In the brutal world of politics, FDC president, Patrick Oboi Amuriat, has been left to kick the trashcan down the dusty road, as he swapped positions with party secretary general Nathan Nandala Mafabi now incoming flag-bearer candidate for the 2026 presidential elections. It has been a low-key affair of Nandala and Amuriat show, with Nandala as the real frontman, in what used to be the lead opposition party now a ghost lying down in embarrassments.

When Amuriat was elected FDC president, and later handed the flag to run for president of Uganda, the political world told FDC that he did not have fire in his belly, but for convenience was ignored. Now the grapevine has it that Amuriat has lowered his ambitions to Kanyum parliamentary constituency, Kumi district. Personally I think that after a quarter of a century as MP Budadiri East constituency, with so little to show on the ground in socio-economic transformation, coupled with recent accusations by estranged FDC elements, Nandala may be finding a half-clever way to quit parliament, and the presidential bid could be a stunt.

The NRM elections and its prolonged foggy aftermath, has momentarily concealed the miseries in opposition ranks. Mathias Mpuuga’s Democratic Front is limping more as a tribal clan, while DP and UPC are embroiled in inconclusive wars. Mpuuga has settled nicely in his new role of relative obscurity from the limelight of LoP, and like Betty Aol Ocan, the last LoP under FDC who so few even remember.

Maj. Gen. (rtd) Greg Mugisha Muntu of the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) returning as a 2026 presidential candidate and to what end after not finding his political gravitas. Forced out of FDC by Kizza Besigye and his wolves, yet unwilling to publicly rock the opposition sinking boat, many wonder what Muntu is really up to. Never-the0less, you have to admit and admire Muntu’s brute political courage, maybe a better second, third chance. Besigye tried four times, but is now washed out. Aggrey Awori (RIP), Beti Kamya, Dr. Abed Bwanika, and Gen. (rtd) Henry Tumukunde all eyed the presidency, collapsed and returned to seek parliamentary seats. It is a good habit when men and women in straw hats learn to cut their losses.

Muntu’s installation by ANT as a presidential candidate, could be one way to thwart PFF boss, Eras Lukwago’s ambition for the same flag considering that ANT and PFF only recently signed an election ‘cooperation agreement’ whose details remain cagy. Some pundits think that ANT and PFF could be seeing their ‘cooperation’ as a possible antidote on NUP in Buganda, to occupy a vacuum.

With NUP’s miserable performance in and outside parliament, except for tormenting bullish prime minister Robina Nabanja on the floor, by Joel Senyonyi, a man with a constant sense of superiority, sneer and arrogance, there is little to write home about. And the flair of Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, Medard Segona and Mohammed Muwanga Kivumbi, the threesome of perpetual condescension and swipe, occasionally taking advantage of parliamentary immunity to slander, has cowed many in NRM into silence.

Vice president Jessica Alupo has chosen to limit any probable damage to her reputation and has kept her head low while in parliament yet she ought to use her protocol to clarify contentious issues. In that brutal it’s everyone to themselves, yet opposition parties, although not in government, have too recorded many failures of their own to defend, and shouldn’t be left to roll in fantasies.

With many ministers and MPs having been thrown out in the NRM primaries, it is now time to see who, indeed how many more will get the shoutouts in the coming graveyard during the general elections. Apparently unnoticed, a quiet revolution is underway within NRM as voters eat the money but reject the spendthrifts.