lower-level positions like MPs and councillors (from the opposition side) endeavoured to tap into his electricity or wave.
Semujju says Besigye also suffered challenges of many opposition actors fighting for the same position and at the same time all of them claiming to be backing him for President-and wanting to stand on the same platform with him. The CBS moderator Lameck Kalule was on Thursday evening hosting Semujju Nganda and Joyce Bagala of Mityana besides NRM’s Isaac Sejjoba.
The moderator asked Bagala to respond to the attacks Bobi Wine directed at her and Mityana South MP Richard Lumu as he campaigned in Mityana on Monday. Saying he doesn’t know them anymore and they don’t even have the authority to campaign for him, Bobi Wine accused the duo of being 5th columnists who sold their soul. He never elaborated on what he meant by selling their soul.
To her credit, Bagala refused to criticize Bobi Wine during the CBS program. “He is my candidate for President and my leader because I’m still NUP but as to why he branded me as someone who sold her soul, I can’t tell what informed his view. He is a leader who is entitled to his opinion and we must all respect that,” is all Bagala said making it clear she is still NUP.
Then Lameck Kalule turned to Semujju Nganda demanding that he explains how his boss Kizza Besigye used to handle such contradictions during his hey days as the biggest man in the opposition for 20 years.
Semujju explained that Besigye equally faced such challenges of non-FDC flag bearers seeking to benefit from his popularity. Some of these would be people who would spend five years undermining him, only to come around and humble themselves at campaign and election time.
He gave the example of three term Kampala Woman MP Nabillah Nagayi who would ride on the Besigye wave to win back her seat yet she would spend most of her time not giving effective leadership to the people of Kampala but demonizing the retired colonel and cooking up tabloid stories about him.
“In 2016, I was in charge of Besigye’s nomination committee and she was the first one at Namboole yet she had spent all those preceding months badmouthing Dr Besigye and saying how FDC was finished. She even had radio announcements mobilising for Amama Mbabazi who was the TDA candidate. At Namboole, she sat next to Besigye taking up the seat the EC had designated for the Presidential candidates’ spouses. I confronted her and asked since when did you become Besigye’s wife? She shouted back saying Semujju leave me alone,” Semujju told CBS listeners.
“I realized the media was going to get a good story of chaos at Besigye’s nomination and I abandoned my idea of physically throwing her out by force. Oweek Sebugwawo and Ambassador Wasswa Birigwa said that ‘Semujju you are in charge here please force her out.’ I advised them that let’s leave her because the chaos me fighting her will create will hurt the larger and broader campaign of our Presidential candidate who was Dr. Besigye.”
Even when he personally is the one Nabillah had spent months demonizing and character-assassinating in favour of TDA’s Amama Mbabazi, Besigye quietly sat there and never personally said anything to humiliate Nabillah throughout the day. “He is a human being also and gets hurt but he would never personally engage in those petty fights because he wanted to remain focussed on the bigger fight for Presidency. So, people like my brother Muwanga Kivumbi should shield the Presidential Candidate Kyagulanyi by being the ones to denounce small actors like Joyce Bagala, if that has to be done at all, as the Presidential candidate concentrates on the bigger message.”
Semujju said that’s how they used to shield Besigye from directly getting involved in petty fights. “We insisted that he leaves such small fights to smaller fighters like ourselves. In fact, as Deputy President, Muwanga Kivumbi should come early at the rally and preside over all those small fights before President Kyagulanyi arrives. He is too big to even hear or witness such petty fights in his presence. The small enemies like Joyce Bagala and Lumu should be addressed long before the big man arrives so that his message remains focussed on the bigger message which is targeting Museveni and how to deliver change.”
The fearless opposition activist from Bijaba in Lwengo district also made reference to what happened when Besigye campaigned in his Kira Municipality in 2016. “As FDC, we had the late Joseph Makumbi as our candidate for Kira Mayor but I wasn’t agreed that this was the best choice. I insisted on Julius Mutebi who was of DP because he was better and stood higher chances to defeat the NRM candidate [Mamerito Mugerwa]. I was unable to harmonize that with Dr. Besigye and on the same rally he campaigned for Makumbi and I promoted Julius Mutebi right there yet I was supposed to be his [KB’s] spokesperson. That’s how we used to manage. Me I’m a Muslim who doesn’t fear to follow my conscience.”
Semujju added: “As of that time Besigye was very popular and my boss. I respected him very much and I greatly love him up to this day but I didn’t fear him. He never demanded that we fear him and that’s how we would fearlessly shield him from petty fights. He never took it personal. He respected our views and we respected his too. We continued working together up to this day because we were all focussed on the bigger struggle to remove Museveni and deliver change. The Presidential should be shielded against constituency politics because it can be very exhausting yet he has a whole country to campaign in while leading the bigger fight for change.”
He also spoke about the chaos that played out on the day Besigye campaigned in Muwanga Kivumbi’s Butambala County. Muwanga had decamped and embraced TDA’s Amama Mbabazi. Even when it was the Besigye wave and financial support which had enabled him beat NRM’s Faizal Kikulukunyu in the 2012 by-elections, Muwanga (who remained on DP ticket) all of a sudden became hostile and undermined KB during TDA meetings in Bugolobi as Prof Fredrick Sempebwa guided opposition parties to choose a joint Presidential Candidate between Besigye and Mbabazi.
The media and state brutality had over concentrated on Mbabazi which prompted the likes of Muwanga Kivumbi to write off Besigye, convinced he had become a spent force. They began seeing KB and portraying him to the public on radios and TV talk shows as a spoiler who was merely standing in Mbabazi’s way to remove Museveni. It turned out they were wrong. The ordinary Ugandans preferred KB and this pushed Mbabazi to 3rd position. Yet it was too late for the Muwangas to mend fences with KB whose FDC had already fielded its own candidates. A one Kasule (now deceased) had stepped forward to carry the FDC ticket against Muwanga in Butambala.
Semujju says that even when Muwanga had miscalculated and disregarded KB in favour of Mbabazi, he still remained the best to beat the NRM candidate in that constituency.
“When we reached Butambala, Muwanga had organized a big stage for Besigye to speak from. But the local FDC vigilantes created confusion and asked Besigye not to climb on that mobile stage which had been mounted on a large truck because that would increase Muwanga’ popularity at the expense of their Kasule. They deployed the Kanyamas to humiliate and block Muwanga at the Kibibi rally. I felt bad and I didn’t want to confront my boss Dr. Besigye. I actually walked away and went to hide in my car because I couldn’t stand seeing brother and friend Muwanga Kivumbi being humiliated by those Kanyamas the FDC candidate had brought around. I left and moved to the next Butambala township where Besigye was to go for the next rally. I gathered all those FDC boys and told them guys you can’t do this to Muwanga because the chaos you are causing is creating bad publicity for Besigye who has a bigger fight to lead in the whole country. Of course, they respected my view because as party spokesperson, I was their boss and they knew I meant well. In the end, we had a good rally and Besigye recognized both candidates, life moved on and the one majority Butambala people preferred is the one who won and that was Muwanga Kivumbi exactly like I had been telling my colleagues.”
Semujju said that its dangerous for the Presidential candidate to directly get involved in directly decampaigning certain candidates in favour of flag bearers because sometimes that fellow opposition candidate, who he decampaigns, might actually turn out to be more popular than the flag bearer in that particular community or constituency. And antagonizing such a popular personality simply because he or she isn’t the flag bearer can create confusion and diminish the Presidential candidate’s overall vote in that area, especially when that de-campaigned candidate wins.
“Regardless of how popular that Presidential Candidate is, personally going into those small fights creates very exhausting contradictions which the Presidential candidate shouldn’t directly be involved in because he has a bigger message to deliver. Even if he feels strongly against someone, let someone else like Deputy President Muwanga Kivumbi be the one to attack and not the Presidential Candidate himself,” concluded Semujju Nganda whose PFF party hasn’t fielded a candidate for President in this election. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
