[Ugnet] Federo Deal Re-Established NRM in Buganda

The fact of the matter is that the naive uncalculating "mwananwagundi" from Mengo , who probably never read the RINCE by Machavailli , have just been out maneuvered by the NRM. MK

The Valentine Concession between the NRM and Mengo Bulange, an analogy strictly applied here in reference to the timing of the announcements of these developments, deserves ahearty toast of champagne. Reason being, it's an outcome that exploited the constitutional framework while addressing heated political demands.

Hence representing the triumph of consensual politics, one of the key hallmark of politics that is premised on constitutionalism, in a country with a sizeable political elite that is still keen to resort to unpopular extra constitutional measures in order to achieve their selfish political motives.

Mengo's eventual pragmatism and President Yoweri Museveni and the NRM's willingness to engage them on the turf of negotiations, is what led to the February 14th Federo or Regional Tier deal. In the process further resolving the hitherto perennial 'Buganda Question', and contributing to peaceful nation building.

Similarity exists between this deal and the 1900 Buganda Agreement, that occurred between pragmatic Baganda chiefs, led by Apolo Kaggwa, and incoming colonialism. Mengo benefited tremendously from the fruits of the Buganda Agreement, unlike for instance Chwa Kabalega's Bunyoro-Kitara which opted for a collision course with Pax Britannica. Of course with fundamental devastating effects, this region is yet, even today, to recover from.

The NRM are the hegemonic political force in this land - a position they are most likely to retain for a considerable period of time to come. That is given the resources and the public good will they have generated over the past twenty or so years of their tenure in power. Which is not really a unique political experience on this continent, if one refers to the examples of CCM, FRELIMO and SWAPO in Tanzania, Mozambique and Namibia respectively.

Against this background, it is most likely that Yoweri Museveni, in future, would again double as both NRM supremo and also Head of State. His party's dominance is illustrated by its commanding the required two thirds majority in Parliament to effect any required constitutional amendment, and an even bigger majority in the Local Governments. Mengo after considerable recent soul searching, seems to have reconciled itself to this reality.

For the NRM, this settlement enhances its prestige in Buganda and other influential traditional circles, notably in Busoga and Toro, as the political group that has corrected the excesses that arose in the aftermath of the 1966 Crisis, when Col. Idi Amin, stormed the Lubiri, under Dr Obote's explicit orders, leading to Sir Edward Muteesa escaping into cold exile to Britain. In addition, kingdoms were also dismembered.

The NRM's attitude towards Buganda relates to its having first germinated in this region during the civil war that brought them to power in the early 1980s. A war mainly conducted in the Buganda heartland of the counties of Busiro, Kyadondo, Bulemezi and Singo, or the core Luweero Triangle. Learning from history, no wonder they have avoided the blatant mistakes conducted by Dr Obote in the late 1960s and 1980s. For although faced with a difficult problem, the mal adroit manner in which this vindictive ruler, and his inner circle, went ahead to relate with Buganda left a lot to be desired.

For after the 1966 attack and the massacres that occurred in the Lubiri, Obote alienated himself from the Kabaka and his top lieutenants. Furthermore, the abolition of the Buganda Government, that formed the basis of its local administration, resembled that proverbial jump from 'the frying pan to the fire', as it ostracized this regime from the Buganda urban and rural elite.

Then followed the draconian, Buganda only, State of Emergency, that suspended all civil liberties in this region, while concurrently introducing the much dreaded massive Detentions Without Trials. In effect these affected all. A situation further polarized by Dr. Obote and his supporters continued bragging about their 'victory' in what they had termed their '1966 Revolution'!

The NRM on the other hand seems to have considerable support of Buganda's urban and rural elite and ordinary, mainly rural, population, as one would note with their representation in Cabinet and Local Governments. Also, Buganda's considerable business community is definitely benefiting from various levels of State patronage.

This Regional Tier settlement is bound to be durable for the following reasons:

While recognizing the Kabaka as the titular head of the Kingdom of Buganda, it insulates this institution from partisan politics through rendering the monarch to be a constitutional one, whose sustenance would be catered for by the State.

The deal also effectively democratizes Mengo, for the first time ever. For although the 1955 Namirembe Agreement had also pointed to the same direction, events that emerged in the decade that followed, leading to the creation of the DP and soon after the KY and indeed the iniquitous 1962 Lancaster House Constitution, illustrated that the letters and spirit of this agreement never got embedded into the actual body politic of this kingdom, then.

This time round the broader national democratic reforms, mainly so in local governance, of the last twenty or so years, stand to reinforce and preserve this 'New Deal's" democratic ethos.

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[Ugnet] Federo Deal Re-Established NRM in Buganda

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