By Mulengera Reporters
The leader of People Power Movement, Bobi Wine Kyagulanyi Sentamu has hinted on the possibility of Yoweri Museveni ceasing to be President of Uganda before 2021 when his current mandate is supposed to end. Mr. Wine says whereas it’s in order for millions of his PP supporters to prepare for the final push in 2021 when he says he has more than enough numbers to annihilate NRM at every level, there is also a high likelihood sufficient momentum can be built to obliterate Museveni out of power before elections.
Addressing mourners during the sendoff ceremony for Batholomew Ssuuna Goloba, a diehard hard supporter who succumbed to car accident wounds in South Africa, Bobi Wine said working even harder to ensure Museveni falls is the only way PP supporters can ensure “departed heroes like Goloba and Yasin Kawuma don’t die in vain.”
Reflecting on the futility of deploying tribal lenses and hide behind PP to keep firing tribal artillery (sometimes against actors who are supposed to be allies in the change struggle), Mr. Wine called for revolutionary discipline among the PP fraternity.
He said, having concluded violent struggle and use of guns can’t be the way they will bring change, there is need for PP adherents to claim higher moral ground than the NRM by speaking and acting in ways that show they stand for higher values than the ruling party they are out to demonize in the population.
Without divulging names, Mr. Wine rebuked those hiding behind PP to make tribal derogatory attacks on Ugandans from other parts of Uganda. He advised whoever gets angry and wants to shout obscenities at anyone whose political views they perceive as disagreeable should first take off PP colors so that whatever he/she speaks isn’t construed as representative of PP.
He said failing to claim higher moral ground than the NRM would only complicate the struggle and prolong the wearing of the crown he sings about in his “Tuliyambala Engule” lyrics. He called on supporters to be exemplary and respectful of political actors who endured leading the struggle before the advent of PP. In any case, he said, it’s a lot easier struggling against Museveni today (than many years ago) because of the sacrifices PP predecessor made.
Mr. Wine, who prudently offered his Kamwokya facility to host the vigil, commended Goloba for leveraging on social media (he called it the only free expression space that remain unencumbered by govt) to be there for himself (okwebereramu) and deepen the frontiers of the struggle for freedom back home even as he toiled for kyeyo in SA.
He said Goloba is one of the many disciples who correctly understood and applied his gospel of “okwebereramu.” Mr. Wine said he didn’t personally get to know or meet Goloba but his relentless social media activism against bad governance ensured he got to know what he stood for.
Before inviting his master to address mourners, PP Spokesperson Joel Senyonyi correctly observed that Goloba was a unique activist because he endured all the risks he took (standing up to the regime back home) without having any intentions to fight for any elective position back home in 2021. This simply means Goloba wasn’t a meal card politician (as Mao once described political opportunists claiming to be more PP than Mr. Wine himself).
Saying Museveni had become too old, used to being President and cannot voluntarily imagine himself not being in charge, Mr. Wine called on PP supporters to do all they can (without being violent) to make the incumbent’s continued stay in power risky otherwise “we risk becoming the laughing stock of the world.”
This is how the political colossus from Magere put his point: “In 2005 I sat with a friend in Angenoir and he said do you know these guys are going to remove term limits? I said you are kidding. It looked too shameful to even contemplate but they did it and life continued. They shamelessly removed age limits and don’t be surprised when OTT is increased from Shs200 per day to Shs5,000. They are shameless and the idea is to make us slaves in our country. If we don’t fight hard and make it risky for President Museveni to continue, we are going to become the Boda- Boda community of the world. This is why we must fight hard because there is no way this man is going to wake up and say guys I’m done. There isn’t anything that can ashame him anymore.”
Other political speakers like Moses Bigirwa suggested PP should emulate the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt which initially protested the post-Mubarak tyranny by holding long funeral processions each time a comrade in the struggle died. “Like now I don’t see why we gather only 800 mourners to send off Goloba. We must change and use funerals to mobilize large crowds because that’s one avenue we can use to spark an uprising to end this dictatorship. Just imagine everybody in Masaka attended and you have 2m people seeing off one hero; won’t the dictatorship become more frightened? This business of small crowds is an act of betrayal to the fallen heroes.”
The man from Budiope said he never met Goloba personally but he was a close virtual friend via social media. “The first interaction was in 2007 when I risked and sneaked Bobi’s poster into Namboole during a Cranes international match. I raised the posters with message ‘Bobi for President 2021.’ Many laughed me off but Goloba picked up the poster and spread it using his strong social media presence and things have never been the same for our President Bobi.” Bigirwa added “Goloba must have died a satisfied man because he at least scratched the dictator though social media activism and left him scarred.”
Speaking for the family, the deceased’s sister Veron Bisirikirwa thanked Bobi Wine for materially supporting them during this bereavement period and also disclosed her brother had premonition prior to his death.
Saying some instinct must have told Goloba his day was fast coming, Bisirikirwa recalled how he rang them repeatedly calling on them to drive to Botera/Kabuwoko (their birth place) and prepare their father’s home and the burial grounds. That their father (Ssalongo Balugula Kateregga) died and left an incomplete house but Goloba rang the Saturday before his death demanding to know the state in which their abandoned home was.
“He said go with Monica and complete that garage and also clean up the burial grounds besides dusting the house and removing the cobwebs.”
Bisirikirwa says Goloba was so insistent on this he even offered to send them money in case they didn’t have enough to ensure the garage gets roofed. She says they travelled with her other sister Monica and they had spent the three days prior to the death of their brother at Botera cleaning up the home. “We had just completed and I was preparing to return back to my shop in Kampala having been away for three days and the phone call came that Goloba has died in an accident in South Africa,” a tearful Bisirikirwa told mourners.
As she introduced the two orphans (5-year old Alicia Nasuuna & 8-year old Elvis Jjunju Suuna), Bisirikirwa (speaking on behalf of her cripple mother who was in the audience) vowed to ensure the family honors deceased Goloba by remaining People Power because it’s the organization whose ideals he believed in. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
