Vincent Nuwagaba, a Makerere University scholar is renowned for being ruthless and intolerant towards mediocrity which he accuses Finance Minister Matia Kasaija of perpetuating in Uganda. Nuwagaba’s chance to make his case came on Tuesday when Kasaija went to the Media Center to address reporters and government officials about the activities of the budget month leading up to the budget reading day.
Having been let into the Uganda Media Centre premises by the relaxed security operatives who thought he was one of the journalists coming to cover the media event, the ruthless Vincent Nuwagaba (renowned for his militancy and eloquence) walked straight to the raised platform where the ill-fated Kasaija was speaking from and attempted to wrestle him on the ground.
A terrified Kasaija raised an alarm calling for help from his bodyguards, Ofwono Opondo and other government and URA officials present. A nervous-looking Kasaija vigorously screamed as Nuwagaba vigorously moved to hit his head using the microphone he had already grabbed from its stand. The 40-year-old Nuwagaba told Kasaija that Ugandans weren’t ready to tolerate him anymore, reading to them a helpless budget because he himself is a fake Minister ever telling lies to citizens.
“What sort of budget are you talking about? You are nobody and I’m a Professor,” Nuwagaba barked.
Kasaija, while looking at his host Opondo as if to ask come to my rescue, implored Nuwagaba to sit down, something the randy scholar from Mitooma’s Kigarama Parish Kamabere village shouted it was now or never.
“I have been looking for this opportunity to attack and humiliate you (Kasaija) publicly for such a long time and today God has answered my prayers,” Nuwagaba said.
Nuwagaba told Kasaija he can’t be or act civilly the way the Minister was demanding because civility can clearly not work anymore in Museveni’s Uganda. Nuwagaba told Kasaija he can’t comply with his orders to sit down because “by the way I’m superior to you Minister in everything.”
A nervous Kasaija, not used to meeting such tired and fearless Ugandans, resignedly shot back saying “it’s very okay Professor you are indeed superior to me.” Kasaija later said he had forgiven his attacker prompting the relentless Nuwagaba to tell him there was nothing to be forgiven about.
On subsequently being subdued by the mean-looking body guards, Nuwagaba was detained in one of the dark rooms at Uganda Media Center near Executive Director Ofwono Opondo’s office. Kasaija was lucky and must have eaten his chicken escaping the Vincent Nuwagaba attack without physical wounds because years ago, Prof Tarsis Kabwegyere, who was a Minister like Kasaija is today, wasn’t that lucky.
Back then the militant Nuwagaba, then a resident of Lumumba Hall, thumped Kabwegyere who had driven to Makerere in a government car to promote the scrapping of the term limit provisions from the Constitution to allow Gen Museveni remain President beyond 2006.
Nuwagaba called it a ‘sad’ term and told Kabwegyere it was an insult for a whole Professor to drive to Makerere, his Alma Mater, to promote the same. What Vincent Nuwagaba, now Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa and other militant students did to Prof Kabwegyere that day was an act of extreme torture because they physically went after him and police had to intervene to rescue the equally comical Professor whose clothes got torn and was on the verge of being undressed.
