Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Lutukumoi has jumped from frying pan to fire

Published by Daily Monitor on Wednesday, July 27 2011

On July 23, I received calls asking me about the news of the DP spokesman’s defection to the ruling party. While I was appalled, I said it was Mwaka Lutukumoi’s right to join any party of his choice. Nonetheless, his defection confirmed what some have always talked about him. In Ankole, we say there is no smoke without fire. I have known Lutukumoi as a friend since 2001 but frankly, I have never seen ideological clarity in him. I feel he has never been a DP supporter or sympathiser but a target worker.

There is a difference between card-holding party members and party supporters/sympathisers. While members can cross from one party to another, supporters rarely cross because they are glued to the party by ideological conviction. It is time parties put less emphasis on card-holding members and focused on supporters. In Uganda, not everyone who holds a party card supports the party - in fact some people hold multiple party cards. As a political scientist, I cherish DP because it espouses truth and justice - principles I find dear. As a Christian, I know that the truth will set us free.

In 1996, I was in S4. The Rev. Fr. Anatoli Neema, then a seminarian, gave me Christian text books. The agreement was that I read the first book and later go for a second one. What I did, after reading, I kept the book at home and children started playing with it. After two weeks, I went to him for a second book. He asked whether I had finished reading the first book to which I replied in the affirmative. He had seen his book for two weeks and was incensed that I lied to him and refused to give me the second book. I was the loser and I learnt a lesson that the truth should always prevail.

I pity my brother who has jumped out of a party that espouses truth and justice to join a Machiavellian party that cherishes deception, manipulation and propaganda. If Lutukumoi was genuinely a democrat, he will not easily mix with the NRM - it will be like mixing water and oil. As a Catholic, he will find himself spiritually incarcerated. He has jumped out of the frying pan into the fire.

A section of people from Acholiland always told me that Lutukumoi was a mole in DP but I gave him the benefit of doubt. It is good that he did not become an MP. Otherwise, his defection would hit not only the DP, but the entire opposition hardest. Assuming he was not a mole, I sympathise with him for he has joined a sinking ship.

From Benedicto Kiwanuka, Paul Ssemogerere, Ssebaana Kizito to Norbert Mao, no party has had leaders that are as clean as DP. No party has a spotless track record like DP, it has no blood stains and God has anointed it to liberate Uganda from spiritual doom.Lutukumoi’s defection should not demoralise DP and party president Mao.

The Bible is clear - the road to heaven is narrow. Mao will be the president of Uganda with or without the support of Lutukumoi and his ilk. Mao is an anointed leader who is going to deliver real, not imaginary liberation to this country. He is a leader who will inevitably bridge the north-south divide. About Lutukumoi’s defection, if I were Mao, I would say, good riddance and urge his ilk to follow suit so that we can separate boys from men and wheat from chaff early enough.

Finally, this country is suffering from the dearth of truth and justice and it is only truth and justice that shall liberate us.

Mr Nuwagaba is an activist
mpvessynuwagaba@gmail.com

No comments:

Post a Comment