By Andrew M. Mwenda When I was growing up, my dad always told me that if I have a dream, I should believe that I will realise it. He believed that success comes from optimism and self-confidence. ‘Believe in yourself and those around you,’ he would say, ‘and always …
Read More »Where is the opposition plan?
By Andrew M.Mwenda With next year’s presidential election looming, President Yoweri Museveni continues to hold the strategic initiative in spite of his diminished credibility. While most of the country is silently hostile to his continued stay in power, there is little enthusiasm for the opposition. Save for a blunder by …
Read More »Who should lead the opposition coalition? A psychological analysis
By Joan Akello Aggressive Besigye, diplomatic Otunnu, ambitious Mao Since the main opposition parties in Uganda formed a joint platform, fielding a joint candidate in the 2011 presidential candidate has been top of their agenda. The leaders of the parties are supposed to unanimously agree on a leader from among …
Read More »What the opposition should do
By Andrew M. Mwenda Let me speculate. There are always ominous signs when a leader or regime is about to collapse. Take the example of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: There was the rum’s heart; then Cleopatra’s dream and later the soothsayer’s warning. There were equally also many ominous signs in 1969 …
Read More »What the opposition should read
By Andrew M. Mwenda Last week, a friend brought me a pirated copy of the recently released Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon movie, Invictus. It is a gripping story of how Nelson Mandela used rugby to assuage the fears of white South Africans regarding the dawn of majority rule. As …
Read More »How opposition can defeat Museveni
By Andrew M. Mwenda The opposition parties’ agreement to field one presidential candidate come the 2011 elections is possibly a good move. However, previous presidential elections have shown that there is no need for a joint opposition candidate. Indeed, the combined vote of third candidates has always been statistically insignificant …
Read More »Opposition: Together you stand, divided you will fall
By Onghwens Kisangala It was yet another round of elections ‘” local council bye-elections on May 24, and as has become the custom, another round of allegations of electoral malpractices. The Electoral Commission (EC) and the security personnel were as usual at the centre of the blame game and for …
Read More »10 failures of opposition
By Odoobo C. Bichachi Why a limping Museveni remains solid against toothless opposition According to the recently published findings of the Uganda Afrobarometer Survey conducted between July and September 2008, most Ugandans are dissatisfied with the way the country is being run not just on issues of bread and butter …
Read More »Opposition must jump three hurdles – Barya
By Onghwens Kisangala Dr John Jean Barya, associate professor in the department of public and comparative law at Makarere University, comments on the political events in Uganda in an interview with The Independents Onghwens Kisangala. This is the second in a two-part series. FDC experienced some internal upheavals in the …
Read More »Uganda’s opposition must speak to our aspirations
I pick up where I left off last week: the tragic collapse in the quality of government in Uganda has gone hand-in-hand with corruption on a scale never previously witnessed. Roads are full of potholes, schools are burning, hospitals are death traps and public parks are overgrown bushes. Public institutions …
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