By Lukanga Samuel
After 38 years of Museveni in power, the opposition has failed to pose any significant and real challenge to Museveni’s rule. Kaguta’s presidential opponents every general election are intentionally maintaining their naivety to fail his candidacy.
The 2021 elections as the most recent one in Uganda produced the outcome “everyone expected”;-Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and the NRM party still won.
Rather than a democratic contest for power, elections in Uganda still appear to be tools for consolidating power. The election reflects the NRM and Museveni’s continued control of the political game even after 2026.
Albeit internal weaknesses in the political opposition, a hostile operating environment also makes it impossible for the opposition parties to compete.
Envisioning a “New Uganda” was and remains a good vision that will never be achieved by typical jokers like those fronting it currently.
For those who have challenged him on principle, Museveni has always mildly encountered them. It is from the sectarianism talks from his crude opponents to the public that hostile operating environments are set.
Looking at wartime prime minister Winston Churchill’s victorious address to the nation that marked the end of the war in Europe, the Ugandan opposition, publicly spreading hate speeches countrywide—will never pave the way to their promised “New Uganda”.
Churchill’s speeches through the course of the war galvanised and heartened those fighting and enduring the dangers and privations of World War II. His words inspired a nation. For our Ugandan Opposition has internationally failed to learn from history!
When Churchill gave the ‘Strong Horses’ speech in the House of Commons, he was yet to become prime minister. But during a debate on Britain’s disastrous campaign in Norway—leading to Neville Chamberlain’s ousting, Churchill well knowing that in two days later, he would become a prime minister and form his coalition government—spoke optimistically of the Navy being strengthened by Norway’s merchant fleet. Whereas in Uganda, our opposition claimed victory and vote rigging after taking flights abroad in the due course of Museveni’s swearing-in.
Even when he became prime minister just like the current top Ugandan leading opposition party in the same excitement, Churchill was facing calls from some to make peace with Hitler, as the loss of so many men in World War I was still a recent memory.
But in his first speech in the Commons House as the country’s new leader, he made it clear the only option for his government was to “wage war”. Did they meaningfully wage it in Uganda as earlier said!
Like he had earlier promised—as the war raged on, Churchill still used speeches to try and lift the spirits of the public, even when having to detail horrific scenarios in the war. Ugandan Opposition has instead focused on #UgandaTribalismExhibition.
The ‘We shall fight on the beaches’ Churchill’s most famous speech, used in television and film programmes reflecting on the Prime Minister’s life for decades to come—will never be realized from Uganda’s Opposition against Museveni.
It was not an address given live to the nation, but to the House of Commons, with only MPs and staff able to hear its debut. However, there is no doubt it will be remembered as one of the most powerful political oratories of all time.
A glance at some of Churchill’s most memorable appearances at the dispatch box provide that extra inspiration. Our Ugandan Opposition has chose to turn against foreign aid, a move which in return affects their supporters!
As the country commemorates the 64th Independence Day in the most unusual circumstances next month, Mwenderezo Wa Vijana Initiative will be launching a competition for Opposition Parties in Uganda to try their hand at a rousing speech. Their hate speeches are only failing their vision of having a “New Uganda” becoming a reality.
The key to writing a galvanising address is to “never give in”, our Ugandan Opposition shouldn’t be shy, let them just crack on and do it, try their best, and if they don’t succeed the first time, they should try again and again and again. It is the “spirit” of the nation that we “always get there in the end.
For Good and My Country, Uganda!
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The writer, Lukanga Samuel (lukangasamuel55@gmail.com) is a Social Development Enthusiast and an Ambassador of Humanity. Tel: +256 785717379
