OPINION: Is it worth breaking LPG over Lira-Kamdini road protests?

The Lango Parliamentary Group is a political entity. I expect that there might be disagreements, even fierce disagreements, in LPG.

Lira – February 4, 2022: Two weeks ago, a poorly coordinated public protest, triggered by the preventive arrest of Ishaa Otto Amiza, a struggling politician from Oyam South, who had called for mass civil disobedience, failed spectacularly.

Ever alert to the needs of the wanainchi, President Museveni, the Fountain of Honour, flew to the sub-region to meet members of the Lango Parliamentary Group (LPG) and other key stakeholders. Political opportunists, who had sensed a chance to get cheap popularity, were haplessly left without place to hang their hats on.

This is a group whose singular strategy is stoking anger among the population. It should be noted that anger is not an organizing or governing principle. The NRM principle is to engage the wanainchi, listen to them, and respond to the interests of the people. Interests, rather than creed or identity, is guiding light of the ruling party.

It is true that the Lira-Kamdini road is in an appalling state. For myself, I had planned to conduct a nude protest at the World Bank offices in Kampala for the bank’s failure to implement this project. When His Excellency responded positively, I called off the protests out of deference to the highest office in the land.

I was dismayed, however, that some political leaders, whose negative agenda was punctured by the president’s intervention, have decided to sacrifice the Lango Parliamentary Group at the altar of their ego.

Just like other regions in the country, the Lango Parliamentary Group is only powerful when it is united as a caucus in the August House. The Lango Parliamentary Group is a political entity. I expect that there might be disagreements, even fierce disagreements, in LPG.

But this is not a reason to tear down the building. It only weakens the collective bargaining power of the group. It is a disservice to the Lango people.

I know that the Lango sub-region is a political hotbed. As the Hon Cecilia Ogwal once said, “Politicking starting from Lango”. But our brand of politicking, where the act of politicking is the end-point, rather than the means to certain ends, has made our region lag behind other regions in the country that, despite political disagreements, have leaders who are united when it comes to the interests of their people.

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Our neighbours to the north give us a wonderful example. The late Col Walter Ochora, the former RDC and Chairman of Gulu, said it best.

Speaking about his working relationship with Norbert Mao, the Oracle of Gulu and DP President General, the amiable colonel said, “When it is time for political campaigns, our disagreement with Mao is so vast that one has to use GPS to look for one another. But when the campaigns are over, we are so united that we hang-out at the same swimming pool every day at Acholi Inn”.

This is leadership. We cannot throw the baby with the bathwater. We should be able to separate issues from persons. We have to learn to disagree without becoming disagreeable. Simply because I view a particular matter in a slightly different perspective doesn’t make me a monster.

And this is why I am imploring our political leaders in Parliament who wish to make the Lira-Kamdini road a make-or-break issue, to pivot away from that precedent. It is a dangerous precedent that makes us weaker, not stronger.

A house divided against itself shall fall. Politics follows the rule of the jungle. The weak are lunch for the strong. Even if you felt aggrieved by how the matter of the organization of the protests over Lira-Kamdini road was handled, I do not believe that sowing the seeds of discord is the best way forward. Wars are not won by lone-rangers but rather through the concentration of forces.

This one disagreement is not worth breaking the Lango Parliamentary Group.

The writer, who hails from Oyam District, is a ruling party supporter.

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