By Mulengera Reporters
In his latest weekend column, older persons’ MP-elect Ofwono Opondo characteristically took no prisoners. And those who suffered his veiled wrath included Speakership contender Norbert Mao and the NRM historicals who fought with Museveni, have lately embraced Mao and also happen to be part of the team that will constitute the 12th Parliament.
From the very onset, Opondo makes it clear that President Museveni and his entire NRM universe aren’t going to have any excuse if they fail to satisfactorily deliver their political agenda, as was voted for and endorsed by the people of Uganda through the Thursday 15th January balloting.
That with 369 MPs plus another 49 who so far have signed onto a formal cooperation agreement to work with it (in a House of 529 legislators), the ruling NRM will have no excuse to give in case they fail to decisively fight corruption while qualitatively and quantitatively enhancing service delivery. Even before potential friendly legislators from the opposition are leveraged, the ruling NRM already controls up to 77.2% of the 12th Parliament.
Opondo calls upon the party to set high legislative standards for its MPs from the very onset and strictly enforce the same in order to achieve unprecedentedly high levels of discipline and cohesion. He suggests that these must closely work with the Cabinet members to crystalize the contents of the NDP 4 and the NRM manifesto to ensure effective and inclusive service delivery in the next five years.
The man from Tororo district’s Mulanda village also warns against fortuned-hunting and opportunism which quite often pushes young Parliamentarians to begin embracing self-serving agendas, which eventually causes them to conflict with their party top leadership and voters.
On the issue of Speakership, he says that all NRM caucus members must embrace and accept the CEC position registering the top organ’s preference to preserve the status quo of Anita Among and Thomas Tayebwa staying put.
This notwithstanding, Opondo demands that the CEC members don’t take things for granted but make out a coherent case explaining how and why the pro-Anita Among retention decision was reached, as was promised by the President at Kyankwanzi.
Opondo, who has been around taking on consequential Musevenist roles over the last 30 years, adds that whatever Gen Museveni articulates as the justification for the duo’s retention ought to be accepted without much question because his excellent leadership of the revolution for the last 50 years has demonstrated that there is need to always trust his judgment without question.
He implies that there is no way a man who has led the Movement so well over the last five decades can get it wrong on who the best presiding officers for Parliament for the current moment ought to be.
He veiledly demands that Speakership should remain in the hands of loyal NRM cadres like the Among/Tayebwa duo as opposed “gambling on a person from a well-known hostile group, however amiable [that person] may now posture.” This clearly is veiled reference to DP’s Norbert Mao who, admittedly, has disturbed and diminished Anita Among’s sleep over the past couple of weeks.
Claiming to personally have seen many of them whispering pro-Mao messages to especially new young legislators during the just-ended Kyankwanzi retreat, Opondo cautions fellow first term MPs to avoid the so-called historicals who are fond of claiming to be communicating the President’s or First Family’s undeclared wishes on who becomes Speaker.
He says that those should be totally disregarded because “a number of them are known for subterranean grumbling, clique formation and disruptive methods.”
In the column, Opondo didn’t have the guts to directly name any of these old guards who assume self importance simply because they were with the President in the bush.
He claims that such actors caused NRM significant headache in both the 6th and 10th Parliament(s), which is why they and their views should be avoided.
Without directly proclaiming his name, Opondo also demands to know why Mao didn’t take advantage of the recruitment door and window that was opened wide late last year and joined the NRM if he was indeed genuine about enabling Gen Museveni’s political agenda.
This is how he makes his case on this particular point: “It would be absurd for those who refused to join the NRM in its hour of need [when it was risky to embrace Musevenism in Northern Uganda] to now seek, through opportunism and trickery, to jostle for positions. We must shine a bright light on those who want to associate with the NRM only when they see openings, seeking lucrative positions to bolster their status and invariably fill their personal pockets while falsely claiming they can fix anything, yet we can see their record of performance in the public offices they have [previously] occupied.” (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
