Controversial Buyaga West County MP Barnabas Tinkasimire says he cannot leave NRM, a fully registered political party to join People Power, which is just a pressure group.
Tinkasimire is one of the individuals tagged NRM ‘rebel’ MPs for consistently disagreeing with a number of party positions.
He is among the 30 legislators from the ruling party who opposed the removal of the Presidential age caps that made President Yoweri Museveni eligible to stand in next year’s presidential elections.
He has since been appointed by the ‘People Power’ leader also Kyadondo East MR Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine to head the pressure group’s coordination team in Bunyoro region.
During a political talk show on Top TV, Tinkasiimire revealed that he has not ‘reached that level’ of leaving a registered political party to fully join People Power which just a pressure group.
“This is a multiparty political dispensation. You want a person [like me] who studied political science from Makerere University, has a Masters in Political science from Makerere, to move from a political party to a pressure group? No. I have not yet reached that level,” Tinkasiimire said.
“I have never quit NRM and deep inside me I am NRM. That is why I wore yellow at the NEC meeting because those are the colours of my party.”
The controversial legislator who is serving his 3rd term in parliament was among the NRM MPs who last week attended the NEC meeting and NRM Delegates conference in Entebbe and Namboole respectively. Other NRM rebel MPs who attended are; Monicah Amoding (Kumi Woman MP) and Theodore Ssekikubo (Lwemiyaga County).
Tinkasiimire said that it is within their rights to attend the NRM meetings despite having internal grievances on operations and activities of the party. He says that he has been denied a platform to highlight to the party structures some of the issues affecting people and internal democracy in the party.
Asked if his ‘return’ to the NRM will not affect his relationship with Bobi Wine of People Power, MP Tinkasiimire said, “I have never left NRM. Of course Bobi Wine knows that even if I support him, I am NRM. When he [Bobi Wine] says that he doesn’t want any support from people who are NRM then I will certainly be out.”
