Age limit: Why Museveni should listen to Nagenda

A friend will tell you the truth even when the truth is not pleasant. President Yoweri Museveni is on record claiming that he had no friends. Then along the way, he made an exception in James Mulwana, who later died. You can tell where Museveni was coming from and where he was going. For a man who wields as much power as he does and for the length of time that he has been up there, a few things will happen in as far as he relates to people.
First, there are many who will loath him because they view him as a stumbling block to their ambitions. That group is good for you know who does not like you very clearly. Secondly, there are those who will position themselves strategically to eat out of hands by simply playing along as long as they sit pretty in the arrangement. They will fall all over themselves competing to cast aspersions at your critics, make the most infantile and asinine remarks, to show just how much they love the President, who is depicted as indispensable and super human.
This group of opportunists, sycophants and turn-coats is extremely dangerous, for if you listen to them, you risk being precariously carried far away from reality.

Then there will be a few, who meaning well, will have the courage to say it right in his face, that the emperor is naked. In the Bible, (2 Samuel 12:1-13), Prophet Nathan did exactly that to King David.
At this time when there is debate on removing Article 102(b) from the Constitution to allow a person above the age of 75 to stand for the office of president of Uganda, the ruckus has begun with gusto.

There is no pretending here like it happened with the lifting of the term limits in 2005 (at a time when Museveni had reached the end of the rope,) lifting the age limit when Museveni will be ineligible is for all intents and purposes for his pleasure and indulgence.
It has become abundantly clear that as long as he is in power, there is no opponent standing in an election ‘formed’ against Museveni, that will prosper.

Museveni does not have to win, he only has to be on the ballot paper to be announced winner. The matters of his appointment of the Electoral Commission commissioners, the biased and violent role of security agencies, the use of money and the blurred line that exist between the ruling NRM party, the government and the State, are all to blame.
Flatterers are claiming that the President is still young enough to go on and on.

Others are saying that he is the wisest man striding the land so he should not leave Ugandans orphaned from his wisdom.
Yet the most ridiculous and irresponsible are arguing that putting the cap at 75 years is discrimination against old people.

So should we say that retiring a soldier or civil servant at 60 year is discrimination against old people? Let us not be puerile.
Museveni’s true friends should tell him that after 31 years in power, there is not much that he intended to do on the onset, that he has not already done, that he will do if he is given more time. He is more likely to undo the good things that he has done.
They should also tell him that simply having a law to justify an action does not make the action right. The famous example is apartheid in South Africa, which was backed by laws that justified racial segregation. Lifting the age limit in the law will neither make the President younger nor will it make him more acceptable.

The greatest cause of apprehension though is that it will postpone the most pressing issue of who and how he gets replaced because every passing hour brings the day of judgment closer. His staying in power does not postpone it.
Now we have Nagenda the Senior Presidential Advisor on Media and Public Relations telling Museveni that his time is up.

The most significant aspect of Mr. Nagenda’s argument it is realpolitik as opposed to the purist approach that leaves matters of the succession of Museveni to the law and democracy. It is manual and mechanical and gives Museveni license to maneuver.
Let him listen to the voice of Mr Nagenda. The Nagendas have been around him and won’t be hovering around the higher echelons of power if he ceases to be president. They have something to lose, so they definitely mean well because they are giving something away in the process.

Since Museveni is all over the place instead of proper institutions, in a sense, he is the State. His abrupt removal whether by force of arms or the hand of God will definitely create a vacuum, for the state will be no more. So many players positioning themselves to take the spoils will lead to anarchy. Uganda has that history and history has the notorious habit of repeating itself.

Time is now on Museveni’s side. Let him manage the process slowly, surely and safely ease himself out; plugging whatever loopholes he might see in the process. He should then let Uganda begin on a new course without his physical presence on the levers of power because want it or not, that time will come.

Mr Sengoba is a commentator on political
and social issues. [email protected]