Mao’s entry sends shivers in Northern Uganda Government big shots

The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between President Museveni and the Democratic Party may not have come as a surprise, but few expected it at this time.

President Museveni on Wednesday 20th July announced that he had signed an MoU with the DP President Nobert Mao.

Only a video posted on the President’s Social Media platforms broke the news, offering very scanty details about the MoU.

It has long been a public secret that Mao enjoys an amiable relationship with the President; it is now official.

Talk in the political grapevine is that Mao is warming up for the vacant position of Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.

However, Mao is known to harbour bigger ambitions than a ministerial position, something President Museveni is aware of.

Sources knowledgeable with the signing of the MoU say that the process was kick-started following the jostling for the positions of Speaker and Deputy Speaker after the death of Jacob Oulanyah in March this year.

President Museveni is said to have been strongly unnerved by the vulture-like campaigning for the two positions, even before the fallen Speaker could be buried.

An angry Museveni would later publicly comment on this at the State funeral in Kololo Ceremonial grounds.

After back to back meetings of the NRM’s Central Executive Committee (CEC), it was resolved that Anita Among, then Deputy Speaker, be nominated to contest for Speaker.

Thomas Tayebwa, then Government Chief Whip, was tapped as Deputy Speaker.

The change of guard at the House is said to have brought out the true colours of one politician, whose meteoric rise from a hanger-on in the opposition to occupy the country’s second top office has exposed her ‘Napoleonic ambitions’.

Wary of the ambitions of this politician, President Museveni, who has always been on talking terms with Mao, decided that their hitherto covert political relationship had to be formalised.

Mao is said to have been jittery about “leaving his party behind”, thus the process of developing an MoU to have the Democratic Party formally work with the Government.

The political kingpins and power brokers in Northern Uganda were caught off-guard by the entry of Mao and are now living on the edge, anxious about what move Museveni may play next.

Mao, a lawyer by profession, is known for his silver tongue that has wowed his fan base right from his Makerere University days as a Guild President to his time as an MP, Chairman LC5 and DP President.

Sources privy to the talks that inform the signing of the MoU say Mao is lined up  to ‘eat big’, leaving Northern Uganda NRM kingpins on tenterhooks.