Exposed!! See How The Rise Of Bobi Wine & NUP Threw FDC In A Political Rubbish Pit

Few developments in Ugandan politics have been as painful to witness as the split of the Opposition political party Forum For Democratic Change (FDC).There have been similar splits into bickering factions in recent years in the two oldest parties, the Democratic Party (DP) and the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC). But something about the FDC split feels particularly tragic.

Over the first 25 years of the National Resistance Movement’s (NRM) rule over Uganda, FDC was the first political organisation to emerge and infuse the population with a genuine sense of hope for a fresh start.

The Emergence of NUP & Fall Of FDC

FDC’s biggest challenge came when a new political party called the National Unity Platform (NUP) was formed in late 2020. FDC had become established and come to view itself as the dean of the Opposition, the custodian of the struggle against the NRM state.

After four unsuccessful attempts at the presidency in 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016, many viewed Besigye in 2020 as a spent force and FDC’s inability to increase its parliamentary representation from the peak of 37 MPs in 2006 did not help matters. A section of the population felt that a new group should be given a chance.Here, DP’s historical role as the donor of political blood to political parties once again came into view.

Although NUP was stirring up the political landscape, it remained a motley of musicians, disgruntled and unemployed youth, and a few media personalities.When a group of DP MPs, fed up with the tensions in their party, crossed over to NUP, they gave it the stability, experience, and respectability that the original People Power/NUP on its own lacked.

NUP’s rapid rise, starting in the important central region, stirred up both envy and resentment in FDC.The “wave” that saw NUP win overnight the support of the heavily populated Buganda and Busoga sub-regions presented a challenge both to NRM and FDC. Both NRM and FDC were established parties keen to defend their influence and turf from encroachment, one as the ruling party and the other as the dominant Opposition party.

If the rumours and reports of FDC president Patrick Amuriat and party secretary general Nathan Mafabi secretly receiving money from President Museveni are true, it would make sense. NUP’s emergence forced the same alliance of convenience on FDC and NRM that 60 years earlier the emergence of the Catholic-majority DP forced on the Protestant-majority UPC and the pro-monarchy Buganda establishment at Mengo.

It was in NRM’s interest to see FDC counter NUP and obviously, it was in the FDC’s interest to work toward that end, even if that might mean receiving some funding from their bitter enemy.Many felt that FDC’s reluctance to throw its weight behind NUP was disingenuous, given how willing DP had been in 2001 to put its interests aside and support Dr Besigye.

It was harder to rationalise their reluctance to team up with NUP, a party with no connection to NRM which clearly represented the voice of the downtrodden people of the central region.Be that as it may, FDC has now gone the way of UPC and DP before it. It will now get bogged down in months, if not years, of legal action, with one faction of FDC taking action and another faction challenging it in court.

This back and forth of litigation and counter-litigation will deepen the bitterness in the party, sap its energy, and cause even more public loss of faith in it.