Mao Comes Under Fire For Signing Agreement With Museveni.

URN;Bayiga Lulume, the MP for Buikwe South, one of a few senior members of the party who never abandoned it to join the National Unity Platform-NUP party to contest in the last election, said Mao never consulted anybody before he agreed to work with Museveni.

The President General of the Democratic Party-DP Norbert Mao has come under fire for signing a cooperation agreement with President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

On Wednesday, the presidential press unit put out a press release, pictures, and a video of Mao flanked by his Secretary General Dr. Gerald Siranda signing an agreement in which he pledged to work with the ruling National Resistance Movement.  It is not yet known what was contained in the agreement although Mao told NBS television last night that he was not joining NRM but just agreed to work on areas that unite Ugandans.

He said it is very important that Ugandans talk to each other to find a solution to national problems. “The country is in trouble, if no one does anything about it, we are in jeopardy,” Mao said.

However, the news about the agreement sparked fury from not only known DP members but also other opposition political players and sympathizers. Many took to social media to castigate Mao for bulking under the weight of the NRM despite previous assurances that he will never join the ruling party.

Bayiga Lulume, the MP for Buikwe South, one of a few senior members of the party who never abandoned it to join the National Unity Platform-NUP party to contest in the last election, said Mao never consulted anybody before he agreed to work with Museveni.  Bayiga who is also the Buikwe District DP Chairman said when the news broke about the agreement, he reached out to Mao who gave him a snapshot of what is contained in the agreement.

“He told me that he agreed with President Museveni on behalf of DP that he is going to serve as a minister together with another person from the Democratic Party. He also told me that he thinks that he will serve both as a minister and also as the president of our party; something I don’t agree with,” Lulume said.

He added that Mao’s action is unprecedented in the history of the DP where both the President and the Secretary-General cross to another party. Lulume said that Mao told him he was confident that the two top organs of the party; the National Executive Committee and the National Council will ratify the agreement.

“I want to call upon our leaders in parliament, in local government, the party structure, and all DP members to resist this agreement because it is meant to completely destroy DP something we are not going to accept,” Lulume said.

He added that they are going to carry out consultations across the country in order to get the party’s new leadership away from Mao.

By the time of filing this story, the nine DP members of parliament were still locked in a crisis meeting before deciding the next course of action.

Deo Kiyingi, the former MP for Bukomansimbi commenting on the issue through social media said, he was shocked about the agreement. “Since I was not consulted over the matter, I distance myself from such a decision on behalf of my people of Bukomansimbi district where I am the chairperson,” Kiyingi whose wife Florence Nakiwala Kiyingi a former DP member also served as a Museveni minister between 2016-2021 said.

Erias Lukwago the Kampala Lord Mayor who was once the legal advisor of DP but has since crossed to the Forum for Democratic Change writing on his Facebook timeline said the agreement signaled the death of his former party. “Kitalo nnyo. Born in 1954 and…” Lukwago’s comment on a photo of Mao and Museveni brandishing the signed agreement reads.

Using his twitter handle to also comment on the Mao, and Museveni photo, Joel Ssenyonyi, the spokesperson of the National Unity Platform said with the agreement, “the “cohabiting” has ended, here is the “wedding.”

Patrick Amuriat Oboi, the President of the Forum for Democratic Change also using his twitter handle said, with the signing of the cooperation agreement, Mao might have ridden a tiger. “OMG! @norbertmao DP Secretariat, didn’t you ride a tiger only to find yourself in its gut? @FDCOfficial1 will always exercise prudence before signing any new IPOD MoU involving you and @NRMOnline,” Amuriat’s post reads in part.

Dr Kizza Besigye, a veteran opposition leader used only three words to comment on the same photo; “Hmmm! Kale, bye.”  A video taken earlier this year when Besigye was in Buikwe district at the last funeral of the father of Bayiga Lulume’s father in which he said Museveni will also takeover DP has also been resurrected and is making rounds on social media.

Equally, videos in which Mao vows never to join the NRM have also been resurrected with those commenting on them asking what has happened.

On both Twitter and Facebook Norbert Mao is the most trending topic in Uganda.  Efforts to speak to Mao for this story were unsuccessful as he didn’t pick up repeated calls to his number.

When Uganda Radio Network visited the DP offices at Balintuma Road in Mengo, they were locked with no sign that there was anybody inside.  When contacted for a comment DP spokesperson Okoler Opio Lo Amanu said he was having an interview with a television crew. He asked to be called back. However, when contacted after about two hours, his phone went unanswered.

But in an interview with Baba television, he said what transpired yesterday has no legal basis in DP until the party’s organ ratifies it.

“The party organs will sit next month and this issue will be presented to them. If they accept it, then it will become legally binding. But for now, that agreement has no legal force because there is no DP organ that has ratified that document,” Okoler said.