{UAH} No sole candidate, historicals tell off President Museveni
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Janat Mukwaya and Ali Kivejinja attending a function
NRM MPs are currently campaigning across the country in a bid to ring-fence the position of NRM flag-bearer for the incumbent.
The Historical Leaders' Forum is a certified organ of the NRM, just like the Youth League, Women's League and Entrepreneurs' League. It is represented in the party's top decision making bodies such as the Central Executive Committee (CEC) and the National Executive Committee (NEC).
In different exclusive interviews with The Observer over the last two weeks, executives of the NRM Historical Leaders' Forum argued that by pushing for 'sole candidacy', NRM legislators are sacrificing Uganda's future to lengthen the incumbent's 30-year tenure.
The former deputy director of economic affairs at the Movement Secretariat, Zedekiah Karokora, accused President Museveni of turning his back on the ideals that they jointly aspired for when forming the Front for National Salvation (Fronasa), Uganda People's Movement (UPM) and, subsequently, National Resistance Movement/Army (NRM/A).
"We wanted democratic rule and democracy means competition. There is no reason for ring-fencing positions so that individuals are elected unopposed," said Karokora, whose earliest contribution to the Museveni-led struggle was to operate a Fronasa cell in Bushenyi district from 1973 to 1979.
Reminiscing about the ideas that endeared him to the current president in the 1970s, Karokora recalled that Museveni "used to articulate the anti-corruption message very well."
He cited an incident at Kakyeka stadium in Mbarara district in the late 1970s, when Museveni openly accused the then president, Godfrey Lukongwa Binaisa, at a rally, of
"turning State House into a clearing house" of self-serving political and commercial deals.
"That [position] galvanised a lot of support for him [Museveni] even after forming UPM in 1980," said Karokora, a member of NRM's NEC representing historicals from western Uganda. "Throughout the bush war, people were looking at him as a fighter against corruption, a liberator for the economy of this country."
Now 67 years old, Karokora says that because he witnessed that bit of history, he feels betrayed when he sees NRM legislators – with President Museveni funding and cheering them on – attempting to muzzle other senior party leaders from aspiring to lead the country by buying public approval for his continued stay in power.
"Museveni should be the last to do that," said the former Rukungiri district LC-V chairman, who also served as Resident District Commissioner for 15 years.
"He presented himself as a democrat but he is now using the rule of dominance using money and power so that everybody must bow to State House to get money or services. What Binaisa was suspected of doing has now been actualised under him."
'Museveni has deviated'
The publicity secretary of the NRM Historical Leaders' Forum, James Magode Ikuya, told The Observer that many of Museveni's contemporaries still in the NRM have developed "a common attitude" that their comrade has deviated from the dreams and objectives that brought them together in the early 1970s.
"We who started this thing thought that we would raise the nature of politics [after capturing state power] so that we raise things which concern society. But what we are having now is completely forgetting that there is society as a whole," said Magode, who represents NRM historicals in the party's NEC.
"Instead of us raising structural issues, we are now discussing leadership," said the former deputy director at the Movement Secretariat.
"If you have a bicycle whose chains have gone off, the issue is not who should ride the bicycle. The issue is to put back the chain on the bicycle so that it can move [again]. But you are now talking as if the only issue is who should ride the bicycle."
In response, the minister without portfolio, Richard Todwong, said the NRM caucus had decided to bring forward the decision of deciding on the party flag bearer in order not to let the two remaining years of the current Museveni leadership degenerate into politicking. He said if those who want the presidency through NRM had played by the rules rather than try to ambush the party, then the caucus would not have acted us it did.
"People were campaigning and collecting signatures in the night. It was becoming nasty. But we are saying, "we have a door, why are some people trying to climb [to the presidency] through the window?'," said Todwong, who was recently offered the mass mobilisation docket at the NRM secretariat.
Karokora and Magode also bemoaned the collapse of institutions in the country, rampant corruption within government, and the resultant dearth in service delivery. They said they now feel the pinch in old-age of government's failure to put in place systems that work.
"If we continue along this road [as a country], we are going to crash," warned Karokora.
"With the decline of UPE (Universal Primary Education), the health services and so on, we may end up the Haitian way."
Kivejinja's take
Former deputy prime minister, Kirunda Kivejinja, 78, said he has a "less pessimistic view that everything is lost and therefore we are just roaming without direction."
Kivejinja argued that unlike in the military where the historical content of the Museveni-led liberation struggle was maintained and even enshrined in the Constitution, Uganda's politics suffers from the fact that it is no longer guided by revolutionary ideals. He said it explains the successes of the UPDF and the problems in the country's politics.
"Many of the historical members of the NRC are not available as ready reference to the coming and future generations of the movement; so, that has accounted for what you see on the political ground, because anybody comes up and once he becomes MP, he thinks he is on top of the world," Kivejinja said, adding that Museveni's ability to mobilise ordinary people is what continues to hold the NRM together.
Kivejinja noted the lack of a coherent historical force to guide Museveni, like the case was during the bush struggle in 1980s, or with the UPDF today, which he said has left the president isolated at the top.
"There is no link with historicals, and when you are left alone, you must float," he said.
"You must find a way to survive and sometimes you might use unorthodox methods to survive and therefore you need to appreciate that it is not because of his nature but because of the conditions in which he finds himself."
M7-Mbabazi 'circus'
Magode dismissed the ongoing leadership struggle in the NRM between President Museveni and Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi as "a circus" that should not take precedence over more important issues in the national debate.
He urged Ugandans to demand, including at the ongoing popularisation meetings for the "sole candidacy", that the ruling party leadership addresses issues more pertinent to the future of Uganda and its people.
"Why do we need a circus when there is politics which should be addressed; the future of NRM, the future of Uganda?" he asked.
"Ugandans should take themselves seriously really. [They should] look at issues that affect the country and themselves, and raise the debate from this level because these people are trying to reduce debate about the country to a nonsensical level."
The historicals disclosed that since the February NRM MPs' caucus meeting at Kyankwanzi, which laid bare the power struggle between the NRM chairman and its secretary general, they have twice asked to meet Museveni over the matter. Each time, the president has snubbed them.
"Whether this is inadvertent or deliberate is something I leave to them," said Magode, adding: "The fact that these things [the leadership battles] can happen without trying to reach our constituency makes us suspect that the lack of such interaction is more deliberate than inadvertent."
Arm's length
Informed NRM sources have told The Observer that President Museveni keeps the historical leaders' forum at arm's length because it is the only body that openly challenges him or questions his decisions during party meetings. According to this source, the historicals easily take on Museveni because they consider him their peer.
One of the president's reliable allies within the Historical Leaders' Forum is Ali Kirunda Kivejinja, now a senior presidential adviser in charge of veterans' affairs. Kivejinja is currently chairman of the forum and represents the historicals on the NRM's CEC, the ruling party's second highest decision-making body.
However, as The Observer reported in its March 17, 2014 issue, even Kivejinja surprised Museveni at the post-Kyankwanzi CEC meeting when he spoke out strongly against the 'sole candidacy' resolution.
More CEC members spoke out against the resolution, including Amelia Kyambadde, the party treasurer, and Hassan Basajjabalaba, the chairman of the Entrepreneurs league.
Kivejinja, according to our sources, said the most important thing for NRM was to project a good image in terms of democracy.
"We still have two years to the elections and if we say President Museveni is already our candidate, what signal does this send out to the people?" asked Kivejinja. "It means that we have narrowed the democratic space."
In an interview with The Observer on Friday, Kivejinja declined to comment on the discussions in the CEC meeting. He, however, said that although every individual within the NRM MPs' caucus is free to express their views, their resolutions are not binding.
"Everybody is free to do what they want, to jump around. But the decisions will have to be taken by the proper organs. NEC has not met. The [national] conference has not met. Even CEC will have to prepare and come up with a mechanism. If we have to change leadership, there will have to be reasons because we are not urged by the opposition. We have got a winning team and the leader of the team has scored in each and everything," said Kivejinja.
No to sole candidacy
With the core of NRM Youth League leaders rejecting the Kyankwanzi resolution too, the Historical Leaders' Forum becomes the second major body of the ruling party whose senior leaders have publicly opposed the sole candidate project.
Over the last two months, President Museveni has struggled to rein in – using both the carrot and stick – a group of NRM Youth League leaders who have thrown their weight behind a yet-to-be declared Mbabazi presidential bid.
Ironically, the quest to declare President Museveni unopposed party flag bearer was engineered by mostly young MPs such as Evelyn Anite (Youth MP North), Kenneth Omona (Kaberamaido), Peter Ogwang, Todwong and Minister for Youth Ronald Kibuule.
NRM historicals, who spoke to The Observer, believe that the move to exempt Museveni from competition, and the subsequent decision to popularise the move is self-serving, if not downright illegal.
The historicals, according to Magode, feel the NRM caucus has usurped the powers of all other party organs, yet the decisions it makes are not even binding on the organisation.
"We think that it is not the duty of the caucus to be NRM. Its duty is to carry out NRM work in parliament; that means there must be NRM itself, separate from the MPs. It must have positions it adopts and then gives to its Members in Parliament, that you go and use your rules to implement common positions," he said.
In response, Todwong said the caucus is made up of leaders belonging to all NRM organs, meaning it encompasses the views of everyone.
"We know that the caucus decisions are not binding. That is why we are going to speak to our constituents. The final decision will be made at the delegates' conference," said the 41-year-old Nwoya County MP.
Magode said blatant disregard of the NRM's ideals makes many older people, who invested a lot of their youthful time in the struggle, hoping for fruits, to begin regretting.
Responding to recent comments in The Observer by NRM spokesman Ofwono Opondo, that natural selection was phasing out the historicals and paving the way for the emergence of new leaders, Magode said their only hope is that the original NRM ideals should outlive them rather than be sacrificed in exchange for fleeting political influence.
"Normally, in historical terms, when we talk of the young taking over from the old, it is the inculcation of ideals from one generation to another so that there is continuity. Now, if for some reason some people think that because they are young and occupy positions in the name of NRM they can bring in positions which are not NRM, then that cannot be said to be passing on power to a young generation."
Todwong said although Museveni is the NRM's best bet now, they are aware he will not rule for ever. He said the party is planning for a smooth leadership transition, which some of its leaders could end up derailing by trying to get to the presidency using underhand methods.hobenon@observer.ug
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H.OGWAPITI
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---Theodore Roosevelt
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