Next president should not come from the west, says Mukula

As anxiety within the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) over the declaration by Maj Lt Gen Henry Tumukunde, to contest for the leadership of Uganda, next year grows; Captain Mike Mukula, the party’s vice chairperson for Eastern Uganda, says that after 35 years of President Yoweri Museveni, Uganda should have a president who doesn’t hail from western Uganda.

Captain Mukula says that although he’s not sectarian, he strongly believes that for purposes of balanced development and sustainable peace, the next president should come from another region other than western Uganda, where Mr Museveni comes from.

 “It is his [Gen Tumukunde’s] constitutional right and I don’t have a problem about it. But I support president Museveni 100 percent. But it would be unfair to appear to be looking at leadership from one side only. This will not look well for the future of this country,” Captain Mukula said.

He said that Uganda wouldn’t be the first country to embrace rotational leadership to cure tribal and religious divisions that threaten the integrity of the state.

“Nigeria has worked out an arrangement where they balance between the north which is predominantly Muslim and the south which is predominantly Christian. This was done to avoid coup de tats and civil disobedience because of one sided leadership,” Captain Mukula said. “Even Tanzania does almost the same thing to create a balance between the Island of Zanzibar and the main land. Therefore, I would want to see a president who comes from elsewhere and I think when the time comes, that is the direction that President Museveni is looking.”

But Gen Tumukunde said that he is not dying to take on Museveni.

He said if another serious candidate shows interest, he would be more than willing to support him. “Why doesn’t Mukula offer himself? Let him offer himself, I will support him. Tell Mukula to offer himself and stop just talking,” Gen Tumukunde said.

He said that Buganda has many people who have the capability of taking on Mr Museveni but none of them is willing to “soil” their hands.

“So what should we do? Should we just allow Uganda to go to waste? This reminds me of a time when we were going to the bush, some people failed to join the struggle and started developing sicknesses like heart problems yet we knew they were well,” he said. “Bring for me another person, I’m ready to support him or her but he/she must also have some capability; we can’t just donate Uganda to anybody,” Gen Tumukunde, a former minister of security said.

He called on Opposition groups to stop being selfish and work on a common agenda in order to end Museveni’s 35-year hold onto power.

"Every one of them [Opposition groups] wants to be a leader. They go to meetings to choose who should become the candidate but all of them say it’s either me or no one,” Gen Tumukunde said.