This & That By Henry Ochieng
April 2, 2003
The pocket-sized Frederick Chiluba was unsuccessful in 2001 when he desperately tried to get himself another term as president of Zambia by tinkering with the law. The last we heard is that he is facing the full force of the law on such mortifying charges as stealing tax-payers’ money.
New York city’s former Mayor, Rudi Guilliani was a very unhappy man when his term came to an end. The same can be said of Bill Clinton who would have loved to retain the 1600 Pennslyvania Avenue, Washington D.C, USA address.
There are fellows in those West African countries who fervently wish to be president till death. Some like Gnassingbe Eyadema in Togo have been in office since 1967 and might achieve that notoriety.
We shall not say anything about Omar Bongo – another pint-sized character- in Gabon who is in love with the presidency but will make a mention of Bakili Muluzi whose hopeless attempts to engineer a “review” of their laws to allow him a third term finally collapsed. Mr Muluzi fiddled and fiddled but the winds of commonsense prevailed against him.
The professor across our eastern frontier, Daniel arap Moi, was finally pushed in spite of his protestations, delivered in a guttural voice, that he was still young and fit to show Kenya the way. Daniel is way over 70.
And now, we address our Mr Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, President of the Republic of Uganda since 26 January, 1986. He has just won an endorsement from his “party”, at its annual delegates’ conference when it voted to lift the constitutional two-term limit for presidents. That opens the way for Mr Museveni to offer himself for re-election in 2006. Officially, that would be a “third term” but it really is a “fifth term”.
Article 105(2) of the Constitution will not stop the man because its stipulation that “a person shall not be elected under this constitution to hold office as president for more than two terms ” will soon be consigned to history by way of amendment.
The only thing that stands in Mr Museveni’s way as he probably pursues what former president Idi Amin Dada described as life presidency, is parliament. But you make that judgement on the incurably optimistic assumption that the House will find the wind to refuse the man.
With an assured two thirds majority, made up of lukewarm and true believers of the Movement doctrine and a generous serving of those who pay particular attention to their stomachs in parliament, Article 105 will be expunged without another thought.
This is a parliament made of MPs who laugh when they are insulted by among others Mr Museveni himself. Make no mistake because when the hour comes, parliament will “vote wisely”.
During last week’s “party” meetings, delegates from Uganda’s 56 districts used the occasion to take potshots at the MPs – accusing them of being stumbling blocks to the “revolution”.
They basically said the members are selfish because while they do not entertain the notion of term limits for themselves, they have been happy to expose the president to this difficulty.
And the members of Parliament in attendance actually laughed with each disparaging submission.
You have thick-skinned types in the House who are impervious to abuse and cannot be relied on to guard the best interests of the country. These are a people who long ago relinquished the right to think and are quite happy to be (mis)used in all whimsical projects the regime dreams up.
To the reasons why Mr Museveni has found it pressing to hang on. The less charitable opinion held by the people, who go by the self-congratulatory tag of “independent-minded”, is that the fellow is power hungry and scared at the same time.
Scared of prosecution for alleged crimes committed against humanity in the north by an army he leads. Scared of prosecution for allegedly taking inappropriate decisions that have cost the country’s economy an arm. Scared of being asked troublesome questions about what Uganda has done and continues to do in the DR. Congo by the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice.
You do not have to agree with these suppositions. But you have to ask where did the democrat, who stood on the steps of parliament that day in January 1986 and said, “this is not a mere change of guards” in reference to despots who had run the country into the ground, go?
On the other side of the fence, you have the coalition of the willing, to quote the much-maligned George Bush Jr of the US who see the third term as an opportunity “to consolidate the gains of the Movement as the country enters new phase”. To the innocent bystander, this kind drivel would not find space even in a poorly written communist “working paper”.
In this new phase, we have been told the army and police will be less visible in the national politics, which in itself is an admission of their past illegal and partial interference geared at maintaining Mr Museveni’s stranglehold on the instruments of state power. Do these happenings warn of state collapse? This I ask you.
© 2003 The Monitor Publications
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