Founder member syndrome is a curse to democracy in Uganda

Common effort organisations in Uganda such as cooperative societies, parents’ teachers’ associations (PTAs), non- governmental organisations (NGOs) and political parties have either not survived their founder members or stagnated in growing as healthy institutions. The founder member syndrome has stifled the growth of internal democracy in these citizens’ organisations and by extension, undermined democracy in the country.

Citizens organisations like those mentioned above are supposed to be schools of democracy. They are called schools of democracy because they can function as spaces of holding elections. Spaces for holding office bearers accountable and responsive to their members, can provide information, aggregate ideas and concerns, train leadership and hold the State and markets accountable.

However, in Uganda these organisations have been captured by the bug and syndrome of entitlement. When someone or some people found an organisation even when it is a public organisation, they think they are entitled to lead it until they die. As a result, this stifles institutional growth. This has characterised the African scene since independence. Most founder members of independence parties such as Kaunda, Obote, Kamuzi Banda remained at their helm until these parties collapsed or are limping.

Most of the founder members of cooperative societies, which ideally were citizens organisations, refused to give way to new blood until these cooperatives weakened and some collapsed. The longer the cooperative societies and unions founder members stayed in office the more they learnt how to manipulate elections and stay in office. These founder members became corrupt and wasteful, but they still felt they were entitled to lead and had resources to oil patronage networks to keep them in office.

As it was in cooperatives, it has also become a norm in the NGO sector. Most founder executive members of NGOs have overstayed in office and at times, it becomes difficult to believe that some NGOs are not private organisations of founder executives. This has weakened the NGO movement because citizens come to think that these NGOs are not serving the common, but private good. Matters are made worse when these NGOs turn into GONGOs that is to say, government non- governmental organizations. The GONGOs allow themselves to be captured by the state.

The PTAs and school management committees have not been spared this founder member entitlement syndrome. You find the founder chairmen of a PTA remaining a chairman even long after his children are no longer in that school. When this longevity happens, the founder chairman’s efforts and pre-occupation is no longer providing a service to the people, but to manipulate and stay in office thus weakening the organisation.

Lastly, let me analyse political parties. The first political party in Uganda, the Uganda National Congress (UNC) was founded by I K Musazi and he remained its chairman until its demise. The UPC was founded in 1960 by Obote and he remained its president until his death. He has since been succeeded, among others, by his son and wife, as party presidents. This entitlement syndrome has among other factors weakened the party to the extent that UPC, which had a nation- wide presence, is now confined to Lango region where the founder member hailed from.

The DP did not escape this entitlement syndrome. DP may have changed presidents more often, but the other founder members of the executives never wanted to leave. They stayed on until they were literally forced out of office in the 1990s after a lot of conflicts, and others did not hand over office, but left leadership unceremoniously.

The National Resistance Movement party is the example per excellence of this founder member syndrome. The chairman and the vice chairman of the party have never been changed in the last more than three decades. Other officials of the party hierarchy otherwise known as historicals, have an entitlement mentality. This was exemplified when Odrek Rwabwogo attempted to contested against Gen Matayo Kyaligonza [for piston NRM national vice chairman -western].

It was as if it was unlawful for anybody in the party to challenge a historical in any office at that level. To challenge President Museveni and Moses Kigongo, who are the NRM historical founder member chairman and vice chairman respectively, is like committing political suicide. The story of FDC and the founder president, Dr Kizza Besigye, is well known to many Ugandans and is threatening to tear the party apart.

The founder member entitlement ends up creating a waithood condition in the organisation whereby those who wait too long in the cue get impatient and seek to take over from the founder members unprocedurally. Another challenge is that overstaying in office by the founder member results into a situation where the individual becomes the institution. Once this happens, then you know that such organisations will not survive the test of time and their founder members.

This founder member entitlement politics needs to be reversed if institutions occupying public space such as political parties and NGOs have to grow. Founder members have increasingly become small gods and ceased to be servants of the people.

Mr Ndebesa is a lecturer at Makerere University.
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