By David Kibirige
May 16, 2004
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KAMPALA- Ministers are divided over the proposal to give President Yoweri Museveni a �third term�, information filtering in from three days of cabinet meetings reveals. Mr Museveni has since Wednesday been chairing a special cabinet meeting to chart out the way forward after the expiry of his constitutional term in 2006. The meeting, which was supposed to end on Friday, has been extended up to Tuesday to allow more discussion and consensus. The Minister of Information James Nsaba Buturo confirmed that they would be sitting up to Tuesday. �The meetings have been detailed and a lot of issues discussed. There were protracted discussions but it has been decided that there will be other meetings on Monday and Tuesday after which a statement will be issued,� said Buturo without going into details. A source told Sunday Monitor that some ministers led by a professor argued that it would be better not to amend the constitution while others said it would be better to coerce parliament to give Museveni four more years after 2006. They argued this would save Shs 30 billion planned for the referendum to decide whether the constitution should be amended to let Museveni rule for a third term which many have termed as presidency for life. Some two ministers who before joining the Movement belonged to the Democratic Party are said to have openly told the president that it is in his own interest that he respects the 1995 constitution and peacefully hands over power. The meetings were reportedly very heated. Another contentious issue was granting Buganda a federal (federo) system of government. Museveni�s aides headed by Fox Odoi have come up with a federal structure for Buganda, which was presented to the cabinet. They said this arrangement should be for all areas. Museveni is said to have told them that personally, he would like to see Buganda granted federo. He told the cabinet members to �think about it until next week�. Minister Buturo confirmed that the meeting ended before resolving the federo issue. �Definitely the federal issue was a hot one and there is no doubt the meeting ended there. |
Does Museveni understand the federo he is talking about? FNL
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