By Mulengera Reporters
It’s now clear some key actors in the People Power Movement aren’t comfortable having Jose Chameleon playing a big role in the opposition politics. They are increasingly buying into the narrative that the singer is a proxy of some people to pull the rag under Bobi Wine’s feet.
This has led to very crippling suspicion and discomfort which even Chameleon himself veiledly referred to during his Tuesday speaking engagement as he addressed the DP weekly media conference at City House.
He said that during their weekend engagement at Magere, Mr. Wine expressed discomfort as to why he was kept in the dark regarding his (Chameleon) intentions to defect to opposition and vie for Kampala city Lord Mayorship. That Chameleon explained himself but appreciated the apprehension with which Mr. Wine was approaching the whole thing so far.
Chameleon’s own revelation actually counters an earlier claim by DP Bloc leaders that Mr. Wine had been fully briefed and invited to the Nsambya DP Bloc event at which Chameleon was received but he (Bobi) missed the event simply because he was out of the country. And that Eddie Yawe’s conspicuous presence at Nsambya was sufficient to prove Mr. Wine was okay with everything.
Sauda Madada, a diehard errands babe close to Mr. Wine, says the Kyadondo East MP has over time discovered a lot and become uncomfortable with the treachery of the DP Bloc members. She says a deliberate decision has been taken the Lion of Magere Hill won’t be gracing any of the subsequent DP Bloc events including the upcoming reunion in the Eastern Uganda town of Soroti.
Madada, who led the attack on the Makerere Guest House last Saturday meeting to which DP Bloc invited all PP-leaning guild Presidents to emotionally prepare them into an alternative PP platform patronized by Chameleon, says what transpired in that Makerere meeting left them with no option but to plan for full scale war with DP Bloc members.
She has since named some of the DP Bloc members who they consider to be certified traitors and must therefore be fought. These include Mr. Abed Bwanika, Mike Mabikke, Sam Lubega, Henry Lubowa, Suleiman Kidandala and Norbert Mao himself.
Madada, a veteran of Mr. Wine political struggles, says these are total traitors who the PPM will soon be exposing on social media. She accused them of using the Makerere meeting to belittle the role Mr. Wine played in securing Kassiano Wadri’s election in Arua.
CHAMELEON’S TURN
On Tuesday an unusually very large crowd of journalists turned up for the DP weekly media conference and among other things demanded that Chameleon explains the motive of the Makerere meeting.
Saying he was a way in Qatar for personal business, Chameleon refused to explain and instead called on Abed Bwanika to explain. Bwanika, who Madada says was a major architect at the Makerere meeting, hesitated prompting Mabikke to step forward.
In an usually short answer, Mabikke said the Makerere event wasn’t about brain washing PP-leaning guild Presidents turning them against Bobi Wine.
He said DP is renowned for being a platform to mentor young leaders and that exactly is why the guild Presidents had been summoned at the Makerere meeting. He said there are media houses determined to drive a wedge between them as DP Bloc and PP but that won’t succeed because PP is a brain child of DP Bloc.
On being invited by DP publicist Kenneth Kakande, Chameleon (who was the day’s main speaker in his capacity as the DP national mobilizer) spent much of his time pleading with Ugandans to forgive his past association with Museveni and his NRM government saying he was just making money. But in the next sentence he said there is a lot the opposition can learn from Museveni including being very tolerate to those critiquing his truck record.
He also begged Ugandans to overlook those branding him a 5th columnist and consider him a serious challenger to Museveni. He said his name alone is a major brand in Uganda and beyond and he is ready to use that to re-energize the struggle against NRM.
He said he wasn’t coming alone but with a large group of young people who kept chanting his name at the news conference.
Saying he wasn’t a poor man, Chameleon offered Shs1m to buy 5,000 tickets for the young people who will embrace DP’s new membership recruitment drive that was beginning the next day Wednesday. He also bragged about organizing musical concerts at which many Ugandans first met their future spouses.
He said some conned people of money claiming to be close to him. He said all this, coupled with many musicians he mentored at his Leone Island, shows he doesn’t believe in eating alone.
Going by the questions of skepticism scribes directed at him during the DP media conference, Chameleon didn’t readily convince many people as he might have anticipated. The journalists asked questions that portrayed skepticism including one who asked about the Makerere meeting and what new thing he had brought to DP beyond just his musical name and brand.
OUR VIEW;
We at Mulengera News believe there is a better way Chameleon can go about his dilemma and politics without having to burn energy pleading with Ugandans to consider him a serious contender against government.
It’s our considered opinion that acts will speak louder than words and they are the best way to gradually silence skeptics who seem to think coming to DP is just a political convenience in the hope such increases his chances at winning the Lord Mayorship.
He should merely go about the political struggle (to make Uganda a better place) he says he has joined and intends to stay in for the rest of his life.
Ugandans are politically sophisticated enough; they will gradually see who between him and the detractors was right in the first. It’s such actions, rather than proclamations at the DP press conferences, that will deliver to or alienate crowds from Chameleon.
He has started so far well resisting pressure from the likes of Abed Bwanika and other political kikonwas (political rejects) to become excited and launch unnecessary attacks on other more established political actors like Kizza Besigye, Semujju Nganda, Betty Nambooze, Erias Lukwago and others.
He should also consistently resist efforts by self-seekers to make him fight personal wars like his contemporary Bobi Wine has cleverly done; consistently steering clear of proxy wars guys have been involved in for decades.
It’s consistent walking of the talk by Chameleon that will gradually persuade the likes of Sauda Madada who say he is politically unforgivable simply because as recent as 2017, he still professed NRM/Tubonga nawe to the extent he sang at Sitenda Sebalu’s rally which State House and other Musevenists convened to frustrate Mr. Wine’s efforts to become Kyadondo East MP.
It’s also helpful that Chameleon, who is intellectually less sophisticated than Mr. Wine and even addressed the Tuesday media conference majorly in Luganda, avoids frequent media interviews and appearances as much as he can so that he doesn’t get demystified like has happened to other budding politicians who embraced frequent media appearances including those for which they weren’t adequately prepared.
It’s better keeping quiet and leaving people thinking so and so is a very intelligent speaker than speak and get exposed as worse than what people thought of your capabilities. He should be deliberately scarce so that journalists and media houses consider it a privilege to have an interview with him.
Chameleon has also indicated he isn’t in this primarily because he wants to become Kampala’s next Lord Mayor but for a cause he consciously considers a duty to get involved into.
Such messaging should continue to be clarified and as consistently as he can because making contradicting statements is the easiest way many will get fed up and write him off as an opportunist just out for fortune-hunting like majority of the wannabe politicians already out claiming to be the kingmakers behind his coming to DP. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
