Last year on December 18, Democratic Party (DP) secretary general Hon Mathias Nsubuga breathed his last at Case Clinic in Kampala days after suffering a massive stroke while at Mukono bookshop in the city.
Among other prominent Ugandans who mourned his death is President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni who described the fallen former Member of Parliament as a tolerant politician who always believed in dialogue.
Indeed, on July 1, Nsubuga led a contingent of opposition leaders to State House Entebbe where they met Museveni. The high power delegation of 14 opposition bigwigs agreed to discuss key issues affecting the country.
Among many others included release of strongest opposition leader Kizza Besigye who was battling treason charges in Luzira prison having declared himself a duly elected leader of Uganda thus breaching the constitution of Uganda.
Nsubuga represented FDC strongman Hon Nandala Mafabi who chairs IPOD, a bloc that unifies all political parties in the land.
Museveni’s empty promise
One of the members who attended this high power meeting but wished to remain anonymous told TrumpetNews that as a politician who believes in dialogue, Nsubuga requested that the opposition should have representatives in government institutions for fairness and political balance. “He proposed that as opposition we should be sharing slots with some government officials,” a source said. It is against this backdrop that Museveni pledged two slots for opposition while nominating names to replace Engineer Badru Kiggundu at Electoral Commission (EC).
“Because DP is the second powerful opposition party after FDC, Nsubuga saw this as an opportunity to sit on the Electoral Commission (EC) panel,” a source added. Exuding excitement, Nsubuga promised Museveni that he would rally his counterparts in FDC to attend the next meeting due to this year.
However, Nsubuga was saddened to learn that on November 18, Museveni forwarded 6 names to Parliament for vetting. “I think it is at this point that he developed stroke unknowingly because he looked betrayed,” a source said. In fact Nsubuga together with his party leader Norbert Mao went to Speaker Rebecca Kadaga protesting the appointment by Museveni. But it all fell on a deaf year and the 6 names were approved by Parliament. A source said since then before his demise Nsubuga had been bitter vowing to tell off Museveni in case they meet again. Unfortunately he died before pouring out his discontent.