Opinion: The 4 kinds of people letting down Museveni
2021 Elections Watch
By Belguin Prosper Lumu
A lot of questions are being asked as to why and how President Yoweri Museveni and the National Resistance Movement (NRM) as a whole is losing grip.
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Many might want to shy away from this, but it is not healthy living in denial. Any party can face challenges especially in this very volatile political world, but it is crucial to understand the cause especially if the results show it is on a declining curve regardless of one having the leading position.
It is not enough to have the leading position yet you are on a declining curve.
I have taken time to analyze possible causes and highlighted 4 major problems caused by 4 major categories of people that are letting down Museveni from within.
1). The Complacent officials
Like they say, success breeds complacency.
The tragedy of life is often not in our failure, but rather in our complacency; not in our doing too much, but rather in our doing too little; not in our living above our ability, but rather in our living below our capacities.
Many of Museveni’s officials starting from within State House and NRM ranks, have worked with him for long in the same exact positions and many have amassed great wealth (behind his back) and became self-satisfied.
Over time, for such people, priorities change since they have it all.
In the presence of Museveni, they will show him they are hard workers and solely focus on his needs, yet in his absence, all they think about is their immediate programs.
Such kinds of people have become so complacent that they only think about their boss’ needs when pressure rises or when he is present, in the end they panic and make mistakes that cause him bad PR.
Maybe Museveni tends to fear laying off such people simply because they know what he wants and how he wants it because they have worked with him for long but he needs to remember that quality of productivity is better than convenience.
Museveni can always appoint new hires and teach them his ways. One of the greatest decisions Museveni ever took was to change his PPS. Now, he needs to do more shake ups in State House and NRM from the most top ranks that he fears changing (even if it means changing the State House comptroller, so be it).
He needs to face the fear of losing his long serving workers and replace them with new ones, for the better of NRM.
The people that work closely to him have the ability to block or open doors for anyone that wants to see him or share ideas that NRM could pick up for the better. This means that such people control what Museveni sees or hears and they know how to play around his fears and cognitive abilities.
This is dangerous for him as the Commander-in-Chief and CEO of Uganda. On the other hand, if he is able to replace such people routinely, no one is guaranteed of longevity. So, many will always focus on doing their job right and not get comfortable.
2). The Rogue Officials
All the good work Museveni has done in Uganda cannot compensate for the damage that a single facet of the business, or a rogue individual can do. This is what has happened to Museveni.
Because of the actions of several rogue elements within the system, many citizens have been left with no option but to slowly abandon Museveni and NRM as a whole.
Take an example of the actions of the former ISO director Frank Kaka Bagyenda, for all the false intelligence reports, innocent civilians abducted and kept at an island and coercing them to confess to crimes they have no idea about, in exchange for money or torture and false allegations against his own fellow officers, he is still not facing justice.
Think about the individuals who use state institutions to oppress citizens in broad daylight, think about the officers who disrespect their juniors and threaten them with mutiny and so many other issues. All these leave people with only one thing to imagine; Museveni is aware of it all but doing nothing.
The errant officials maybe the ones committing the crimes but the uninformed public blames Museveni as the appointing authority.
Some of these rogue officials entrusted with power are able to hoodwink Museveni to defend them in his public statements. A listening public will interpret the president's statements as "arrogance and lies" yet Museveni is making statements based on information these officials have provided to him.
Even when the president realises later on he was misled and attempts to rectify the error, it is already too late: damage has been done.
3). The NRM Youth leaders
These ones pose a very big risk. NRM needs strategic youths, not just passionate fellows. Having passion for NRM will not bring results but having strategy will.
Unfortunately, the only strategy most of these folks know, is on how to make calls to relatives within the system to help them influence to get NRM or government positions. They do not know what it means to be a strategic youth within NRM. For starters, NRM needs youth that appreciate its ideology but also able to create genuinely surgical ways to use that ideology to pull more youth to NRM.
If you want to test the effectiveness of NRM cadres, task them to do mobilization (without money) but only convincing masses, you will realize the problem I am talking about. Sometimes, even with money, mobilization will fail.
Honestly speaking, NRM has an ideology and message that are okay, but it uses incompetent brains to convey that message. NRM needs youth who will not just think outside the box, but actually create the box. Those are the kinds of youth NRM needs. Unfortunately, most just wait to be told what to do then they jump on the issue.
4). The Silently Tribalistic Cadres
This is an issue everyone in NRM shies away from but unless NRM learns to face the reality of this problem, they are bound to have bigger electoral problems in 2026. The president might not be tribalistic but he needs to know some of his cadres are but they will never show it to him because they know he hates it.
One time I met an NRM cadre and the first question he asked me even before knowing my name was, “What is your tribe?” I refused to answer the question and straight away told him it was not necessary to answer that question. He avoided me for the rest of the conference.
Little did he know, a fellow cadre (sharing same tribe with him) is the one that had invited me to attend the conference because he believed that by my attendance, we could discuss some things that can benefit youth later.
I have seen NRM people who are willing to let a good person with good ideas go simply because they are not from the west.
If you are in NRM and you are emotionally attached to your tribe or religion to the point that truth, justice and progress of your party become secondary considerations, then your education and contribution to NRM is useless. If you cannot reason beyond petty sentiments, you are a liability to NRM and you are the kind of people letting down Museveni.
All in all, considering the above 4 kinds of people, it is important to note that at the end of the day, even if all the above 4 are dealt with, it ultimately comes down to service delivery.
If you are NRM and have an elected or appointed position and you fail to deliver to the people of Uganda, Ugandans will not vote for you again. Ultimately, they will even lose confidence in the party and go for other alternatives that will come like a wave. Unfortunately, not all these alternatives will be “waves”, they will be alternatives coming to displace NRM as you are busy underestimating them.
Museveni has always emphasized the point of never underestimating opponents, but because most of you are self complacent, rogue, incompetent leaders and silently tribalistic, you focus on petty sentiments than focusing on the real challenges eating NRM from within.
Today it will be one region, next time will be two or three or more.
NRM needs to face these challenges vividly and without sugar coating them, then maybe NRM’s popularity and youth attrition rate will be checked. However, you are still at liberty to continue acting like everything is ok, just to confuse and “please” the president since you are suffering from the “imposter syndrome.”
The author Prosper Belguin
Belguin Prosper Lumu is a market intelligence and strategy expert. He is the CEO and founder of Young & Free International Limited, a youth supporting, market intelligence and Lobbying company.
Twitter handle: @belguinprosper
