Succession talk-can M7 walk the talk

President Yoweri Museveni or Mzee as his supporters love referring to him recently said he would not groom a successor as requested by his supporters but a system that would eventually produce one.

What a smart thing to say. The opposition and his party members clapped to this and maybe danced and wined to it. But how possible is this?

Peaceful and democratic political succession is very critical for the development of any country; unfortunately very few African countries have succeeded in achieving it.

In Uganda and like many other African, Asian and Caribbean countries, there is wide use of sectional and private reasons to beg incumbents to remain in power.

If only presidents could freely relinquish office, as experience had demonstrated that in doing so-even devils such as Kenyan Daniel Arap Moi -they remain elder statesmen, both in the eyes of the nationals and the international community.

Grooming a system involves a lot of courage and discipline, which many African leaders, even the so called breed-of-new-African leaders-if they still are anyway-shy away from.

EAC region-Tanzania, a successor is groomed but not the system, in Kenya, till today, they don’t know who actually won the December 2007 election and in my Uganda, it is still a dream.

With the establishment of a de jure one party state in Tanzania in 1965, a de facto one party state in Kenya in 1969 and military state in Uganda in 1971, the possibility of changing the head of government through multiparty competitive politics was eroded.

The presidential system, which is practiced, has the potential of creating a perpetual incumbency due to the enormous executive and political powers vested in the presidency, and the capacity of being president as well as party chairman.

The process of political recruitment has also adversely affected political succession. The nomination of candidates for civic, parliamentary and political party posts is heavily influenced by party procedures rather than the ability of contestants.

The final decision is made by party organs, whose discretion may often be coloured by ethnic and religious affiliations, corruption and intra party who-is-who “the Mwenzetu” problems.

So when Museveni said he would groom a system, I wonder, because holding onto to power for two-decades does not spell a character that can groom a system.

Grooming a system would mean a free and fair leadership in nomination processes both within and without political parties, maintenance of fixed terms of political office.

Grooming a democratic system, would mean separation of powers between the arms of government in order to tame wild presidents and promotion of a bottom-up political recruitment process.

While as a country we have romanticised and justified revolutionary violence, in all the situations it has been used, no significant benefit for the people has arisen. It only resulted in to the abandonment of the ideals of the NRM Ten Point Programme.

For Museveni’s rhetoric to come true, he will have to build strong institutions for conflict resolution and an empowered population capable of articulating and implementing necessary change.

Under a groom system, we shall be able to defined institutions as independent and non-partisan bodies with appropriate laws and procedures.

There will be a balance between accountability and impunity, minus witch hunting but a promotion of accountability and justice.

There will be a set procedure to avoid expensive elections that induce corruption

Neutrality and professionalism of army at all institutional levels. It should be capable of defending national interests and not beholden to individuals and an objective attribution of blame.

Political succession is a much larger matter than the issue of term limits that our opposition parties have been ranting about, though an important component of it.

The most powerful tool to ensure political succession is the conduct of free and fair elections. The independence of the electoral commission as well as the passing and the implementation of adequate electoral laws are of prime importance.

To crown it all, in order to ensure positive political succession, the political entities that are vying for power, must be democratically constituted.

NRM, DP, UPC and FDC must be well rooted within their constituents and should evolve around the practiced principles of participation and representation.

Their leaders must be accountable, and their members have a duty to demand such accountability. These qualities are necessary prerequisites for such organisations and individuals to assume responsibilities at the national level.