The Democratic Party (DP) President General has attacked a section of the top National Resistance Movement (NRM) leadership for allegedly defiling several provisions of the cooperation agreement signed by both parties recently.
On Tuesday, Norbert Mao, accompanied by his wife, Beatrice, officially launched his campaign at Obiya Highland Public Grounds in Laroo Division, Gulu City, with a pointed warning to some NRM candidates for attacking him and his family over his decision to join the Pece-Laroo Division race.
A visibly angered Mao expressed disappointment that the NRM fronted candidates in constituencies where they knew the DP had done the same, contrary to the provisions of the cooperation agreement. Such ignorance and confusion, he said, has thrown DP and NRM candidates, including himself, into unnecessary wars. ‘I want to assure our partners of DP, namely the NRM, that some of them have started small wars, which are not necessary.’
Mao, who openly declared support and offered to canvass all constituencies in the sub-region to campaign for DP candidates, said he had learnt that many NRM candidates, including incumbent Members of Parliament (MPs), are worried about losing elections due to what he brings to the table.
‘I know many of them are simply worried, particularly those in Acholi, that ‘we are going to lose elections because Mao is going to be moving around’. I want to assure you, the purpose of this campaign is to get the best possible leaders for our people,’ he said.
‘I want NRM to send the best of the NRM. If you send bad NRM leaders, your party will suffer in the next election,’ he added while giving an example of Aswa County, where Simon Wokorach, the incumbent lawmaker, is alleged to be toiling to explain why he has been silent in the 11th Parliament.
Mao this week said Aswa ‘sent an MP who came and gave a report to the voters, that when you go to Parliament, you just don’t talk anyhow. You have to be told what to say. Now, how can you have such a leader? That’s a scandal.’
Mao believes such a below-par performance has given Patrick Okello Onguti, a DP candidate, a great opportunity to be elected to the 12th Parliament.
After exiting parliamentary politics 20 years ago, Mao reiterated that he was back and that his target is to see the Acholi Sub-region elect 11 strong lawmakers to discuss real Acholi issues.
‘Let’s fight to have the best possible Acholi 11 MPs around me, like we were in 1996. I am among those who qualify to be in the first 11, and for Parliament, I’m there as the team captain.
Where there is a DP candidate, there shouldn’t have been an NRM candidate, and where there is an NRM candidate, there shouldn’t have been a DP candidate. But because many of the NRM leaders failed to understand our cooperation agreement, the President (Museveni) could not insist,’ Mao stated.
Mao is facing the incumbent, Fr Charles Onen, Tony Kitara (NRM), Simon Opoka (UPC), Ceasar Lubangakene and Charles Odokonyo (both Independent), who are all running for the second time, against the Catholic priest, and Wilfred Opobo, a newcomer.
Fr Onen, an NRM-leaning pioneer MP for Pece-Laroo Division, secured a win in 2021 on an Independent ticket with 6,638 votes on the back of flooring 12 other opponents, including Nancy Atimango of the NRM (4,220 votes), Lubangakene, who contested on the NUP ticket (2,557), FDC’s Geoffrey Komakech (1,619), Opoka, who contested on the DP ticket (698), and former MP Emmanuel Mwaka Lutukumoi (1,098), among others.
NRM’s Kitara, who recently won the party flag for the constituency, had hoped to secure an easy run on Fr Onen after fleeing the Bardege-Layibi Division race, from where Mr Martin Ojara Mapenduzi floored him in 2021.
Family attack
Mao’s recent decision to contest in the Pece-Laroo Division in Gulu City has been met with criticism and fear among his opponents, who now fear they could lose elections, alleging that he is a project of the State.
Because of such fights, Mao said some candidates had gone ahead to attack him in their campaigns, accusing him of marrying a non-Acholi-an act socially considered anti-cultural by several sections of the Acholi society.
The political atmosphere in the constituency has grown even hotter in the past two weeks, with Mao’s opponents openly criticising him at the campaigns.
For example, a fortnight ago, Gifter Aber, the Laroo-Pece Division mayoral candidate (NRM), while campaigning alongside NRM’s Kitara in a rally also attended by Bardege-Layibi (NRM) candidate Martin Ojara Mapenduzi, scoffed at Mao for marrying a non-Acholi wife, Beatrice, for which he did not deserve any votes.
‘Clap your hands to thank Tonny Kitara, a true man who grew up in Acholi land and married an Acholi. God bless you abundantly. Others engage and marry foreign women, but they want votes from Acholi women, and may burn them. If you are a candidate who married a non-Acholi woman, who do you expect to give you votes to buy matooke for your wife?’ Aber stated sarcastically.
In response, Mao said he had married his wife for himself, and that he was ready to defend his family against whoever dared to attack it.
‘Whoever hates my wife, hates me, if you hate Mao, come out open, don’t hide under my wife to say I married a foreigner, because if I begin to count those of us who married foreigners, their (NRM) party chairman is not Acholi, the (NRM) party secretary general (Richard Todwong) has a non-Acholi wife, they must desist from slandering my wife,’ Mao reacted.
He added: ‘My opponents are now talking recklessly against me; if you have an issue with Mao, face Mao.’
Below the belt?
Meanwhile, in a widely circulated social media clip, Kitara admitted his frustration with Mao on the grounds that he had engaged in several dark acts, including alleged blackmail. Kitara alleged that Mao approached him to ask him to step down from the race in exchange for a judicial appointment. His alleged decline was not well-received.
‘The only thing that annoys me is the blackmail with which he approached his nominations. On the same day, he and I were nominated. He walked straight to me, and he told me, ‘your issue is giving people headaches. If they appoint you a judge, don’t refuse.
But I responded to him that I am a lawyer and I know judges are appointed, and I have not undertaken any process to be appointed a judge, and when he said I should leave that to him, I said I don’t partake of fraud,” Mr Kitara said.
‘He later went on the radio to state that he had talked with my party chairman (the President) and that I would be given an alternative deployment since he is the president’s favourite candidate, and I felt that was very insulting,’ he added.
On different instances, Mao has always hinted at his political success and his aspiration and capacity to lead the country following a previously signed cooperation agreement between his party and the NRM.
In October, for example, while he addressed DP flag-bearers at the DP headquarters on Balintuma Road, Kampala, Mao did not hesitate to define the party’s multi-million dreams that guide a new covenant seeking to usher in a new (transition) Uganda.
In the manifesto document, the party outlines its vision and protocol in tackling critical issues surrounding the transition dialogue after President Museveni announced recently that he was seeking re-election for the last time.
‘We shall have a new constitution resulting from a negotiated Uganda in which all parts that constitute 16 regions of Uganda feel included as equal shareholders from Ankore, Tooro, Bugisu, Kigezi, Buganda, Busoga, Karamoja, West Nile and the northern region, among others,’ he told the sitting.
Days later, while addressing the congregation at the 13th memorial service of the late Tiberio Okeny Atwoma at Orayng Ojuma ‘A’ South Village in Labongo Amida Sub-county in Kitgum District, Mao hinted that he was primed to become the next head of state based on the ongoing discussions.
‘I am one of the few people who have harvested honey without lighting any fire (smoke), and I am still harvesting it, and nothing stops me from sitting on the seat (presidency), but for now, I don’t want to spill out so many secrets because there are levels of talks, including those that are highly classified.’
‘A good midwife’
On October 22, shortly after being nominated, Mao told journalists that he described himself as a good midwife, hunter and philosopher who delivers transition.
‘In the whole of northern Uganda, I am the only capable leader who is ready and has the capacity to lead Uganda. The trust people will put in me will empower me to be able to sit in the presidential chair. Have hope in this election. So, if you are electing someone, elect someone who is a good ‘hunter’ so that we can move the country forward,’ he said.
He also revealed that the cooperation between the ruling party (NRM) and the party he leads has a lot of secrets in it.
‘Our (DP) cooperation with the NRM has a lot of secrets in it that I will not reveal. I only ask people to trust me with their votes. I am a capable leader. And people should relax, the truth will come out. I am like a respected philosopher. People should have hope,’ he adds.
Kitara also disputed claims that the cooperation agreement provided that NRM should not file candidates in constituencies where DP had earlier filled.
‘I am aware of the cooperation, but that cooperation has not manifested into an alliance, both parties have different structures, headquarters and leadership, including the primary election structures that took both parties different periods. If such a decision is to be made by the party that its members surrender to DP, that would be very unfortunate for the party, and I am very glad that was the decision NRM took,’ Kitara said.