{UAH} Mukulu Kaggwa why its not time NRM delegates to remove ‘Resistance’ from party name
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Time for NRM delegates to remove 'Resistance' from party name
Posted Monday, December 15 2014 at 02:00
The National Resistance Movement (NRM) delegates from the whole country converge at Namboole National Stadium today to deliberate on different matters concerning the party.
The delegates will discuss the current position of the ruling party and mainly draw plans and strategies that will enable the party win the general elections in 2016. The guest speaker will be President Museveni, who is also the party chairman. He is expected to give a broad outline of what NRM will do for the people of Uganda in the next five years.
President Museveni has been moving around the country, making donations of money, cows, mosquito nets, opening new buildings, attending weddings, funerals of prominent people, addressing rallies, attending football matches at Namboole, commissioning the construction of roads, attending church services in various places of worship and receiving delegations of different people and organisations. Recently, he was in Bugisu attending a very important tribal circumcision function of the Bagisu people - Imbalu. This is intended to make Ugandans know that he is "a man of the people". People cannot and will not complain that they only see him when it is time for elections as they complain about other politicians.
As the NRM delegates discuss key issues concerning the party, I appeal to them to seriously consider changing the name of the party from National Resistance Movement to National Liberation Movement. This is because the party is no longer resisting anything or anybody. President Museveni has been elected through the democratic system of "one man, one vote" by the people of Uganda. By keeping the 'Resistance' in NRM, what is President Museveni resisting? Is the party resisting the people of Uganda? Definitely not, because there is no need for that. The party liberated the people of Uganda. Remember the National Resistance Army changed the name to Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF); NRM should follow suit.
Our children and grandchildren should be in future be fed with a new philosophy of "liberation". We should tell them that this is the party which liberated our country and our people from oppression. It is not necessary now, and in the future, to feed them with the old philosophy of resistance.
I make this proposal because I was very instrumental in the formation of the National Resistance Movement and National Resistance Army on July 8, 1981 in Nairobi, Kenya. Our group was led by the late Prof YK Lule who was president of Uganda after Idi Amin.
After the disputed 1980 general elections, which was won by the Democratic Party but when Paul Muwanga who was chairman of the then ruling Military Commission, later on awarded victory to UPC/Obote, Mr Yoweri Museveni (now president) went to the bush in "Luweero Triangle" to fight and topple Obote's government.
Ugandan exiles in Nairobi formed Uganda Freedom Movement under the command of Andrew Kayiira (RIP). The elders in Buganda led by Paul Kavuma, former Katikiiro of Buganda and Prince Badru Kakungulu and Bishop Yokana Mukasa, formerly of Mityana, formed a small fighting group to fight the Obote government.
Kayiira camped in Bujuuko forests (which have now been completely cleared) but did not succeed and he returned to Nairobi. The small group of elders later merged with Mr Museveni's Popular Resistance Army (PRA).
Museveni's PRA did not do well in the initial stages in Luweero, then Paul Kavuma and the elders advised him to go to Nairobi and form one big fighting force to be able to defeat Obote.
Museveni arrived in Nairobi in July 1981 and a meeting was held with the Lule group at the home of Chris Mboijana at Kabete, near Kianda College.
Both sides agreed to form one fighting force. Dr Peter Senabulya, the eye specialist (now has an office in Colline House in Kampala) proposed the name – National Resistance Movement, and National Resistance Army.
Both sides agreed unanimously and Lule was elected chairman of NRM, deputised by Museveni. Museveni was also elected commander of NRA, deputised by Mumaanya. Unfortunately, Mumaanya died mysteriously at the Kenya/Uganda border when he was coming to Kampala to fight.
Dr Senabulya said in the meeting that "We are fighting Obote, therefore we must form a National Resistance Movement and a National Resistance Army to fight his government". People in the meeting were extremely happy with his proposal. That was how we formed both NRM and NRA on July 8, 1981 in Nairobi. We achieved victory on January 26, 1986. Therefore, the name should now be National Liberation Movement.
This party will continue for many years after President Museveni just like the parties in the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
Twenty years or 50 years from now, if you talk of resistance, people will ask you what you will be resisting but if you talk of liberation, people will know you are talking about the party which liberated the country. I appeal to the delegates to give it a serious thought.
Mr Kavuma-Kaggwa is an elder from Kyaggwe, Mukono District.
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