The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
“Right now our focus, my focus, is eliminating poverty,” Museveni told reporters while in Luweero; the place where he launched his war in 1981 that left the district in ruins.
“When the right time comes, we will talk about those other things. Not that it [succession] is not important but there is a time for it. We will get time and discuss it,” he reportedly said.
Museveni was responding to a query about his succession, which has dominated public debate since his son-in-law, Odrek Rwabwogo, added his voice to calls for transition both within the NRM – where Museveni has been chairperson since 1985 – and at national level where he has ruled for three decades now.
How to negotiate Museveni’s exit has emerged a stumbling block in efforts the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU) and The Elders Forum (TEFU) have mostly been headlining to have the national dialogue. A recent closed-door meeting of these and other partner organisations wrestled with the issue without any bankable solution.
“Transition of power from one leadership to another has never been as important for Uganda,” Mufti Sheikh Ramathan Mubajje, the current chair of Inter Religious Council of Uganda, reportedly told the meeting.
“We need to ensure that this national dialogue process takes off so that Museveni can finish well according to the Constitution,” he reportedly added.
The comments from the EU come hot on the heels of the latest verbal exchanges between the NRM and the FDC concerning a dialogue over the last presidential elections results at whose centre is one of their own: Sweden.
Not too long ago Stockholm was reportedly approached, and accepted, to mediate talks between long running political nemeses President Yoweri Museveni and Dr Kizza Besigye. The former colleagues in the guerrilla war that first brought Mr Museveni to power in 1986 have competed for the presidency four times now with Besigye losing each time and crying foul in each one of them.
On Wednesday, April 6, government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo admitted that the government has been approached by multiple groups to have talks with the opposition over outstanding political, social and economic issues Uganda is grappling with but none of the efforts has taken off.
He, however, noted neither government nor Museveni has approached Besigye or anyone else to solicit for dialogue over the election results.
Besigye and his party roundly rejected the outcome of the February 18 polls, which nearly all observer reports concluded had been anything but free and fair.
He has insisted on a neutral audit of the election preferably by an international body but the government does not want to hear of it. Individuals who speak for the NRM and the government insist Museveni duly won with 60.75 percent as declared by the Electoral Commission.
“There is no mediation efforts by anybody, country, power, local or international institution,” Ofwono told reporters at the government Media Centre, which he heads.
“The 2016 presidential elections were over and results lawfully and appropriately declared and gazetted by the Electoral Commission as mandated by the Constitution of Uganda. Those that were dissatisfied with the results went to the Supreme Court in accordance with the established procedures and the Court gave its public verdict, and therefore that matter is settled and won’t be revisited by anybody including the purported foreign countries,” Ofwono added.
“As a principle, the NRM government is open to and welcomes all efforts at constructive engagement including talks with those we may have some disagreements with. Therefore, in principle, talking is not an issue,” Ofwono said.
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editor@independent.co.ug
