During the week that was, the Leader of Opposition in Parliament and Member of Parliament for Nyendo-Mukungwe Division, Mr Mathias Mpuuga, threw down the gauntlet for the people of Busoga. Speaking at the burial of Scovia Mudondo at Wandago village in Buyende District, Mpuuga said it went beyond the pale for Busogans, if you will, to continue crying about poverty and poor service delivery. Yet they continue to vote for candidates of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM).
“The regime is deceiving you with the Parish Development Model, they are just playing with your minds. How many of you have ever received this money? People of Busoga can be rescued from this kind of poverty. You can work because you have energy,” he reportedly said, according to UGNEWS24.Mpuuga then identified President Museveni as making poverty indigenous to the region, while alleging the President was bemused by his own electability in the face of such poverty.
“Sometimes he wonders and queries why you keep on voting for him. He wonders and says ‘where did I bewitch these people of Busoga?’” he added.While Mpuuga might be right that the Basoga are the social raw materials for their own misery, he is wide of the mark in accusing Busoga sub-region of being incurably NRM. Indeed, Mr Museveni, who was the NRM’s presidential candidate in the 2021 elections, was declared winner of the presidential elections with 6,042,898 votes, representing 58 percent of the total votes cast. However, his electoral sweep at the polls was no thanks to his muted performance in Busoga sub-region.Mr Museveni’s closest rival for the presidential seat, Mr Robert Kyagulanyi of the National Unity Platform (NUP), beat him to the vote in Busoga, rustling up 437,059 votes against Museveni’s 404,862.Museveni won in only three out of the sub-region’s 11 districts. He took Buyende, Kaliro and Namutumba districts, but was beaten in Kamuli, Luuka, Iganga, Jinja, Bugweri, Bugiri, Namayingo, and Mayuge districts. True, NRM flag bearers romped in the sub-region. Still, the NRM notably lost the Jinja North West Division seat to the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).Mr Moses Grace Balyeku, the NRM’s candidate in that race, was defeated by FDC’s Timothy Batuwa.
The NRM flag bearers in the races for Butembe County, Jinja North West, and the Jinja City Woman seat were also defeated. The Jinja City Woman’s seat went to NUP.Mpuuga, however, might have a point in terms of zero sum politics whose aim is the defeat of an opponent completely, and also. But in terms of serving notice to the NRM that it’s in the midst of a twilight battle for its own continued ascendancy, he is wrong. His charge thus serves as a rhetorical device instead of a portrayal of the actual voting pattern in Busoga. In this sense, Mpuuga may be accused of viewing the electoral glass half empty, instead of half full. And this will inadvertently have a demoralising effect on voters in Busoga.
His somewhat censorious tone may betray his passion for change, but voters need less heat and more light when it comes to combating NRM. Radical change in the context of a presumed dictatorship is antithetical to common sense. Mpuuga should be advocating gradualism at the polls and incrementalism at policy level. That way every gain is celebrated and small policy changes are enacted over time in order to broaden overall policy towards the upsetting of the NRM apple cart. For change is permanent and so must be embraced in its permanence; one win at a time. This way, winning as a mentality becomes winning as a reality.
