Fire continues to rage in the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) opposition party which pundits cannot ignore. Some seem to believe that the National Resistance Movement (NRM) political Organisation, not a party, as we, its founders in 2003 preferred to call it is not very different from opposition parties we like mocking considering some aspects in its current trajectory. But for now, NRM enjoys the bragging rights having survived, lived and expanded over the last twenty years, if you don’t want to count from June 1981 when its seeds where planted at the start of the Luwero Triangle war.

Galatians 6:7 and 8; says “Be not mocked: God not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” And Mathew 13:1-9 is the famous Parable of the Sower. “Behold, a Sower went forth to sow; and he sowed, some seeds fell the wayside, and fowls came and devoured them up: some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: and when the sun was up, they were scorched because they had no roots; others fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop-a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

In NRM’s case under Yoweri Museveni, it is becoming increasingly evident that the mustard, the smallest of all seeds, according to the parable of the kingdom of heaven, has grown into the largest tree in Uganda’s garden so that many birds are perching on its branches.

While FDC that sprung from Reform Agenda gathering a huge noisy crowd along its way, now seem to be from the parable of the weeds sown among otherwise good seeds and is now at a rendezvous with political destiny. FDC leaders and many of their followers believe that there are no evil people within but rather that there is a devil from the outside seeking to destroy it. They are less inclined to see the greedy, corrupt, intriguers, and malignant within their leadership who have lied to them for two decades now. 

In their psyche, the NRM and particularly president Museveni are devils that have infiltrated them. FDC factions have been for a while now been trying to pull out the weeds but unfortunately they do so while also uprooting even the crops and burning it in the heaps of the so-called unwanted weeds, and so they are coming to the end of ages.

NRM, like a merchant who looks for fine pearls, is now looking for, and literally scooping some of the treasures hitherto hidden in opposition field like Anita Among, Thomas Tayebwa, Betty Among Ongom or Norbert Mao among others. And you don’t have to begrudge NRM or gnash your teeth.

Once again, as in the kingdom of heaven, NRM is like a net which when lowered down into a lake will catch all kinds of fish, and when it is full, the fishermen pull to the shore. Unfortunately, the NRM is unable, unwilling or not ready for now to separate the good fish from the bad, and so there is some irritation festering. Hopefully, the angles will come in the future to separate the righteous from the wicked to be taken for reformation or thrown into the blazing flame.

As FDC burns, and its members, followers or even sympathizers get scattered into the wild winds, every NRM member who calls themselves cadres should act like the responsible owner of a house who goes out looking for new as well as old treasures from the ruins of FDC and other opposition parties. We shouldn’t leave this task only to Museveni. This way, NRM and Uganda’s destiny will be guaranteed beyond their original founders.

Much for God and the devil, so far every indication is that each faction is digging deeper in, and no likelihood of exchanging even a kiss of armistice. From a mixture of motives, good men and bad have met in FDC, and as Kizza Besigye declines, there are other marchers with wishes to inherit his political braggadocio and also seeking to build on the lost fortunes of DP, UPC and Buganda ethno-centrism, and want to purge those unlikely to tow their line. After this turmoil they could patch up a temporary truce like Mugisha Muntu faction did until they discovered sadly late that the unrefined dogs of war within FDC cannot yield until they have tasted fresh blood. 

Ibrahim Ssemujju and Erias Lukwago, the arch-offenders, and Besigye favorites are younger, more dangerous and seem to collect war chest of money, religion and a tribal fringe for now. But they won’t break into the Catholic and Mengo mould to which the NUP surrogates currently lean, and a solid merger is unlikely due to competing motives.