Big Interview: "Opposition should not preoccupy itself with removing Museveni from power," says Prof Latigo

Despite suffering heavy defeat in the last election, Prof Morris Ogenga Latigo, the former MP Agago North and Leader of Opposition is not yet retired, politically speaking. He still follows political events keenly.

Speaking to the Nile Post in an Interview, Latigo said he believes that if the opposition wants to cause change in Uganda their main focus should not be only on removing Museveni from power.

Excerpts below:

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NRM's biggest achievements in the past years has been ensuring peace and stability but there has been a lot of insecurity in the country recently. In your view what could have gone wrong?

The main challenge for the NRM is for them to misunderstand the whole concept of peace and security. In times of conflict, you can be very proud that you ended the conflict and restore peace but you cannot give people peace.

Beyond ending conflicts, you must provide leadership that binds people together and that makes people hopeful of tomorrow and that enables people to focus on progress.

Unfortunately, the NRM took peace as some piece of ‘Ugaali’ that you can pick and give somebody who supports you or deny somebody who doesn't support you .That is not sustainable.

Muslim community is worried given the current situation in the country. Most of them think anyone who bears Arabic name is being targeted as a terrorist .How best can the government handles this kind of situation?

The first thing that the government must realize is that Islamic fundamentalism is not a Ugandan thing just like Christian fundamentalism. As a government you must think bigger and therefore you recognise that it is a local thing. Secondly, the Islamic community in Uganda is part and parcel of this country.

You cannot down grade their status as citizens of this country and it is incumbent upon you as the government to ensure that there is no distinction between Islam and Christian.

As someone who has been in Parliament for some good time, what is your assessment of the current Parliament because many people think that it is in the armpits of president Museveni?

The challenge is not only the Parliament. You only have to look at the local councils. You have to look at politics generally in Uganda.

Will Ugandan politics deliver anymore? Politics that is based on demonising others, politics that is based on inciting violence, that kind of politics cannot deliver.

So, we have fundamental problems with our politics. There is too much hatred, there is too much sectarianism. What this Parliament can do is like you are asking a man at home if there is no food to cook, what meals is a woman going to cook, it is just a waste of time.

In your view, how best can the opposition confront the issue if removing president Museveni from power?

When I was in politics, my point was not about removing President Museveni. My point was that we offer an alternative and the voters would choose and that is what the politics ought to be.

When you say we are going to remove President Museveni, it is diversionary. It entrenches the support for the president from those who benefit from his presidency rather than them seeing weaknesses in the country as a common weakness. It also diverts from focusing on policy issues, on failures and on possibilities.

There is nothing greater than dreams and dreams must be about possibilities. When dreams are about failure, it is a nightmare, it is not a dream. We have ended up with politics which is more of a nightmare than a sweet dream.

Some people claim that NUP will not survive for a long time without Bobi Wine. Do you think the party will be a powerful opposition group that can cause change in the country in a few years to come?

Absolutely, on two grounds, one it is inevitable that the youth will not sit and watch when their time has come. NUP is basically a political organisation of youth whose time has come.

Secondly, NUP represents a very strong sentiment in Buganda and the central Uganda and many other places where they think that the revolution that they sacrificed so much for, betrayed them and this is a reality.

Just go to rural Buganda and see if there has been progress because they supported NRM.

Look at the businesses, who owns big estates? By the way, youth sentiment is not only in Buganda and if some of us didn’t work hard, NUP would have surprised even NRM in Acholi sub region because youth are restless, they think we are completely insensitive to their issues.

Some opposition seeking forces like NUP declined to join IPOD and People Front Transition which are seen as a uniting platform. What does this mean?

Some people came to my home when I was in Kampala about the formation of Besigye’s pressure group and they wanted me to lead the North. You know there is a saying that doing something in the same way repeatedly and expecting a different result is madness and what we are seeing is that.

We don’t need the issue of uniting the opposition in order to create change because change must come from the people.

As long as the avenue for change is not there, when elections come and some NUP members get killed and the opposition doesn’t talk and then you want to talk after the election, you cannot get that opposition unity.

It will only be possible when our focus regardless of where political origins are, we converge, then unity becomes an automatic thing. The unity that we built in creating FDC in 2005 was a genuine political unity.

It was not about removing President Museveni and that is why we created a slogan ‘One Uganda, One People’.

What should the government do to improve the economic potential of Northern Uganda after the war because there have been a lot of funds injected to improve the welfare of the people in the sub region but there is no tangible progress?

What do you do with the potential? You put it to use and how do you put it to use? The agricultural potential of the North will remain just like that until you put money in agriculture and not just give money to villagers and call that putting money in agriculture because they will drink that money.

Look for people who are serious farmers in Northern Uganda, give them money and let them demonstrate. Meanwhile you then go back to the kind of mobilisation that took us to universities from villages in the 1960s, that will bring real income, long term income to the people.

Thirdly, invest in quality education. I mean the generation that didn’t go school will not change now. If you care about tomorrow, invest in quality education for their children and change the mindset of their children.

Which political organisation do you belong to? People are confused because some of them think you are in FDC while others think that you are in ANT?

In the last election, I stood as an independent because to stand as FDC would justify somebody standing as NRM and yet there is nothing like NRM.

It only comes when elections come and when election end, it goes back to the pocket of the owners and so I didn’t want to perpetuate this nonsense of party politics in Uganda.

Our politics is very bad and it is high time we call a spade a spade and say let’s sit down and create a new platform for political operations in Uganda.

Personally, do you feel disappointed with your performance in the last election? What could have led to your defeat?

In all the elections that I didn’t win, I never lost. It is the people and the country that lost because I have never done my politics on lies, I have never done my politics on deceit.

The last election, actually a day after our nominations in Agago, the returning officer called me at night, and told me to go to Bweyale to meet him.

Can you imagine? That I must drive at night to meet him and then I started talking with him and then he said ‘something is wrong with the name.'

How can you talk about my name when I have been in so many elections? So I didn’t lose, it was the usual shameless Ugandan election that you see people like me not returning to Parliament.

Where do you see yourself in the next five years to come? Will you contest again in 2026?

Not under the present status quo. If there is change and the country goes through a transition after then, I can assure you I will be at the ballot box because I am not talking out of pride or anything.

I enjoy a lot of respect throughout the country whether with political people, military or the police or ordinary citizens because I played my politics with a clean hand and some people know that deep in my heart I care for this country and the people more than myself.