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The Commissioner of Parliament and former Leader of the Opposition in the House, Mathias Mpuuga, has once again hit hard at his party and its leadership.
In a strongly worded speech at an event in Mityana District, Mpuuga made remarks that are widely interpreted as a direct attack on the National Unity Platform (NUP) leadership, particularly its president, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, aka Bobi Wine.
Mpuuga asserted that drunkards and marijuana smokers are incapable of ousting President Yoweri Museveni from power.
“Tell those aspiring for leadership positions to stop spending time in bars, quit boozing, and give up smoking marijuana,” he said.
Mpuuga pointed out that Museveni, Uganda’s longest-serving leader, whom he is determined to see removed from office, remains consistently sober, unlike his own party president, Bobi Wine. Before entering politics, Bobi Wine was known as a marijuana smoker during his music career.
“Anyone who wants to be a leader must remain sober 24 hours a day and pay close attention to current events. You cannot aspire to lead the country and make changes if you are a drunkard. The person (Museveni) you aim to overthrow does not smoke, does not go to bars, does not booze, and doesn’t even drink wine,” Mpuuga said.
These remarks are seen as a counterattack against the NUP, which accused Mpuuga of corruption after he received an illegal service award amounting to 500 million shillings during his tenure as Leader of the Opposition in Parliament.
The NUP condemned this cash token, while Mpuuga maintained that it was a justified gratuity.
He insisted that the money be approved and passed by Parliament.
“Even in Parliament, there are members who approve and pass legislation without understanding it. Later, they exclaim, ‘When did we approve this?’” Mpuuga said.
Recently, a cropped piece of paper circulated online, purportedly showing that Parliament had indeed passed the money.
However, the Leader of the Opposition and NUP spokesperson, Joel Ssenyonyi, declared it a forgery.
Ssenyonyi stated that the cropped paper does not appear in any of the budget documents or other parliamentary records and challenged anyone promoting it to provide its origin.
To date, no one has come forward to claim the document or provide any parliamentary records from which it was extracted.