National Unity Platform’s (NUP’s) principal, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu commonly known as Bobi Wine claims President Yoweri Museveni has been sending agents with bribes ranging from hundreds of millions and billions to buy them to switch allegiance to his National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.
He says after trying many times to buy them to switch allegiance, the president’s camp is now ‘using’ a disinformation campaign to deliberately demoralise their supporters by claiming how infighting, greed for money and jostling for leadership positions as well as ladies which is about to kill NUP.
“Sorry, we aren’t up for sale for any amount of money,” Bobi insists.
Museveni, he brags,” Museveni has never ever before during his time as president confronted such unbribable people as the leaders of NUP.”
Flanked by one of his deputies, Dr Flavia Zedriga and the party’s secretary general, Davis Rubongoya who too repeated the accusations, Bobi then sarcastically advised the president to spend the money he ‘wants’ to use to buy their allegiance on building hospitals, schools as well as roads and such critical infrastructure.
The opposition politician had called a presser to once again react to the politically uncharitable stories carried by the media and later exploited by the NRM spin doctors such it’s PR handler, Rogers Mulindwa who hurriedly picked own and paper to write a dispatch to the government Bukedde newspaper to amplify the purported fall-out.
Bobi appreciated the fact that there are ” rotten apples” amidst them, though he repeated the moles are ‘awfully’ negligible to detail their ‘unstoppable’ march toward Plot One Nakasero (read State House).
Rubongoya when his turn to speak had arrived, revealed how a number of NUP officials have been repeatedly approached by agents of the president with juicy government jobs in order to decamp from the party.
While he didn’t state it, it has been reported in some quarters that Rubongoya is one of the NUP high ranking officials to be approached with the job of ambassador and later enticed with the one of justice and constitutional affairs minister which he ‘turned down’ and which prompted the president just recently to fill it up with public service minister, Muruli Mukasa.
It is thought the NRM wanted to grab Rubongoya from Bobi in the heat of the presidential campaigns by promising to offer him the ambassadorial job.
After failing to snatch him during campaigns and after winning elections, we understand, the president then started dangling the carrot of a ministerial job to Rubongoya and that he has in fact been leaving vacant the justice and constitutional affairs docket for months in the hopes that Rubongoya would finally find it so tempting and yield to the accostation.
Rubongoya worked with the military in the general court martial as a lawyer before resigning but without giving any hints he was doing so to join Bobi.
He is a trained lawyer holding masters and a lecturer of law at the Cavendish University. This possibly would explain why he was being targeted for the big justice and constitutional affairs ministry.
Bobi’s political philosophy as well as brand of brands is thought to have immediately endeared the singer turned politician to Rubongoya.
They duo met up at Cavendish University where Bobi is reading law and the lecture was impressed by the politician in Bobi.
They later agreed to walk together up to the much-sought-after but elusive political Nirvana. They have never looked back since. They in fact seem like Siamese twins with their relationship appearing currently to be poised for eternity.
Much as there is no proof Museveni wants to recruit from NUP by using money and ministerial or government jobs, the assertions by its officials cannot just be swept under the rug.
Museveni has used the carrot of jobs to jerk members of opposition into jumping ship. The victims here are quite many to fill a book.
He himself has been rejoicing how he harvested Hajjat Sarah Kanyike, Betty Kamya, Mama Mabira, Dr Chris Baryomunsi the list is long, from the opposition. He has since rewarded such political turncoats with ministerial jobs much to their gratification.
And Museveni being a smooth operator who upon hitting town fresh from the jungles confused much more established and savvy politicians to join the omnibus known as the movement and later absolutely co-opted majority of them, cannot be said to no longer have appetite for easy political souls.
After all, Museveni himself is on record boasting how he has been progressively wiping out the opposition from the face of Uganda and that very soon Bobi and his party would follow suit.
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Editor’s Note: The Sunrise has not independently established the veracity of the claims by NUP officials.
