By Nnanda Kizito Sseruwagi
Many members of Uganda’s opposition have made profitable careers from opposing President Yoweri Museveni on almost everything, rather than standing for any ideals distinctly identifiable with themselves. It is obvious what they stand against (or claim to stand against), but it is impossible to understand what they stand for.
Bobi Wine, the leading opposition figure today, built his political brand identity and galvanised support, especially within the urban male youth demographics, primarily through his attack on the ruling government. His strongest asset is not that he holds a higher, positive vision in terms of policy alternatives and political values to transform the future of this country.
He makes the weaknesses and failures of the NRM government turn into evidence of his credibility. Without Museveni and the Anti-Museveni fatigue that the Ugandan opposition exploits, there is no opposition. Museveni is their career. Museveni is their garden. Museveni is their factory. Museveni is their office. Museveni is the nerve centre of their political survival.
If you keenly listen to Bobi’s campaign messaging throughout this season, it reverberates with a consistent undertone: “We are not them.” It is difficult to hear him articulate his “here’s what we believe.” He has no ideological platform for himself whatsoever. The claim he has to power is anchored in the assumption that any alternative to the incumbent government is welcome. Given the high levels of voter apathy and low voter turnout in the previous elections, it is obvious that his message, just like that of his predecessor, Kizza Besigye, is insufficient to inspire Ugandans to support him.
I would like to dissuade Ugandans from trusting this country’s future with anyone who simply exploits, manipulates and rallies their shared dissatisfaction with the current government. When judging who ought to lead us, we must look beyond candidates who simply identify government failures. Leadership is not about complaining. True leadership comes from having a vision for transforming society and laying out a grand strategy on how to achieve it. Over the course of the journey, you can engage different technical experts to advise and support you on the tactical details of executing your vision. But the grand strategy must be born out of your leadership. If you look at Bobi Wine, he lacks an ounce of vision and strategy. He is a complainer.
It is obvious even in his X profile’s bio (the platform with his biggest following), where he describes himself as an activist. There is a lot to read into Bobi’s self-description as an activist. Perhaps he should have been advised early to keep to activism and not seek political power. Activism is not in itself a bad thing. But it has its own traditions. By its inherent nature, activism thrives in opposition.
The strength and success of an activist lie in challenging systems they deem unfair, not in administering them. Political administration would immediately bring the self-righteous moral clarity with which activism is fuelled into conflict with the compromise and pragmatism which governance demands and on which stability depends. In pursuing their moral ideals, activists would not mind having a country burn as long as a “dictator” is being challenged. For them, justice is absolute.
But politics, or the management of power, requires a higher finesse. Leadership demands the exercise of restraint, the making of compromises. It requires negotiation. It requires balancing competing interests. Bobi the activist has an obstinate sense of right and wrong that would make it impossible for him to govern with the finesse and enlightenment of Museveni. Therefore, Bobi’s effective activism for social justice on the stage and the street was the peak of his contribution to society. Ironically, that very fire that burned in him as a singer-activist would make him a poor steward of the state. That fire could burn the state instead.
The 2026 general elections are likely to come with yet another impending failure for the opposition. Their leading candidate, Bobi, is still fixated on their old politics of anti-Musevenism. This is only going to galvanise and radicalise his base further, but is not likely to inspire any defections from the NRM, let alone motivate the silent majority on the sidelines to support him.
The lack of a distinct, clear, inspiring, positive vision for the future of Uganda is spread across all the opposition parties. Had they shared any common values about the future they want to bring, we would see them uniting. In the past, even attempts to unite among the opposition were still united around their anti-Museveni narrative rather than on shared perspectives for a better Uganda.
It is difficult to understand why they keep to their historical pattern of simply opposing Museveni, even with its glaring structural flaws of inefficiency in building a critical mass of supporters to enable them to win an election. But the answer could be that, for them, opposition is a success in itself, and it is a success dependent on simply attacking Museveni. So, while I assume negative legitimacy to be an exercise in futility, it could be producing the success the opposition desires – eternal opposition. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
