Main opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) party leaders have reacted on the announcement of a cooperation agreement between Norbert Mao’s Democratic Party (DP) and President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni’s National Resistance Movement (NRM).
The deal between the DP and NRM was signed by Mao and Museveni as well as their Secretaries General Gerald Blacks Siranda and Richard Todwong, respectively, at State House Entebbe on Wednesday, July 20.
After the news of the meeting between Museveni and Mao hit social media, the leaders of NUP, whose principal is singer and politician Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine, quickly reacted to the cooperation agreement between the opposition leader and the head of state.
NUP Secretary General David Lewis Rubongoya said there was no more reason for Mao and his DP colleagues to pretend that they belong to the opposition following the meeting with Museveni at State House, as well as the subsequent deal.
Rubongoya also argued that the cooperation agreement is reason enough to justify why Mao has in recent month been attacking NUP and its leader Bobi Wine. He also said that it was high time Ugandans learnt that not all people who claim to be opposing the Museveni and NRM regime were genuinely in the struggle for a better Uganda.
The NUP SG also suggested that Mao’s and DP’s deals with Museveni and NRM were the reason the Kamwokya-based political party has always gone slow on the idea of uniting with Democratic Party, one of the country’s oldest political parties.
“The pretense is over. [This cooperation agreement] explains the attacks on NUP. Hope this clears the air for those who always ask about ‘opposition unity’ in Uganda,” said Rubongoya.
“Like I have persistently said, the mistake some analysts make is to assume that everyone who calls themselves opposition is actually opposition.”
NUP Spokesperson and Nakawa West MP Joel Ssenyonyi opined that the “the ‘cohabiting’ has ended, here is the ‘wedding.’”
On July 20 evening, President Museveni confirmed that he and Mao had inked a deal. The General from Rwakitura also praised Mao for championing “mature, foresighted and constructive politics.” (Read Story Here).
