National Unity Platform and Its Feet of Clay

When the king of Babylon Empire, Nebuchadnezzar had that scary dream, it was Daniel, the Hebrew Captain who interpreted it for him. In the dream, everything on the giant idol seemed splendid, having a golden head, silver arms, and chest, brass thighs, and body with iron legs, but with feet of clay.

Daniel’s interpretation was simple, what glitters is not gold. Having a body structure of metal with feet made of clay was a sign of vulnerability. How can clay support the heavy metal? Indeed Babylon Empire at some point had to crumble given the weak state of feet on which it stood.

Bobi Wine is a big dreamer with a right interpreter but an inept executioner. It is one thing to dream but it is a very different ball game to convert it into actuality. It is even more condescending when it turns out to be a daydream. Bobi Wine is sandwiched in-between and the reality is unfolding at unprecedented speed. People Power was a whirlwind piece of marvel, that took all by surprise given the gusto and political impulse it created. People power could have been a fair team that could play fairly well at the novice ranks but not in the premier league. At the premier league, the rules of engagement are totally different and the law of the jungle reigns; it is survival for the fittest. It was a matter of time for the dream to turn into a nightmare as he struggled to find an identity. The new actualization called for a special purpose vehicle to deliver the dream of change at a national level, thus the rebirth of NUP.

However, like any other second-hand item, NUP came with its baggage, which at some point in the journey had to manifest with all the attendant distractions. It was a smart move, given that People power was more of a club of cheerleaders than a political outfit, it gained shape, traction and formalized its legal status. The organizational structure had to be created. This was the start of the anticlimax of the hitherto roller coaster. People power was an amorphous club of various agitators of political change, it meant that the perennial opposition had a new flagship to further their cause. However, this was a recipe for disaster, which has come to pass. Politically, Bobi Wine is a novice, but with the advent of NUP, he attracted career opposition figures who turned NUP into a “candidate party”. They saw NUP as a shot in the arm to their waning political fortunes. Whoever joined NUP was an aspiring candidate at different levels and expected NUP to give them party flagship. It was a fault start, not of ideology but positions.

Most of these are political renegades in their political parties, who felt bigger than their parent political parties. It was just a matter of time for NUP to implode. Bobi Wine was not to be threatened to cede ground to the experienced lot who viewed him as a political novice. A fallout was inevitable. The first casualties were Lubega Mukaku, Mukasa Mbidde, Mike Mabike, and Dr Abed Bwanika who tactically pulled back from the limelight.

Like a typical political novice, the sourcing of a political party was the easier way to get an address, but it’s turning out to be more costly both politically and financially. The process of acquiring it has a myriad of loose ends that may keep him more in the court than on the political road. He is too tight-lipped on the details of the acquisition, though the vendor is up in arms demanding his pay. It is only common sense that Moses Nkonge Kibalama the founding president of NUP could not have surrendered his party for free; however, the narrative propagated by Bobi Wine is that it was a mutual consent agreement to handover the party.

This confusion augments the imperative that People power is an outfit of riffraff. Bobi Wine is facing a credibility problem, given his past as a ghetto kid with all the social baggage that comes with such upbringing. The more accusations and counter-accusations play out in the public domain and in courts, the more it politically affects his standing.

Bobi wine can be excused for the haphazard way of executing his political charade, he lacks political mentorship and most of his close associates are from his music background where he was supreme and unchangeable. This makes it difficult to get good counsel from his younglings. The seasoned politicians are more of vultures hovering around a potential carcass to devour the spoils. They are not joining him because of a superior ideology, but as political refugees looking for an IDP camp to find shelter to morph into a new brand. Most of the politicians who have joined NUP are either political rejects or fortune seekers hiking a bandwagon that will deliver them victory. The problem of fortune seekers is that they thrive on a mantra of the end justifies the means.

Seasoned opposition figures like Muwanga Kivumbi, Medard Ssegona, Betty Nambooze are scheming how to use NUP as a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to deliver them to the next parliament, but not to help the party to grow. In fact, they are too detached from the party, playing safe from a distance cautiously lest they ruffle the feathers of the “principal”. All that they want is to cash on the wave of people power especially in the central region. NUP runs a risk of being seen as a regional outfit like DP masquerading as a national party. There are tribal undertones like “kino kyekyaffe”, “twebereremu” that have parochial leanings. The senior figures are quiet about all the mess in the selection exercise of the flag bears. This is proving the biggest test to NUP. Allegations of extortion, bribery and demand for sexual favors are abound but nobody is ready to confront the vice, given that some of the culprits are close relatives of Bobi Wine.

The composition of the selection committee, the parameters used and the scorecard are all shrouded in mystery and too reclusive. The most glaring thing is that due to underhand schemes involving bribery and favoritism, Kenneth Kakande, a seasoned politician, well-educated with a support base in Nakawa was discarded at the expense of Joel Ssenyonyi, an upstart.

It is very interesting to find an electoral area having two flag bearers endorsed by this selection committee. These kinds of things arise because the different committee members are compromised to a level that taking a stand is hard. They end up being offloaded to the electorate. With this sort of confusion, nobody should be surprised by the impending waterloo at the general election. The voices of reason from seasoned politicians are silent amidst this mess because they are opportunists who have someone to blame at the end of the day for their confusion and perennial loss; Yoweri Museveni.