{UAH} NRM is a one-man party, says Bukenya

NRM is a one-man party, says Bukenya

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Wednesday, 06 November 2013 08:27

Written by Sadab Kitatta Kaaya

17 Comments

Gilbert Bukenya will not contest in the NRM preliminaries

Former vice president Gilbert Bukenya has announced that he will ditch plans for a showdown with president Museveni in the NRM primaries in 2015 in favour of an outright contest for the presidency in the main race in 2016.

"In NRM, there is a queue of leaders, which means that there is already a favoured class of leaders; a question that comes up here is who decided the queue," Bukenya said yesterday, adding that it is a sign of "a fundamental crack?" in the party.

In an interview with The Observer, Bukenya revealed that he had been emboldened by recent meetings with political party leaders in the UK and the US where he has spent the last one month.

Bukenya, the Busiro North MP, claimed that unless other party leaders intervene, NRM has no political future beyond Museveni. Bukenya further charged that the party survives on the whims of the president.

"NRM lacks a clear agenda and organized structures and survives on the decisions and wishes of one man – Museveni, which is dangerous. A party should be bigger than an individual, [because] if a party behaves smaller than an individual, then it is bound to collapse," he said.

"He [Museveni] has a problem of concentrating power around himself, which has affected everything, including decision-making. It has affected even the capacity of ministers to perform because he wants to do everything."

Bukenya claimed he had raised these issues with Museveni ahead of the 2010 NRM delegates' conference, but nothing had been done about them.

"I told him about this problem because I was concerned about the future of the party. We wanted [NRM] to stand the test of time, like Tanzania's CCM (Chama Cha Mapinduzi) but the difference is that CCM has strong structures that can even summon a sitting president, yet NRM can't," he said.

Bukenya also spoke about his new book, In the Corridors of Power, which he says is due to be published by the US-based Columbia University Press. He said the book is currently being proof-read by a team of American editors led by Michelle Fauber, a language specialist and consultant.

"It offers a critique of the government policies, especially privatization, rights and freedoms, party cohesion rather than clique formation, favouritism and discrimination in the NRM," he told us.

Meeting Saleh

Bukenya acknowledged an earlier report in The Observer that he had met with president Museveni's brother, Gen Salim Saleh, over his status in the NRM.

"Yes, he meets me very often because he is my neighbour at Garuga," Bukenya said. He, however, added that he was not prepared to meet Museveni "in regard to pushing me back [into government] and I'm not interested in the job of vice president anymore because I have seen what is in it, and I don't want to see myself going steps lower."

Contacted for a comment on the matter, government spokesman Ofwono Opondo wondered how Bukenya became a flag bearer for the party and a member of the NRM caucus if the party was not organised.

"It is his duty as a senior member of the party to bring forward proposals suggesting reforms that can be adopted for the betterment of the party," Opondo said.

Opondo also challenged Bukenya to produce evidence of the reforms he had reportedly suggested in the party.

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