January 26, 1986: When the revolution, state became one

Yet the significance of this date is not about the assumption of power; rather, it is the fact that it represents a confluence of the ideals of the revolution and state power.

An armed outfit fighting what historians refer to as the Obote II government captured power on Sunday January 26, 1986. Twenty seven years later, even when the armed group transformed itself into a political party, the significance of this date cannot be under estimated.

Yet the significance of this date is not about the assumption of power; rather, it is the fact that it represents a confluence of the ideals of the revolution and state power.

The fact is that from January 26, 1985, the revolution guided the management of state power. In other words, the revolution and the state fused and became one.

With state power, the new narrative may erroneously be construed to discount the armed struggle.

The foundation or guide of the armed struggle was ideological discipline without which the assumption of state power would have reduced the revolution to the quick-fix attitude commonplace with military coup plotters.

Students of contemporary African political history are familiar with the January 1966 coup and the July counter-coup in Nigeria that was later to funnel out into the Biafran war.

To avoid revolutionary regression, counter-revolutionary and neo-revolutionary tendencies, state power and authority became another pillar for the sustainability of the struggle. Which is why, even when they were in power, revolutionaries always say “the struggle continues”.

Sustainability of the struggle is not about the rhetoric oratory of cadres peppered with wordy bombast but a deliberate commission of responding to the the national needs of the population. Revolutionary sustainability is about tangible and intangible achievements that constitute a revolutionary legacy.

NRM legacy
Now, as the leadership of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) revolution celebrates 27 years managing state power, what can one identify as an enduring legacy of the NRM struggle?

January 26 has been marked as a national holiday designated as NRM Victory Day. However, the 27th anniversary celebrations of NRM Victory Day was postponed to Wednesday January 30, 2013 and held at Kasese District. This was the first time in 27 years this holiday has been postponed.

Well let me digress: A section of the native Bakonzo grumbled that their traditional leader Omusinga Charles Wesley Mumbere was not ‘protocoled appropriately’. And that in Kasese, if the President wants to use a local language to directly speak to the audience, then that language should NOT be Rutooro.

At 27 years in power, the biggest challenge facing the NRM is how to transform a liberation movement into a democratic governing party.

Between 1996, the NRM behaved as a benevolent dictatorship with very high patriotism and nationalism.

From 1996, it was clear that the attitude shifted to exercising control than managing the affairs of the state (merely stepping into the shoes of their predecessors).

This may degenerate into what one would call regime survival. And there is a fear that regime survival can degenerate into state failure. And state failure could lead into a coup d’etat.

Just ask yourself: do we have any experience where a liberation movement has transformed itself into a democratic ruling party? Even the African National Congress of South Africa is also facing challenges of managing the affairs of the state.

Yet a 27 year experience cannot be dismissed anyhow. All Ugandans (actually even the whole region) have made contact with it one way or the other. That is the NRM experience; it’s the NRM revolution.

Asuman Bisiika is the Executive Editor of the East Africa Flagpost