Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) 2021 presidential election candidate Maj Gen (Rtd) Gregg Mugisha Muntu says Ugandans must prepare for a post-Museveni Uganda or be ready to watch the country collapse.
Maj Gen Muntu has argued that November 18 and 19 protests over the arrest of National Unity Platform (NUP) presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine point to darker days.
The former army commander is set to resume his campaigns following suspension of the same in solidarity with Bobi Wine and Patrick Oboi Amuriat of main opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) who were arrested on November 18 in Luuka District and Gulu City, respectively.
As he resumes his campaigns in Hoima on November 22, Muntu said his ANT party was still “committed to working towards a country in which political contestation is treated a civic, patriotic act not a threat to national security.”
The former FDC president, who lost the main opposition party’s top job to now fellow presidential candidate Amuriat, asserts that now is the time to prepare for Uganda in which incumbent Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni is not part of the top leadership.
Museveni has ruled Uganda since 1986 and is seeking to extend his rule to four decades.
Muntu was part of the fighters that participated in the five-year bush war that propelled Museveni to power.
“For a while now, we have been talking about the need to prepare the country for a post-Museveni era. Some have insisted that this is premature and that we should only be focused on change now,” noted Muntu.
“But the events of the past several days demonstrate why it is important for us to prepare ourselves and the country for the inevitable change.”
He further warned of consequences if the opposition failed to plan for an orderly transition.
“We must build networks of grassroot leaders that are capable of managing the transition when it comes. We must be ready with not just alternative ideas of how to run the country, but alternative leaders to carry out these ideas,” he said.
“Otherwise, the country could very easily implode. And while it would be the current regime’s fault, we all would inevitably bear the consequences and pay a heavy price.”
The ANT leader added that it was time political conversations shifted “beyond demanding for change.”
“We must start becoming the change we seek.”
