When FDC Hated Njuba
The Late SamNjuba
More secrets regarding what made departed FDC Chairman Sam Njuba a rare species have emerged. We have been told that Njuba was so calm and composed rarely got excited to make reckless political statements.
It has particularly been revealed that Njuba’s credentials came to the fore in 2008 when Suleiman Kiggundu died. We are told a group of hardliners, led by one bulky lady in FDC, organized a news conference at Najjanankumbi and, being the most senior FDC man in Buganda, Njuba was called in to address the news conference commiserating with Kiggundu’s relatives and friends.
The hardliners had prepared a statement for Njuba to read out and give a Luganda version. On seeing the poisonous contents of the press statement, Njuba ignored it and spoke from hishead without reading from anywhere.
The press statement, prepared by the bulky lady, contained a line which sought to hold government liable for illustrious Kiggundu’s death. Njuba refused to implicate the NRM central government arguing that as a lawyer that was the worst thing he could do to injure his own credibility and that of the party.
“My friend I’m a lawyer there is no way I can allege things which I can’t prove. I have a name to protect and I’m sorry I won’t score political points that way,” Njuba told the bulky lady after the news conference.
The hard-liners’ argument was that Kiggundu had always been very bold referring to his press conference where he said FDC was holding the government and security agencies liable for the circumstances in which Besigye’s brother Musasizi Kifefe died.
The hard-liners told Njuba: “Dr. Kiggundu never minced words on things of death of activists and this was the best way to ensure he didn’t die in vain.” Njuba would take none of this, prompting the hard-liners to dismiss him as a weakling.
The other secret about Njuba was that he was very close to Gilbert Bukenya, the former Vice President. Even when he was still VP, Bukenya often visited and had meals in Njuba’s home.
The Busiro North MP has a child with Njuba’s eldest daughter whom he developed an affair with after she separated with her first husband Capt Guma, the deceased UPDF officer.
It’s also true that it was Njuba who recruited Bukenya to NRM and convinced him to abandon his teaching job in New Papua Guinea to return and build his country under the auspices of NRM led by Museveni. So dear readers wonder no more as to why Bukenya was last Saturday captured on TV cameras at Njuba’s home spitting fire on government for frustrating Njuba in his later years. He knew him inside and out.
