{UAH} MUSEVENI SHOULD HOLD DIALOGUE WITH BESIGYE TOO

MUSEVENI SHOULD HOLD DIALOGUE WITH BESIGYE
BY AHMED KATEREGGA MUSAAZI
For President Yoweri Museveni to hold regular meetings with his new
opponent and former Prime Minister and NRM Secretary General, Amama
Mbabazi, is a good gesture that should be kept and emulated.
The President has held several meetings with Mbabazi some on one to
one basis, others with Prim,e Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, and others
with other members of Mbabazi family including wife Jacqueline Mbabazi
and sister in law, Hope Mwesigye Ruhindi.
Museveni had no su ch a meeting with Dr. Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere of
DP and Muhammad Mayanja Kibirige of JEEMA whom he competed with in
1996.
He had no such meeting with Dr.Kizza Besigye whom he compated with in
2001, 2006 and 2011 and defeated him.
Optimists had thought that in such meetings, Amama Mbabzi will be
convinced to stand down for Museveni but he did not. However of lste
he decided to stand as an independent.
However he has to either stand as an individual and his group thathas
broken away from the main stream NRM the way Besigye did in 2001 under
a Reform Agenda, or part of an opposition alliance where he will first
compete with Kizza Besigye, Gilbert Bukenya, among others.
Opinion polls conducted by New Vision have indicated that Besigye is
the most favoured candidate among the opposition. However Besigye has
failed thrice and that is why even inside FDC camp they think about
Mugisha Muntu
Source close to opposition say that while Besigye enjoy popular
support next to that of Museveni and NRM, he has no support among
political elites including ministers, MPs and technocrats. Even donors
prefer Mbabazi.
So Besigye is likely to compete with Museveni again, whether Mbabazi
stands or not. Given the polarization the country is going through,
and given to the fact that in Burundi it is President Museveni that
has pushed for a government of national unity, Uganda is likely to end
up in the same. But before we go to all that, let the President hold
dialogue with his former physician in the liberation war.
Power sharing however in the executive where the likes of Museveni,
Besigye and Mbabazi eat big, is not enough and it is not the first
time it is done. It has to cut across all organs of the state
including legislature and if possible, and even judiciary.
Since spiritual leaders and traditional leaders are not involved in
this power sharing, for Uganda as God fearing country but multi
religious and multi cultural, power sharing should also cut across
regions.
That is why an improvement on a Regional Government Tier system that
was put in the constitution in 2005, should be done so that we either
go with a full federal form of government as it is the case in
Nigeria, Ethiopia, Somalia, the Sudans , DR Congo and the Comoros, or
a quasi federal as it was the case in 1962 and in South Africa.
The writer is a journalist by profession, and an aspiring
parliamentary candidate for Kyaddondo South, Wakiso District.

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