During campaigns, so much happens at the same time that you are often barely able to capture everything. For instance, while we were focused on the confrontations between the state machinery and Dr Besigye in Kampala, we did not – as journalists – do justice to the story of the internal confrontations within the FDC.
The public scuffles started the day Dr Besigye was being nominated at the Mandela stadium, Namboole. By then, the differences between Kampala Woman Member of Parliament candidate Nabilah Ssempala and the FDC top brass were full blown and she had made some public statements that indicated she no longer wanted anything to do with FDC and Dr Besigye.
And FDC seemed to have settled on backing Shifrah Lukwago, a close ally of Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago (the two Lukwagos aren’t related, to the best of my knowledge).
On Besigye’s nomination day, Nabilah took the FDC leadership by surprise when she turned up and joined the procession to the Electoral Commission desk. She edged her way to the front and eventually sat beside Dr Besigye on the seat that the EC had reserved for candidates’ spouses.
Later, FDC spokesperson Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda told us that they had wanted to kick Nabilah out of the seat but Dr Besigye told them to leave her alone. But the attached photo clearly froze the tension during the moment.
And, if I recall clearly, the next day Nabilah was on the front page of all major newspapers alongside Besigye, a photo which resuscitated her re-election chances among voters in Kampala who had grown increasingly skeptical about her political steadfastness.
The most compelling drama was however saved for the time Besigye campaigned in Kampala. Despite the tensions between her and top FDC officials, Nabilah ensured that she was at the centre of every campaign activity that Dr Besigye engaged in.
At one point, in between rallies, when police stopped Dr Besigye’s procession, Nabilah went and kicked Dr Besigye’s aide called Musasizi from the co-drivers’ seat. The young man humbly went and sat in the boot of Besigye’s landcruiser, where he sat for the rest of the day.
Nabilah on the other hand got the vantage seat from which she was able to often stand alongside Besigye on his car’s roof top and wave to the crowd. In another instance, while Besigye made a live television speech, Nabilah elbowed her way to sit just behind him, a seat that ensured she could be easily seen on TV by everyone watching the broadcast.
There are other unseemly scenes that I heard happened, including the one Nandala Mafabi mentioned during the controversial talkshow on Thursday. But I won’t mention them. All I am sharing here are those incidents that I personally witnessed.
Having seen those incidents, it was clear to me that Nabilah and FDC had reached a point of no return. It is, therefore, to FDC’s credit (or perhaps to Besigye’s credit as an individual) that Nabilah pulled off all her antics and got away with them without FDC pulling rank.
But it was also clear that if Nabilah got to parliament, which she did, she was not going to be beholden to FDC. Little wonder that she made a disappearing act each time there was a contentious issue to discuss or vote on.
Having got an extra five years using the flag of a party she was at loggerheads with, the best that Nabilah should have done this time round is make a honourable exit – send a thank you card to FDC and leave to find her footing and belonging elsewhere.
Otherwise, unless Nabilah feels that she will somehow reap some political gains from the drama that she’s sparked off, this would be a time to cut her losses and run. For she reaped five years in Parliament from a union that had run it’s course as long ago as 2015.
The author is a journalist.
