The political news these days is dizzying. Without even thinking about the small food fights for ‘head of house’ , councillorships, village chairmanships and the like, there is still enough of a fight going in the top echelons of our national leadership to make us befuddled.
First in the yellow corner; the yellow boys and girls are doing their thing as usual. Vying for this nomination and that nomination. The only seat they are not fighting for is the one of Kaguta’s son. That’s one fight that many have learnt can leave you heavily scorched, if not worse. There are enough walking dead to remind us. At least if you are fighting in the yellow corner, there is not much likelihood of you crossing to the other corners. If you get ravaged, you will stay in the cold and call yourself an ‘independent’ at election time. But then again, remove the son of Kaguta from refereeing these fights and these chaps would likely be at each other’s throats. The fighting is choreographed but just because there is an arbiter they dare not displease.
Not so in the blue corner. The blue boys and girls have been fighting for the last six years or so, they are more exhausted than you care to think. They have had so many nasty fights they look like slugger on his last legs. They have fought for leadership of their party, for control of Kampala and the whole of the opposition. Their own internal revolution at times sounds like a war of attrition. Now they look leaderless and rudderless.
In the green and red corners, the chaps who yesterday were the cornerstones of power and all its appurtenances have also imploded. There are two shades of green and two shades of red. Mostly based on religion and tribalism. There is not much to write home about these folks.
And then there are the new comers. The most prominent of them have also painted themselves into a reddish corner. They call themselves the National Unity Platform or NUP. They are the erstwhile ‘People Power’ crowd. And they are as angry as any young man or woman whose birthright has been stolen. But that is understandable. The seismic shifts in the World’s economy have make them the most vulnerable. We promised them an education which really amounted to little. We have promised them youth empowerment, only for us to also grab it. They are your typical ninjas. Mostly no incomes, no jobs and no assets or savings. They dream of saving us and themselves courtesy of their music and a bit of weed.
The other travelers on this road are the purple and orange folks. Purple is usually reserved for bishops, but who are we not to think of these chaps as bishops? Orange could stand for anything as well but we shall find out in due course. If you know about Trojan horses, then these orange chaps must be watched with care and trepidation. These two groups are mostly a breakaway factions of the yellow and blue gangs. What all these groups have in common is to be our leaders, and who can begrudge them that in an honest contest?
Problem is we don’t know what all these chaps truly stand for. Despite a varied field, the main protagonists in any camp you think of have been donning alternative colours at different times in their leadership journeys. Imagine campaigning for a post because you helped abuse the constitution or having been the Leader of the Opposition in parliament, you had no qualms crossing to another party five months to another election. Our leaders speak of a struggle for liberation and transformation of our country. But what ideals or political theory/systems do they believe in? Like the Rotarians have said before, “Lord, help us (our leaders) to stand for something, because a (wo)man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.” It’s the silly season indeed!
Samuel Sejjaaka is Country Team Leader at Mat Abacus Business School. Twitter @samuelsejjaaka
