Museveni talk on rich NRA children sparks uproar 

President Museveni, whose ragtag National Resistance Army (NRA) rebels overthrew the military government of the late Gen Tito Okello 35 year ago, wants affluent descendants of his fighters to take forward the aspirations of their parents. 

In the State of the National Address on Friday, Mr Museveni stoked fury from some Ugandans when he announced that plans are underway for the descendants of NRA 1, who speak “exotic accent” and are now senior adults, are middle class and with no “home poverty pressures”, to occupy strategic government positions, and take the country forward.

“I have been discussing with my children, who are now senior adults, the timeliness of creating the DRA (the Descendants’ Resistance Army I) to take forward the work of the original NRA of their parents,” Mr Museveni said. 

“These are people who work for passion, not money.  Against resistance, I put one of them, Ms Irene Kaggwa, to manage Uganda Communication Commission (UCC).  She is doing a commendable and clean job from the little I hear of. The young passionists are liberating the Uganda Airlines. It is easy for the NRM to defeat corruption…” 

To achieve social-economic transformation and security of the people, Mr Museveni’s strategy seeks to phase out peasants and feudalists in order to create a middle class and skilled working class society in the country.  

President’s plan for the children of original NRA fighters, have however stoked the anger and a volley of questions from within and outside his NRM party. The people who talked to Sunday Monitor, talked of a philosophical speech, premeditated to entrench the children of the privilege in the leadership of the country under the pretext of a renewed war on corruption. 

Those who talked to Sunday Monitor asked the following questions: Could it be leadership grooming after Museveni? Is Museveni saying Uganda’s leadership question will be shaped by children and grandchildren whose fathers fought in the Luweero Bush War? Is the President saying leadership can be inherited through the DNA of Luweero war veterans? 

One of veteran politicians who requested for anonymity in order to speak freely on the matter wondered whether the inference to employing middle class children without poverty pressures means middle class children are cleaner than those from poor backgrounds. 

The Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Mr Mathias Mpuuga Nsamba, said only visitors to Uganda would be surprised when Museveni announce plans to give jobs to “bush war cronies.” 

“The President is right… these people have amassed wealth over the years at the expense of service delivery. It is obvious most of the NRA children have no home poverty pressures but does that make the rest of Ugandans corrupt and therefore unfit for key positions in government? I don’t think so.” 

“There are many honest and hard-working Ugandans who are not necessarily descendants of bush war fighters. Unless there is something the President doesn’t want to tell Ugandans. I don’t think his plan is unblemished…this is not about fighting corruption, it’s something else.” 

Some of the MPs who spoke to Sunday Monitor asked:  “Is Museveni creating own league of leaders among the haves and sidelining the haves-not? Where does this move leave the president and his so-called bona bagaggawale project?

American dream

Some lawmakers and analysts have advised the President to adopt “the American dream model” if his intention is to ensure social-economic transformation. They talked of a system that rewards hard-work regardless of one’s family background and political connections.    

The American dream is the belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society in which upward mobility is possible for everyone. The American dream is believed to be achieved through sacrifice, risk-taking, and hard work, rather than by chance, political connections and godfathers.

Mr Eddie Kwizera (NRM) and other NRM members questioned the methodology of the research the President used to give strategic government jobs to children of his original NRA fighters.  

“Corruption is a personality problem and cannot be explained by wealth of person. There are many rich people who are corrupt.  It seems the study the president used is not conclusive and the targeted respondents were narrow,” Mr Kwizera said.

“In many Ministries, Departments and Government Agencies (MDAs), ministers have their children and relatives there, and corruption is a big problem.  Looking at wealth alone without background, capacity to perform and character of those NRA children will be a grave mistake.”

He added: “I don’t think this is about succession, it is corruption which is overwhelming and the President is trying to see how to fight back. The former NRA revolutionaries succeeded because they were accountable to him. We must adopt public interviews and public accountability in the fight against corruption. Otherwise, it’s not correct to assume that all the children of NRA fighters are good.” 

Analysts weigh in

Dr Francis Lubale, a Senior Lecturer at Kyambogo University, warned that “The president risks of discrimination, tribalism, corruption and running the country in to danger. In my view all government jobs, government departments and programmes run on taxpayers’ money must be acquired through merit. There must be a substantive appointing authority to recruit people on merit, assess them and allow them produce results on merit without discriminations in any way.” 

Capt Francis Babu, a former minister explained that “what the president wanted to say was people from good homes, not rich people. We must have a system of nurturing leadership and not just picking up anybody from anywhere. We cannot talk about competition in a case like this because not everybody must be a leader. We need to get people from good family background and train them to be leaders. Even I developed countries, people who are either elected or appointed thorough background check to ensure that they are of good reputation and that is what the president means.”

On succession, Mr Babu said: “I told him that more than 10 years ago that the party and government must have a clear succession system and train younger generation to take up leadership from us so if he is beginning to do it now, though late, it is not a bad idea because you need to be sure that when you go, the country must be left in safe hands.”

He added: “Each party must have a clear mechanism of modeling members for leadership positions and we must discourage the idea of crossing from one party to another because this will kill the idea of nurturing people through leadership ranks.”

NRA ideals 

One of the ideals of NRA fighters’ was fighting corruption. But 35 years later, the former NRA leader, who in 1986 voiced contempt for African governments for what he said was their corruption and failure to meet the needs of their citizens, is still struggling to fight back.

In his first speech as President of Uganda, Mr Museveni called African countries ‘’very backward’’ and said that, with all their resources and potential, they lagged far behind the developed world in such areas as healthcare, life expectancy and industry. With all of Uganda’s ‘’professors, with our excellencies, with our honourable ministers,’’ he said in The New York Times (January 30, 1986), the country cannot ‘’make a needle.’’

‘‘His excellence is going to the United Nations,’’ he said, apparently in reference to African leaders, ‘’and he is there for meetings with Reagan and Gorbachev, and 90 percent of his people have no shoes. They are walking bare foot.’’  

Most of these issues have persisted due to endemic corruption in the country.  President now wants the descendants of his bush-war fighters who have come of age to help him deal with corruption and other ills as he begins to shape the legacy of his presidency.