It’s Easier To Market The Lifting Of Age Limit But It Puts President Museveni In An Embarrassing Situation

It’s Easier To Market The Lifting Of Age Limit ,But It Puts President Museveni In An Embarrassing Situation

Immediately after the 12^th may 2016 swearing in ceremony of President Yoweri Museveni, a lukewarm but very steady agitation for lifting of age limit for judges and the presidency started doing rounds in the country.

In parliament, Hon Kafeero Ssekitoleko emerged as the biggest crusader of this motion.

Incidentally or coincidentally, in the Kiganda urban lingo, the name Kafeero is used as a derogatory word for a person who is dull , unwise and lacking inteligence---am not being abusieve , by the way..

 I don’t know whether the Nakifuma County MP, Hon Kafeero Ssekitoleko is living by his derogatory name or he is moving the motion out of good will.

But in principal, Hon Kafeero is seeking for amendment of the constitution to lift the retirement age for judicial officers, and the tenure of office for members of the Electoral Commission.

The MPs mainly from the opposition have tried to block Ssekitoleko from tabling the motion in parliament, saying he was rushing the matter which they said tampers with the Constitution whose amendment needs input by all Ugandans.

The MPs proposed that the House defers the matter to a future date for consideration, after digesting the motion.

The draft Bill, titled “The Constitutional (Amendment) Act, 2016”, seeks to increase the retirement age for justices and judges, and for related matters.

The Bill also seeks to remove the limits on the tenure of the members of the Electoral Commission, and to also increase the period of adjudication of presidential election petitions.

The MPs however noted that the Bill is uncalled for; adding that the 9th Parliament resolved that there should be a Constitutional Review Commission, which they said should handle the matter.

The Merits Of The Age Limit Debate

In fact when I looked at the merits of the motion I realized that the agitation for lifting age limit is easier to market than the lifting of term limits.

On the surface of it, you can say that age limit on all positions of service is an infringement on the rights of people of advanced age and those above 75 years. In fact if Ugandans above 75 years contested against that provision in court they can easily win unnimously!

But the problem is that it has been politicized to appear is it’s for president Museveni’s benefit. 
and that is where the bone of contention begins to rear its head. 

Term Limit Conundrum 

During the debate on lifting term limits there was a big argument against the amendment. The principal for including term limits in the 1995 Ugandan constitution was premised on the fact that term limits were one of the constitutional checks on the presidency.

The spirit of the members of the constituent assembly was clearly to check or forestall any possibilities of dictatorial tendencies that emerge when someone overstays in office.

But it later turned out that it was to become a hindrance to president Museveni’s tenure in office.

It must be noted that during the promulgation of the 1995 constitution, President Museveni himself pronounced himself on the matter and agreed with the institution of the presidential term limits.

 But ten years later in (2005) he was forced to change his mind and went on to champion the cause for lifting the term limits on the presidency.

But one thing for sure, was that even president Museveni himself was ashamed of the whole issue and made all attempts to distance himself from it by denying interest.

How Presidential Term Limits Could Have Been Saved

There is a very good chance that he Museveni could have stepped down in 2006, but the volatile, revenge-driven politics of the time distorted it and forced him to cling on power due to the following reasons. 

 Ugandans should particularly blame Dr Kiiza Besigye for the continued stay of president Museveni because, (1) in 2001 he (Besigye) threatened to unleash havoc on president Museveni, his family and friends if he took power. Besigye designed a vindictive political campaign with a hummer as his symbol. He also vowed to banish the armed forces. Besigye’s vindictive political strategy hardened president museveni’s resolve to cling onto power with the solid support of the armed forces.

If Besigye had not pushed Museveni hard, there is a possibility that Museveni could have reconsidered his decision and opted to step down.

(2) The civil war in northern Uganda orchestrated by Joseph Kony’s LRA was another reason why Museveni found it hard to leave power. Remember the LRA was composed of counter revolutionary elements who had a strong political grudge on the person of president Museveni./ therefore Museveni had to first defeat them militarily to feel safe. Perhaps if Uganda was safe from any civil unrest Museveni would have found it safe to leave power. But you cannot leave power when your enemies are still at large.

The Vladimir Putin Example

Moving forward and holding the aforementioned factors constant for a moment, the best way to deal with that situation of presidential term limits should have been to adopt the Russian example where President Vladimir Putin stepped down when his presidential term ended, but bounced back after president Medyedev had served two terms.

The benefit was that the constitution was preserved even when the same individual (putin) served more terms.

Therefore, if president Museveni had stepped down in 2006, then someone else could have served one term up to 2011 as Ugandan president and then paved way for Museveni to comeback and serve two more terms from 2011-2016 and 2016-2021 without tampering with the constitution.

But in that way, the term limits on the presidency would have been preserved and president Museveni would have managed to serve much longer in power with a more credible mandate.

But lifting the term limits exposed him-Museveni as a selfish power hungry president.

WHY ITS EASIER TO LIFT AGE LIMIT 

Moving forward I think, the debate on age limit is going to be easier to advance than the term limit was in 2005.

It has widely been reported that during the 1994 constituent assembly, the spirit of the CA delegates in regard to age limit was more inclined at stopping president Milton Obote from coming back to contest for the Ugandan presidency  than regulating years of service.  

By that time Obote was still alive and about 76 years of age and still a political threat with a very big support base across the country. It was therefore considered a wise decision to block Obote from contesting for the Uganda presidency again by instituting age limit.

And that constitutional provision has not suffered any contradictions or need for amendment, until now when it became clear that president Museveni was going to become a casualty of that age limit provision since he will be around 76 and therefore constitutionally ineligible to contest for the presidency in 2021.

   
Now, as I told you earlier, it’s easier to make a case for lifting term limits because (1) it (age limit) sounds as if it segregates against old people. The crusade therefore becomes a case for respecting the rights of old people and a social issue.

(2)The old people can easily argue that they deserve the right to run the affairs of the country including the presidency since they are tax-paying citizens.

 (3)They (old people) have vast experience which can augur well for the country.

(4)They are not an outcast group and being above 75 years is not a crime.

(5) Other countries of the world don’t have age limits on the presidency and other higher positions of service.

Therefore it’s easier to sell the lifting of age limit through a contested debate and through strong intellectual arguments.

Counter Intellectual Arguments

I don’t see any counter intellectual arguments that the anti-lifting age limit camp can advance to push their cause to stop amending the age limit. Perhaps they can say that limiting age of service provides an opportunity for young people to serve.

But even that can be shot down by a counter argument that if the young people really deserve to serve, then they should freely compete with the old people above 75 years in a competitive contest.

THE BEST WAY FORWARD
I think we can get a win-win situation out of this amendment process if<
 1),the two  term limits are reinstated,
 2). if age limits are imposed on all public office holders,
,3), term limits are imposed on all public servants not to serve more than two terms.
 4) each term should be amended to be seven years each

The Point Of Embarrassment 

  But there is a point of embarrassment which was caused by president Museveni when he categorically pledged that he would not serve beyond 75 years. He told NTV’S Patrick Kamara that he thinks that serving beyond 75 was completely out of the question.

President Museveni also told the WBS talk show panel that included Hon Semujju Nganda , and its host Peter Kibazzo that he (Museveni )doesn’t think that he would be in good physical condition to serve beyond 75 years.

Conclusion

Therefore, from a moralistic point of view, this crusade to lift the age limit therefore puts president Museveni in a very embarrassing position. It portrays him as someone who doesn’t keep his word. Otherwise, if he had not uttered those promissory statements, it could have been  easy to amend the age limit provision and make president Museveni constitutionally eligible to stand for the 2021 presidential elections.

Ends

The author Fred Daka Kamwada is widely regarded as Uganda’s number one blogger'\ chat him up at kamwadafred@yahoo.com