Allan Ssewanyana and Muhammad Ssegirinya on video link
President Museveni frequently tells us about how the country expected him and his NRA group to revenge against the UPC when they took over power in 1986.
Most Ugandans and people in the world thought that immediately after taking over power, next on the agenda was to harass and revenge against those who had made their life difficult when they were in the bush struggling to capture power. But this did not happen because it was not the intention of the National Resistance Army (NRA) to revenge.
Instead, the intention was to bring about national reconciliation so that new efforts of building a country which had crumbled would commence. Those efforts would have been in vain if indeed they started with revenging and harassing those they were fighting against and those they disagreed with.
In their wisdom, the NRA group knew that revenge wasn’t one of the solutions to heal the country and it wasn’t going to get Uganda out of the ditch that the past governments had thrown it into. People needed to reconcile and unite so that they combine efforts to do everything that was possible for the country to recover from the shocks of the bad leadership that had crumbled the security and the overall governance of the Pearl of Africa.
This however doesn’t mean that they didn’t have the capacity to pay back the atrocities that were committed against them and also the unnecessary mass shading of blood and disappearance of several freedom fighters.
Reconciliation, coexistence, tolerance, forgiveness and being accommodative have since then been the main pillars of the National Resistance Movement. It has not only helped us to appeal to the opposition but it has also helped us to mobilise Ugandans not only for political support but also development.
In fact, it’s on record that President Museveni has pardoned former ministers and army officers who served past governments and who were in jail. Most of them have been appointed and they’re serving with him in the government. This now confirms the goal of the National Resistance Movement which was not to cause danger to those who misused power but rather bring them on board and start working with them to build their own country.
President Museveni frequently talks about the disunity that had erupted in Uganda and that disunity was based on the tribes and religion. The political parties DP, UPC, Kabaka Yeeka were formed based on those sectarian lines. Actually, in his address during the Liberation Day on 26th January, President Museveni said that nobody can build a strong army if they base it on sectarian tendencies.
He added that those political parties failed to get the required percentage to win the elections because of sectarianism. Countries in Africa whose armies have been built on the foundations of sectarianism have always found it difficult to keep the country safe. Conflicts usually break out between the military and before nobody knows people lose their lives. Actually even governing those countries has been very difficult with insecurity becoming a serious challenge and also affecting the neighbouring countries.
For any country to develop, it must be united. Thank God in Uganda we’ve some opposition members who have openly accepted to work with the current government for the betterment of their communities. These ones set aside their disagreements and put forward the interests of the larger community which they represent.
I think MPs Allan Ssewanyana and Muhammad Ssegirinya should abandon the bad politics of radicalism and extremism and work with the current government for the development of the constituencies which they represent as MPs. They should be reminded that the National Resistance Movement enjoys support from all parts of the country and for anybody to defeat the NRM you must convince all those Ugandans first. When elections are held and leaders are sworn in, they form a government and it becomes their responsibility to make budgets and bring services closer to the people and that’s what democracy is all about.
The writer is a deputy RDC Sheema district
Source: The Observer
Share this content: