How The Selfish Principle Of ‘Each One For Himself And God For Us All’ Has Caught Up With The Old NRM Cadres

How The Selfish Principle Of ‘Each One For Himself And God For Us All’ Has Caught Up With The Old NRM Cadres 

•  The Old NRM Cadres Made No Friends To Forge a Power-base

• NRM Should Emulate UPC\\s NUSU Which Mentored Young Leaders To Emerge

When President Yoweri Museveni shot to power with his National Resistance Army some 30 years ago, the political wing of his group, the National Resistance Movement comprised of elderly Ugandan politicians who had spent many years in exile.

This group was led by the late former vice president Dr Samson Kiseka and had a membership of the likes of Paul Wapakabulo, Sam Njuba , Eriya Kategaya , Bidandi Ssali, Amanya Mushega , Kahinda Ottafire and many others.

With Dr Samson Kiseeka in his 80s, the average age of these senior NRM members who later formed the National Resistance Council was estimated to be around 55 years.

On the other hand, the armed wing, the NRA comprised of very young cadres to the extent that some of them who later rose to become army commanders like Gen Salim Saleh and Gen Mugish Muntu were just 26 year of age.

There was another much younger group that comprised of the late Brig Noble Mayombo , Brig Moses Rwakitarate, Brig James Mugiira and some others who were less than 22 years at the time of the grand takeover in 1986.

Yoweri Museveni who was the overall leader of the group and led both the armed and political wing of the movement was about 44 years.  

While the NRM group catered for the politics, the armed wing (NRA)continued to liberate the country by fighting insurgencies across the country.

President Museveni was in the privileged position of interacting with both the political and the armed wing of the movement.

It was therefore easy for Museveni to conduct the business of managing these groups very well because he fitted in both generations, since he was neither too old nor too young to lead the movement at age 44.

Therefore the generational battles were never an issue in the earlier stages of the NRM administration.

To Groom Of Not To Groom

Because of the nature of the challenges at play, the armed combatants managed to recruit many Ugandans into the National Resistance Army.

 The soldiers were not selfish in propping up their colleagues for promotion and access to bigger positions.

For instance the late Gen James Kazini rose through the ranks to become major general and army commander respectively despite of the fact that he had been a mere ADC to Gen Salim Saleh at the time of the takeover.

Brigadier Noble Mayombo And Mugish Muntu also rose to higher positions of influence in the army despite of their younger age.

It’s believed that every senior army officer recruited loyalists around him.

 People like Brig Henry Tumukunde recruited so many people within the army and intelligence services to an extent at some stage the state got worried that he had the capacity to cause trouble!.  That’s why brig Tumukunde managed to easily deal with the terror threats in Kampala.

Gen kazini also had a big section of loyalists within the army that believed in him to the extent that at one he was even court marshaled for trying stage a coup! He too managed to accomplish his assignments in Congo and wherever he was deployed.

It seemed as though the army was the best breeding ground for young people.

Youth Wing Suppressed

But while the army allowed younger people to emerge and take up positions of responsibility, the members of the political wing deliberately suffocated young people from emerging.

People like Bidandi Ssali, the late Eriya kategaya, Sam Njuba, Paul Wapakabulo , Amanya Mushega , Kahinda Ottafire, Amama Mbabazi  worked in government for very many years but had no loyalists because they had not recruited or groomed people for the party.

In fact there are reports that these senior NRM gurus deliberately refused to institute the youth wing of the NRM party just to make sure that no young people emerge to challenge them.

The never reached out to young people in schools and tertiary institutions the way president Milton Obote had done by grooming young people in an association known as the National Union For Ugandan Students (NUSU)

Obote managed to groom the likes of current prime minister Ruhakana Rugunda , current national bank governor Tumusime Mutebile , and many others through NUSU. 

But the NRM refused to do the same thing of cropping up young people mostly due to selfish reasons.  

That’s why you see a rag-tag and almost nonexistent youth wing of the NRM party at the moment because the NRM elders never approved of its existence.

Due to either selfishness or lack of foresight, they made sure that they worked with a very small clique of people which left them without a power base to cling on at a time of need.

Selfishness Reloaded

The same selfish trait has now caught up with the new group of NRM members like former vice president Prof Gilbert Bukenya who also held very powerful positions but never built a circle of loyalists around him.

By the time Prof Gilbert Bukenya was sacked, he almost had no friends to lean on to rave-up his presidential ambitions because he had no bothered to court people around him.

On the other hand when Amama was kicked out of government the only friend he had was a one Adam Luzindana and a few young boys.

Can you imagine that?

Yet due to the senior positions of government he held, a man like Amama Mbabazi was expected to defect with half of the government officials. But he seems to have non at the moment because he never built a power base of friends when he had to the time to do so.

And you can obviously see that he must be regretting why he never made enough friends when he still had the power and political muscle to do so.

Today the selfishness of these old cadres has caught up with them as they have no one to run to.

They have no power base because they suppressed new blood from emerging from the ranks.

CLASH OF GENERATIONS

In fact the recent happenings in the NRM in the last three years have been contests between the youthful members of NRM against the old guard.  The young Turks have had to literally ‘fight off’ the old guard for operating space within the party in what you can call a clash of generations.

Of course president Museveni is once again privileged to be the center of reference and has been flexible enough to allow the young Turks to take over the party.

It’s widely believed that the NRM party has been renting office space at kyadondo road for the last thirty years because of the tight fisted and selfish nature of the old cadres.

 But with the emergence of the young and focused Turks who are not selfish, the party has already managed to fundraise Shs 16bn, mostly for the construction of the proposed NRM house.

The young Turks have already networked support and membership across the country.

And it’s practically obvious that these young people will make it easier for president Museveni to win the 2016 elections.

Conclusion

With this realization in mind, the NRM should revitalize the youth wing in the same mould as UPC’s NUSU to allow continuity and grooming ground for vibrant cadres of the party.

Otherwise experience has taught us that the maxim of the old NRM cadres; ‘’Of Each One for Himself and God for Us All’’ is practically counterproductive. 

Ends

 The author Fred Daka Kamwada is a senior journalist and blogger; you can reach him on kamwadafred@yahoo.com