Uganda’s longtime opposition leader, Col. Kizza Besigye has appealed to his counterpart Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu to pick lessons from his two-decade political experience.
Besigye’s veiled statement was prompted by a video clip in which Mr. Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine attacked Besigye as being undemocratic.
The People Power president wondered why Besigye who has contested four times for President would later say there is no democracy on the fifth time.
Asked to react to Bobi Wine’s comments while appearing on NBS TV on Wednesday morning, Besigye said:
“The reason why we go to school is to learn the experience of others. Every subject that is taught in class be it science, art or mathematics, from primary to university, is about experience of others.”
He added, “Similarly, in politics, we go through many experiences that form a body of knowledge. It’s this knowledge that new politicians pick lessons from which they learn. I will stop it at that.”
For a while now, a section loyal to Bobi Wine has asked Besigye to step aside and embrace the new kid on the block because his role of removing the regime is up.
But Besigye asked, “those who say there is a new face, are we in a beauty contest?’
The FDC founder who recently launched the People’s Government assembly has in the past been accused of selfishness and greed for power which makes him no different from his rival President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, whom he served for over 15 years before he broke ranks.
Whereas he has been a darling to those yearning for change for a long time, the introduction of Bobi Wine has greatly affected Besigye to an extent of some opposition fans likening him to Museveni.
But Besigye consistently regards that as propaganda mounted by the regime to soil his name.
However, he believes that propaganda has affected his support.
“Paid Propaganda is serious business. When you say something repeatedly, people get to believe it. Some people, even in opposition have been saying Besigye and Museveni are the same. Can you believe? If I lead protests against Museveni how does that help him? Anybody who says that I work for Museveni is completely out of his/her mind. If you ask them what is it that Besigye does that is almost what Museveni does, you will not get a response,” he said.
