As the ruling National Resistance Movement ( NRM) gear toward its much anticipated delegates conference later this year, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, in his capacity as party Chairman has been urged to block ministers from seeking election to the Central Executive Committee.
The party’s electoral body Chairperson, Dr Tanga Odoi has already set 27th August for the delegates conference at Mandela National Stadium. The conference will among other things elect membership to the party’s top most decision making organ- CEC. It will also confirm President Museveni as the party presidential flag bearer after his sole nomination last month.
Engineer Joseph Mukasa Ssewava, a respected member of the ruling party and a top Museveni loyalist has appealed to the president to reign in on members of his cabinet to withdraw from the race for the CEC membership, arguing that their busy schedules in Parliament will not help the party.
Sewava, who is also in the race for the CEC member representing Central Region says that his colleagues in the race for CEC while simultaneously holding cabinet positions are nothing but greedy self centered people to whom individual interests weigh more than the party.
He wonders why the top decision makers in the party have not yet thought about how good sharing responsibilities would go a long way in not only building the party but also grooming leaders capable to carrying forward the NRM revolution for years to come.
” Why would someone want to be a minister and a CEC member at the same time? This is ridiculously laughable. One person wants to be the NRM Village, parish, sub-county, district Chairperson, Member of Parliament, CEC member and also cabinet minister. What roles will the other members play, then? The only remedy we can have is for the president to push for changes in the electoral guidelines otherwise many leaders will continue being suppressed.
Relatedly, Sewava also wants term caps included in the new progressive electoral changes so that members other than the party Chairman are allowed a maximum of two terms in office. According to Ssewava, the changes would not only give raise to new leaders but also a variety of ideas which he says is very crucial for the continuity of NRM which has been threatened by criticism from the opposition regarding how hard it has become over the years for new leaders to emerge.
” What else do you expect a leaders who has been there for over ten years to bring to the party? Which new ideas? Ordinarily, someone is so comfortable in the position over the years and it would only be proper that they give way and guide successors to implement new ideas which would breath fresh air into the system.
On his quest for the CEC position, Sewava has set endearing the youth in Buganda and else where to NRM and also working to improve relations between Buganda and the central government as his key priority areas. He pledges to closely work with Mengo government to scale up on its social economic transformation programs such as POWESA and Emwanyi terimba to transform Central Uganda economically.
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