There are activist politicians who do anything to get media attention and those who are passive and rarely speak out their mind.
Mathias Nsubuga, the fallen DP secretary general who died from a stroke on Sunday night, fell in neither category. He was neither the in-your-face kind of politician nor was he the dormant, passive leader.
He was a calculative leader who knew when to raise his voice or when to shut up. His look of innocence helped conjure an image of calm, but beneath this demeanor lay a shrewd politician.
Suleiman Kidandala, DP’s organizing secretary, says Nsubuga had been scheduled to travel to the UK and spend the festive period with his daughter who had just delivered.
“This was one of the reasons he called me to brief me what they had recently discussed in the DP top meeting which included building the DP headquarters at the small part plot in Lubaga,” Kidandala said.
Another relative told us that Nsubuga had recently become restless over debts he incurred during the last two parliamentary elections (2011 and 2016). They are said to have accumulated to at least Shs 100 million.
In parliament where he served for ten years as Bukoto South MP, Nsubuga rarely made headlines. But this does not mean he was not effective. In 2012, he took on the then leader of opposition, Nandala-Mafabi, after the latter sacked DP members from the shadow cabinet after they reportedly reneged on an agreement not to field candidates for the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA).
FDC had called upon other opposition parties to boycott the elections after it disagreed with NRM on sharing the nine slots allocated to Uganda. But Nsubuga thought this was not a practical move.
“We are not going to be bullied by anyone to take decisions which we don’t agree with as a party,” Nsubuga said on the floor before announcing that DP will field a candidate, Fred Mukasa Mbidde.
Within DP circles, Nsubuga was known for his moderating influence. When tempers flared at the party’s delegates’ conference in Mbale in 2010 after supporters of presidential hopefuls Nasser Sebaggala and Norbert Mao almost fought, it is Nsubuga who restored order.
Later, when a group of supporters broke away protesting Mao’s election as party president, Nsubuga worked tirelessly behind the scenes to bring them back into the fold.
For instance, against the wishes of other party members, he stood his ground and ensured that Betty Nambooze (Mukono municipality) and Medard Sseggona (Busiro East), who had fallen out with mainstream DP, secured party tickets in the 2011 parliamentary elections.
In 2015, he was among the people who convinced Nambooze to return to the DP main fold, where she serves as vice president for Buganda.
“He was a moderate politician,” Paul Kakande, the DP spokesperson, said on Monday.
“He believed that every political contest could be solved through talking,” he added.
Kakande said he had known Nsubuga for many years and regarded him as a political mentor.
SEBAGGALA CONNECTION
Nsubuga cut his political teeth as a political assistant; first to Nasser Ntege Sebaggala, when he was elected mayor in 1998, and then to John Ssebaana Kizito, who succeeded Sebaggala at City hall. The two mentored him.
Sebaggala said he first met Nsubuga in 1980 in London, UK where the latter had a food and vegetable product shop at Upton Park area.
“At this time Nsubuga was working with the Uganda Airlines and he was one of the first Ugandans to export foodstuffs to London. It is here that I and Nsubuga met the late Yusuf Lule who convinced us to join politics in 1980,” Sebaggala said yesterday.
Yet intriguingly, Nsubuga’s political break came when Sebaggala was arrested in the United States in 1999 for allegedly being in possession of fake traveller’s cheques.
Nsubuga had travelled with Sebaggala for a supposed mayor’s conference and as the inquisitive media in Kampala tried to get to grips with the story, he became the conduit between the media and the embattled mayor.
He constantly gave updates about Sebaggala’s predicament and his life as a prisoner. Till his death, Nsubuga maintained a cordial relationship with journalists and in some media circles; he earned the nickname “500500, which stands for the last six digits of his cell phone, one of the easiest to memorise.
Ssebaana told The Observer on Monday that Nsubuga’s death was a big blow not only to DP but to the country.
“He was a straightforward politician. If he did not like anything, he would tell you,” Ssebaana said.
Muyanja Mbabaali, who defeated Nsubuga in Bukoto South, described him as a person who accepts defeat quickly and who works with everyone irrespective of political affiliation.
Even after he lost his parliamentary seat, Nsubuga did not completely give up on politics. He immersed himself in the activities of the interparty organisation for dialogue (Ipod), a body established to foster unity amongst political parties. In July this year, he attracted the wrath of FDC when he led Ipod executive members into a meeting with President Museveni at State House, Entebbe.
They accused him and other members of being opposition sellouts. But in an interview with The Observer, he shot back.
“There is something wrong with some people in FDC. They are hypocrites. We agreed [that we shall go for the State House meeting] and they even sent names to the protocol department of State House. Now they are attacking us for attending the meeting. That is not fair,” he said.
Betty Nambooze, the Mukono municipality MP, described Nsubuga as a person who believed in building consensus by talking to even those he disagreed with.
“The DP bridge has collapsed. Nsubuga believed in dialogue and would establish a relationship with everyone,” said Nambooze, who is also the DP president for Buganda.
Nsubuga was born on November 26, 1956 in Ngereko-Manja, Lwengo district. He is survived by a wife, eight children and grandchildren. Today (Wednesday), there will be a memorial mass for Nsubuga at Lubaga cathedral and thereafter his body will be transported to Ngereko-Manja village, where it will be laid to rest on Thursday.
ekiggundu@observer.ug
slubwama@observer.ug