By KAMPALA: A seemingly off-the-cuff remark by Kira Municipality Member of Parliament, Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda has ignited a fierce debate among political commentators and activists, centring on the calibre of leadership Uganda needs and the potential for a political “reset.”
The controversy began when Ssemujju, a veteran opposition figure, cautioned against voters turning to non-traditional or less-educated political candidates out of disillusionment with the current political elite.
“If a particular group of elite has disappointed you, you don’t hand over the country to wheelbarrow pushers,” Ssemujju said.
The comment has been widely interpreted as a criticism of the growing trend of political newcomers, often without extensive formal political experience, challenging established leaders.
The statement drew an immediate, sharp response from political strategist, Ronald Leonard Egesa, who took to X (formerly Twitter) to challenge the MP’s perspective, arguing that the fundamental problem lies with the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party’s dominance.
“Ssemujju is telling us that we should let a man who underwent a vasectomy to roam the whole village messing around with all the hot village belles in the hope that one of them will conceive! That is the proverbial hiding of the Ostrich’s head in the sand,” Egesa wrote, dismissing the focus on the candidates’ quality as a distraction.
Egesa went on to assert that the NRM’s “tyranny of numbers” in Parliament renders the educational background of opposition MPs largely inconsequential.
“The real elephant in the room is that the NRM has bastardised Parliament beyond redemption. In fact, even if NUP, FDC, PFF and ANT were only represented by Makerere University Professors, Speaker Anitah Among will still preside over the processing of Anti-people legislation… owing to the tyranny of numbers of the NRMOnline mob.”
He argued for a more radical approach, suggesting that a “popular revolution outside that Parliament” is necessary to force a “RESET.”
Egesa then directly challenged the “elite” opposition, stating, “The few ‘elite’ Members of Parliament from the opposition like Ssemujju himself and Jonathan Odur have turned into Musevenomics Exhibitors who only lament and tell us about the alarming amounts of money stolen or wasted by the NRM/Museveni hegemony – effectively turning opposition Parliamentary politics into a pageant.”
“What we need to tell him is that exhibitionism is not what the country needs now. Pageantry does not move the needle. The country needs a RESET and Parliament needs a redefinition!” Egesa concluded, doubling down on the need for a total political overhaul.
However, the argument for political experience found some support from within the opposition circles. Charles Lwanga, an activist and member of the PFF party, weighed in, suggesting that while a ‘reset’ is needed, intellectual contributions remain vital for laying a proper foundation.
“Call it a pageant or exhibition but I believe in the grand reset we need to know what we’re resetting from,” Lwanga said.
“We can’t blame Museveni for asking for sleeping MPs & we choose to send musicians to accompany their sleep. Let’s have the Ssemujjus speaking what we shall build on the reset.”
The exchange has brought to the fore a critical internal debate within Uganda’s opposition: whether change is best achieved through the intellectual rigour of experienced, elite politicians like Ssemujju, or through disruptive, popular figures who, according to Egesa, are needed to “stir up the waters inside” and precipitate a revolution from the outside.
