Prime
Where did Museveni and his NRM party miss the right turn?
Author: Robert Mugabe. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- A tale goes that when they had just taken over power, he said they only needed two years to reorganise the country and hand over power to civilian authority.
The debate about whether President Museveni ever meant well for the country or not has not been settled, 37 years down the road. In the first years of his rule, Mr Museveni always purported to say or do the right things. A tale goes that when they had just taken over power, he said they only needed two years to reorganise the country and hand over power to civilian authority.
When the two years elapsed, he argued that they needed just two more years to make the Constitution. He made a strong case for the two years that he nearly convinced everyone in the top echelon of the NRA leadership to agree. It took the intervention of people like Amanya Mushega who argued that it would be impracticable to make the Constitution in two years only.
For a keen, observant and analytical eye, it was clear that the President had begun shifting political goal posts, but he had done so with dexterity and sophistication. He couched his argument in rationality. This impressed his colleagues to the extent that they had to plead with him to accept a longer period for making the Constitution. In the end, they settled in for four years.
Thereafter, the Constitution making process set in earnest. A Constitutional Review Commission was appointed to collect views from Ugandans to form the basis of making a draft constitution. After that, in 1994, the Constituent Assembly was elected to discuss the draft constitution and in 1995, the new constitution was promulgated.
The new constitution was a new national consensus that ushered in a new era of hope in the future of Uganda. So when it was promulgated in 1995, President Museveni again shifted the goal post. He said, as midwives of the new constitution, he and the NRM should be the ones to nurture the baby. Thus in the 1996 General Election, he stood and continued his rule.
When that term (1996-2001) was coming to the end, a new scheme to keep the President in office was hatched. This time around, the schemers introduced the idea of consolidating the achievements of the NRM. In the end, in 2001, Mr Museveni again ran for office. He, amid unprecedented violence, wholesale vote buying and broad day light rigging, was declared the winner of the vote.
In the middle of the (2001-2006) term, the President and his henchmen hatched another scheme to remove all roadblocks that the 1995 Constitution had put in place to bar his bid for life presidency. So ultimately, the two-five-year limit to the tenure of the presidency was removed from the Constitution. This paved the way for his bid in 2006, 2011 and 2016.
In the 2021 elections, there would have been another constitutional roadblock i.e. the age limit. It barred a person beyond 75 years of age to contest for the presidency. The President would not have been eligible to stand in 2021. The schemers moved fast and removed this article from the Constitution in 2017. The last safeguard in the Constitution had been removed in the blink of an eye and a life presidency was in the offing.
It is certainly not clear whether these machinations are orchestrated by President Museveni himself or his cronies. However, one thing is for sure, he is the net beneficiary. This, therefore, should settle the debate about whether or not he ever meant well for the country. Also, this should clearly show where President Museveni and the NRM have continuously missed the right turn at Uganda’s historical junctions. Aluta continua.
The writer is a politician, trainer and writer
