Constitution of a country is made by statesmen on behalf of the people
With a massive majority in Parliament and an Opposition which has lost all political direction, the NRM party has fallen into the temptation of thinking and behaving as if it has a mandate to do whatever it wants with our Constitution as long as what is done perpetuates it in power.
A country’s Constitution is an important contract under which people of different nationalities agree to come together and live as one political entity.
The Constitution precedes all organs of State, which it creates and defines the extent and limitations of the powers and functions those organs are to perform in the polity.
Political parties are not organs of state but mere organisations created by enterprising people for purposes of gaining power.
For a constitution to be durable, it must respond to people’s needs, customs and attitudes. The original 11 American nations, which formed a political a loose confederation, did not at first recognise the need to have an overarching administration to look after common interests, which led to a civil war.
After the war failed to settle the issues concerning statehood leading American statesmen come to the realisation that the best form of a constitution is one which balanced the interests of the people with the common interest of all. That is why the American Constitution has lasted for more than 200 years with only 37 amendments.
Unfortunately, this realisation did not dawn on our leaders in Africa, who continued to regard their countries’ constitutions as vehicles for their untested political philosophies.
In Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah came up with what he called “Consciousm”, in Senegal Leopold Senghor called his one-man philosophy “negritude”, Nyerere had his “Ujama” and Apollo Milton Obote introduced what he called “Move to the Left.” All these leaders promoted one-party systems.
As we debate the constitutional amendments with supporters of the party in power, we should reflect on Africa’s past in general and our history, which account for the kind of Constitution we have. We should also bear in mind the fact that a constitution is an organic document in which amendment of one part can infect many more.
In this case, removal of the age limit as a qualification for being a president, will raise the question why to qualify for appointment as Chief Justice, one must have served as an advocate for a period of not less than 20 years or why to be a DPP, one must be qualified to be a judge.
When we look back in our history, everything worked well in Uganda until 1966 when the country went to the dogs.
Among the causes of this breakdown, was the irresponsibility of our Members of Parliament in accepting to change our Constitution to enable Obote and Uganda People Congress (UPC) to remain in power for life. We we should remember that brave NRM youngsters went to the bush in order to ensure that such malpractices did not reoccur in our country.
Secondly, Article 3(4)(b) of the Constitution provides “All citizens of Uganda shall have the right and duty at all times to do all in their power to restore this constitution after it has been suspended, overthrown, abrogated or amended contrary to its provisions.”
MP Raphael Magyezi’s Bill to remove the age limit from the Constitution did not comply with the provisions of Article 259 and Parliament should not be oblivious to the consequences of passing an unconstitutional Bill.
A constitution of a country is made by statesmen on behalf of the people. It is not too let to appeal to our NRM MPs to up their game.
Mr Mulira is a lawyer.
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