allAfrica.com: Uganda: Should Maracha County MP Alex Onzima Quit Parliament? (Page 1 of 1)

What are the views of the Government and the opposition on the topic of the week? Sunday Vision pits opposition columnist Wafula Oguttu against the Government representative, Ofwono Opondo.

This one is a rather difficult one for me. The internal communication guidelines of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) restrict us from talking about colleagues in the media. The Samia culture under which I was brought up also restricts me from discussing my seniors' behaviour.

Alex Onzima is still FDC vice- chairman in charge of northern Uganda. He is the second most senior party leader from that region and has easy access to all party organs and to all national leaders. FDC party executive organs meet regularly, at least twice every month. As MP and a member of the national executive committee (NEC), Onzima is supposed to attend these meetings and have his say on any matter competently tabled for discussion.

But he has chosen not to follow that route. Outside party channels, he has continued to complain against his party, (that is if he still considers himself a member of the FDC,) over what he sees as failure by the party to side with him against the people of Terego (or is it against MP Kasiano Wadri?) and endorse Nyadri as the headquarters of the new Maracha-Terego District.

The NEC has discussed the Maracha-Terego issue several times and on all those occasions Onzima has stayed away from the meetings. For the past two years he has not attended any NEC meeting.

The NEC wrote to him and also sent delegations to talk to and invite him to Najjanankumbi for discussions on the Maracha-Terego issue. He always refused or found no time to come or to carry out any FDC assignments. He has rarely showed that he was unhappy in the FDC. But he has always found time to attend NRM related functions and merrymake. He has showered NRM bigwigs with praises as God-sent visionaries and wise leaders, while at the same time pouring scorn on his fellow FDC leaders as failures.

Even before the 2006 general elections, Onzima's actions and utterances showed that he was warmer to the NRM than to the FDC. Perhaps he would have preferred to stand on an NRM ticket, but he was not sure he would win in a region that was an FDC stronghold.

I think that Onzima seems to have decided to embark on a slow journey to the NRM, hoping to give his electorate sufficient time to appreciate his position and go along with him. He must be scared of what befell Dick Nyai, Aggrey Awori and Kagimu Kiwanuka. It is certainly his right to choose which party to belong to. He is not compelled to be a member of the FDC nor should anyone begrudge him if he finally decides to come out publicly and join the NRM.

THE Forum for Democratic Change's (FDC) Maracha County MP Alex Androa Onzima has come home to roost. For daring to publicly praise and acknowledge President Yoweri Museveni's achievements, and also question the FDC leadership style, Onzima is being asked to resign his seat. Onzima courted trouble when he said he would campaign for Museveni should the NRM present him for another term in 2011. Prof. Ogenga Latigo, the Agago MP, FDC vice-chairman, and Leader of Opposition in Parliament finds this bitter to swallow. Incidentally, Latigo is facing tribulations of his own within FDC for "fraternising with" and "soft-peddling"on the NRM, and getting money from the Government for his rice project in Amuru District.

Latigo has challenged Onzima to resign his seat saying: "Onzima has been very opportunistic and sitting on the fence weighing his options. If he no longer has faith in the FDC leadership and is man enough, why doesn't he tender in his resignation and we go to Maracha for a by-election and sort it out." Well, the FDC that is "man enough," should just fire Onzima and inform the Speaker of Parliament to declare the seat vacant. While the Constitution states that an MP automatically loses their seat once they cease to be a member of the party on whose ticket they were elected or cross to another, it is easier said than done. First, most MPs are in Parliament as gainful employment and few, if any, would take that dangerous gamble. Secondly, Onzima has neither crossed nor abandoned the FDC, and so resignation does not arise.

If the FDC is brave, the best it can do is discipline or expel him, and hopefully he loses the seat. Even then, the Constitution, Political Parties and Organisations' Act, and National Assembly Act are all silent on the fate of an expelled MP. An aggrieved MP could launch a very lengthy constitutional petition, which no party is ready for. By acknowledging the NRM and Museveni's achievements and questioning the FDC's performance, Onzima behaved as a civilised political leader, which should be appreciated. His outbursts expose legitimate frustrations that FDC failed or refused to address internally. That rubs the FDC the wrong way, yet they claim to have an effective internal democracy.

When some NRM MPs became errant last year, and rebuked the NRM leadership, the FDC celebrated, and praised them as "independent minded," and prodded them to continue that path.

Now, faced with a similar dilemma, possibly even a genuine demand by Onzima that FDC demonstrates good, focused and result oriented leadership, Latigo has questioned his political manliness. Many are frustrated by the political conning FDC did in 2006, when it claimed it had routed NRM and Museveni in the central, western, Busoga and Elgon regions.

Earlier, Onzima and the rabid Kasiano Wadri (FDC, Terego) had locked horns over the location of Nyadri District headquarters, which they haven't resolved. Both have publicly accused their leadership of failure to mediate in the wrangles.

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