Not afraid. The former intelligence coordinator said he does not regret his political remarks challenging the democratic credentials of the NRM

Kampala.

Gen David Sejusa has said it is useless to participate in the 2016 elections unless the NRM state and the current electoral system under it are dismantled, warning that the new Opposition alliance will not succeed in dislodging President Museveni.

“It is not that the Opposition cannot win. They can win but they cannot get power from Museveni. After all, Dr Besigye won in 2006 but never took power. We stand for resolutely resisting Museveni until he is defeated,” Gen Sejusa told Saturday Monitor.

His organisation, The Free Uganda (TFU), also issued a statement on Thursday reiterating the same position. The statement said the plan by the Opposition alliance to resist after the rigging has already taken place “is wrong for three main reasons; it is dishonest; it confuses the population; it removes the emphasis from building capacity to resist the dictatorship to electioneering; and it divides the Opposition forces because the government in power shall allow some to win and rig at the very top and enough NRM seats to ensure Museveni’s dominance. The rest he shall allow Opposition to take.”

Gen Sejusa dismissed the Opposition clamour for electoral reforms, saying they would yield nothing. “These so-called reforms, even if they were electoral, how can you reform an oppressive system? Even if Mr Museveni was to appoint the entire Electoral Commission to be managed by the Opposition, they would not win the election.

The issue is about the entire infrastructure of the election, because an election is not won at the time of counting ballots, it is won much earlier. We cannot go into an election where those who want to take part can win but cannot have it just like Dr Besigye won but did not get it. That is the dilemma they must confront and resolve,” Gen Sejusa said in an interview with Saturday Monitor this week.

Gen Sejusa, who is still a serving army officer, said he was ready to go to jail over his political remarks challenging the democratic credentials of the NRM and the integrity of the Electoral Commission to organise free and fair elections because going to prison was not one of his worries.

“So what is wrong with arresting Sejusa? I was arrested by Idi Amin three times, I have scars. I commanded battles with wounds through my stomach, a bullet missed my heart by a millimetre. My leg dropped off, Dr Kizza Besigye just reconnected it. I never went to hospital but survived in the bush with no treatment.”

“I fell in an enemy ambush at Kachinga, we were running away from Oyite Ojok at a place called Kansiri, my leg broke again, soldiers abandoned me, he [Dr Besigye] came later, picked me and we went and I healed. I was never arrested, I hear some people claim I was kept in an underground cell, that I opposed Museveni over women.

I saved the training and women wing of that Nalweyiso. They were going to capture them, I commanded a battle on Kawumu. I have been fighting these wars even when injured, so how do you say I am afraid of jail? Sejusa, who fought with one leg and one arm; that I am afraid of Ankunda’s jail? Afraid of our new jailers, these children and grandchildren jailers?” Gen Sejusa said in reference to UPDF spokesperson Lt Col Ankunda’s previous warning of arrest.

Gen Sejusa fled the country in April 2013 and later the army said he would face treason for his actions. While in exile, Gen Sejusa formed a political organisation and declared a struggle to remove President Museveni.

Six soldiers, including his former aide, were arrested and are still in military detention pending trial on treason charges in the Court Martial. They were accused of working with him to topple the government.

In a wide ranging interview at his home in Naguru, a Kampala suburb, Gen Sejusa sauntered to his lush green compound, clad in civilian attire and exuding the demeanour of a man at peace, saying he was ready to speak out his heart and mind.

Gen Sejusa also spoke candidly about his role in the counterinsurgency operations in Teso and northern Uganda, where he has been variously accused of committing atrocities.

Asked whether he was not afraid of being prosecuted for the alleged atrocities, Gen Sejusa said: “Personal accountability does not scare me. Saul is supposed to account for his sins if there are any. Unless he was a failure, he is supposed to do effective work of Saul and when he becomes Paul, he is supposed to do effective work of Paul.”

On NRM achievements

He also took a swipe at the acclaimed achievements of the NRM government, saying they are cosmetic and do not reflect what was envisaged under the fundamental change which the NRM and President Museveni promised upon capturing power in 1986.

“Look at the economy. We sought to build an integrated, independent self-sustaining economy. Look at what we have!” Gen Sejusa said.

He said by comparison, in terms of building Uganda’s economy, former presidents Idi Amin and Milton Obote performed better than President Museveni.

“Obote, in five years, had built 26 hospitals, go and look at them, we cannot even maintain and staff them, paint and put there beds. Thirty years later, we have small unipots with rooms called health centre IVs,” the general said of the health centres the NRM has built at sub-county and parish levels.

The fundamental change, he said, “was beyond these niceties of statistics, we were talking about restructuring the African state.”

Source: Monitor