When on 31 January 2002, Amama Mbabazi as Defence Minister, written by then journalist Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda said that the NRM was here for another sixty years, many in the opposition FDC, UPC and DP that still had a semblance of cooperation got enraged by what they considered his language of arrogance. In 2016 while in Masindi, an NRM stronghold, President Yoweri Museveni appeared to rub in salt saying by 2021, he would not wish to see a strong opposition.

Today, as Ugandans stare another general election, those predictions seem fairly accurate although in Amama’s case, many are finding difficulties to politically locate him. UPC and DP are mostly empty vessels even hard for James Akena or Norbert Mao to detail their countrywide membership. FDC and NUP are dangerous squabbling demagogues that Ugandans should not trust with any form of real political power. They have mastered contriving devious schemes especially now through social media to spread malice, hate, fearmongering, provoke confrontation and violence, yet Ugandans yearn for and deserve peace, and prosperity.

Mugisha Muntu, now of what many pundits consider a stillbirth ANT (Alliance for National Transformation), is a forgettable entity. Two decades on, FDC is in tatters mainly because Kizza Besigye, installed in absentia in 2005 has refused to cede space, hounding out those who succeeded him for refusing his absurdity lines like when he ‘swore’ himself as president in 2016, and launched campaigns of ‘civil disobedience’ to make Uganda “ungovernable”. Sadly, all opposition parties seem to be ideologically, intellectually, and reputationally bankrupt. And there is little competence too, except raw demagoguery.

The uninspiring contest over FDC ownership, control and leadership demonstrates the party’s plight. Just imagine the crew of Patrick Amuriat and Erias Lukwago the political crybaby, elbowing each other, to what end really. Most of the fifty-seven NUP MPs are so obscure that even some parliamentary journalists or pundits find it hard to roll out their names and constituencies although nearly all of them except John Baptist Nambetshe (Manjiya, Bududa) are all from the Buganda cradle. Watching NUP leaders speak with hubris, unrestrained crude arrogance and belligerence motivated purely by the calculation of immediate personal gain, one cannot avoid the predictable impending dramatic demise that may follow soon.

There are background noises claiming that NUP president is the real leader of opposition in Uganda, and urging Besigye, Mao, Akena, Muntu, and Amuriat along with their fractious underlings to fall behind him in an alliance, but weariness reigns that it could be a recipe for political cannibalism.

Looking at the ongoing purge of dissent within NUP, FDC, UPC, DP and ANT, even with lame-duck leadership and undefined membership, may be right not to swallow the bait. DP and UPC bitten by Besigye after they lent him support in 2001 and 2006, surely ought to have learnt some lessons in not testing the depth of a river with both feet. For DP, its experience with NRM since the era of the ‘gentleman’s agreement’ in Nabbingo, 1985 where it has since plaid faint fiddle is even more telling. 

The future of opposition parties, and their leaders as has been with the likes John Ken Lukyamuzi, John Ssebaana Kizito, Miria Kalule Obote, and now Muntu or Amuriat, who many Ugandans barely remember is bleak. But even with the high-pitched noise, mostly empty, Besigye, Kyagulanyi, and Lukwago are more of an irritant crew, who, thankfully not many Ugandans are keen to vote for as president of Uganda. 

As Uganda prepares for 2026, and possibly post-Museveni transition, the onus lies more with the NRM to rebuild itself into a vibrant democratic force for good than imbibing the culture of entitlement without result oriented work.