A few years back, Dr. Kiiza Besigye made a statement that rattled a section of the fanatical opposition; it was the first time since the fallout of the two political bigwigs from western Uganda, that Dr Besigye was hard publically crediting President Museveni for being a visionary, intelligent and focused leader.

In his own words, Besigye articulated how President Museveni is a visionary man, who has identified his vision and mission, adding that he is also an intelligent man who will read your mind upon the first interaction and a very focused man with eyes on his vision.

True to Besigye’s words, president Museveni has been very consistent with his vision for the federation of the East African block. Despite the internal pressure from our monarch institutions, advocating for the federal system of governance in Uganda Mr Museveni has stood his ground and said if we are to federate then it should be at the East African level.

As our opposition politicians are busy focusing on rooting Museveni out of power in Uganda, the man from Rwakitura is focused on rebuilding the East African Federation. Given his experience, Museveni has managed to position himself as the architect and founding father of the modern EAC.

Mr Museveni’s vision has been to create a bigger EAC block from the original three countries; namely Uganda Kenya and Tanzania, the east African block has grown to seven counties which include, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and now DR Congo with a total population of about 300million citizens and an estimated GDP of US Dollars of 240billion market.

Last week during his address to the high level EAC common market summit, Museveni put his emphasis on the lifting of the trade barriers in order to fast track development in the block. He reechoed his vision to the members urging them, that given the prevailing world economic turmoil, the best thing to be done is for the EAC to open up its trade barriers to foster an internal growth.

A few months ago, the minister for East Africa Community, Rt Hon. Rebbeca Kadaga reveled to the media how the EAC Monetary Union Protocol is in its final implementation stages and that by 2023, we shall be having an EAC shilling.

With the projection of political federation to be fully implemented by year 2026, where does this development leave our parochial political players? Are they ready to play on the big stage? Or they are going to wake up when Mr Museveni and his NRM are the only exports from Uganda on the big stage?

The biggest problem is that our opposition politicians have a short term objective of removing Mr Museveni and the NRM from power. Can our opposition politicians ever imagined that a day will come when Museveni is not just the president of Uganda, but the president of the EAC?

Are they prepared to take him on, on that stage? Are they positioning themselves to take on the other big names in the region? Or our only hope as Ugandans and members of the EAC is vested in the able hands of the political tactician from Rwakitura?

My humble advise is that if our local politicians want to remain relevant on the EAC political scene, they should up their game and stop being parochial with their sole objective of removing Mr Museveni, but start to think and plan for the EAC which is the next stage.

Otherwise they are going to remain on Kampala streets composing more songs of freedom appealing to their fanatical followers and fade off the political scene like a beautiful flower that blossoms in the morning and in the evening it’s no more. Politics is not an emotional game, it is a strategic game.

The writer is an Analyst and Communications specialist

fmagomu@gmail.com