By Otim Nape
Undeterred by the State House hostility that saw Gen Museveni boycott and stay away, the Nation Media Group (NMG) Uganda went ahead with it’s Sunday 30th Presidential Debate that was held at the glamourous Serena Conference Centre in Kampala. And to their credit, 5 of the 8 Presidential Candidates took off time to participate.
Perhaps taking cue from Donald Trump, who September last year defiantly stayed away and boycotted the 2nd such debate in the US but still on to win both the popular and Electoral College votes to stage his historical come back to the US Presidency in November 2024, Museveni instead sat under a big tree to have a recorded informal conversation with a group of young people calling themselves “Uganda’s Unstoppable Genz.” This was at his country home in Rwakitura.
The Museveni thing was broadcast online and on some TV channels that same evening as the five opponents went after each other and engaged in bitter exchanges hundreds of miles away at Kampala’s Serena Hotel. Museveni was so relaxed (or so he seemed to be) that he encouraged the young Genz (carefully selected from NRM backgrounds) to repeatedly refer to him as ‘Sevo.’ This is the nickname millions of slang-accustomed young Ugandans use to describe him. It’s the short version of Museveni. He freely listened and responded to their questions. As if totally unbothered about the Serena debate, Museveni calmly gave his views on virtually every topic.
A larger fraction of Ugandans paid attention to the debate at NTV where the country’s currently most popular politician Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu was in attendance. Others were Gen Mugisha Muntu, Nandala Mafabi, Elton Joseph Mabirizi and Frank Bulira Kabinga who turned out to be more eloquent and issue-based than many had all along taken him to be. He became hard to ignore as he combined fearlessness, eloquence, combativeness and provocative conduct especially towards Kyagulanyi.
You had millions of Ugandans in Kampala and other upcountry Cities and towns closely following both on TV (NTV & Spark TV) and also online. From the online traffic that was generated, it was clearly evident that majority Ugandans paid attention to the NTV debate, than to the Museveni fire place-like conversation.
Yet the Sunday evening debate to an exposed the ineptness and lack of sufficient prepping on part not only of some of the Candidates but also the organizers too. For example, Candidate Mabirizi was found wanting and flat-footed on a multiplicity of occasions. He became belligerent each time moderators cut him short, demanding that he summarizes, or asked him what he considered to be hard question.
He sometimes dismissed these as childish, if not malicious, questions meant to portray him as inept. Several of these questions related to the Federal system of government or Agriculture, which he at the beginning indicated to be his petty subjects.
Organizers, moderators and the viewers must have expected much more and better from Mabirizi given the fact that this was his second time taking part in such debate, having first stood for Presidency in 2016. That time three political colossuses (Museveni, Besigye & Mbabazi) took part. Participation in such high-level Presidential debate ought to have sharpened Mabirizi into something much better than he turned out to be on Sunday.
On their part, the moderators (regrettably) omitted to provide a slot under which Candidates should have been allowed or ask to fire each other questions. Whoever is familiar with this business of conducting Presidential debates (globally) would tell you this was a major failing on the part of the organizers and moderators.
They also omitted to ask questions aimed at testing the Presidential Candidates’ appreciation of diplomacy and foreign relations between Uganda and other countries. Hopefully, the 2nd debate gets to be organized so that an opportunity is availed for candidates to ask each other questions and to also articulate their foreign policy-related priorities. Time that was given for audience members to ask questions should next time be dedicated to Candidates asking each other questions. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
