This is not the NRM we started, brought to power, says Otafiire

Internal Affairs Minister and bush war hero, Maj Gen Kahinda Otafiire has said there has been a big shift from the values the NRM was founded upon and the ones exhibited now, indicating that he is worried about the future of the ruling party.

“The NRM of 1986 and the NRM now are not the same. If the two were to meet, they wouldn’t recognize each other. There are many things that as pioneers we believed in an held dear but have now changed,”Otafiire said.

“You find profiteers and all sorts of characters including criminals wearing the NRM t-shirt. Many of these conduct business in the name of NRM but with their own selfish interests.”

Otafiire was on Thursday evening speaking during the ruling NRM party ideological orientation lectures for its staff and members living within the country and those in the diaspora.

The Internal Affairs Minister said he is not sure of the future of the ruling party that he said hangs in balance after veering off its ideology.

“Sometimes I feel like not leaving the bed when I hear and read of stories in the press about corruption that has taken over our institution. I shudder that we can rub shoulders with the corrupt and corruption becomes a style. It is appalling that we can operate with manipulators who get money and start manipulating events so much that it becomes fashionable for everyone to be corrupt,”Otafiire said.

Using an old adage of a dog and its nose, Otafiire said soon the NRM will be a story of the past if the current leadership doesn’t put in place efforts to have an ideological orientation.

“A disease that will kill a dog starts with its nose. The same way, a disease that will kill a person starts with his ability to speak. If we can’t speak, we are finished. When you cant speak and fight for your rights you are a dead man.”

“Those of us in leadership have allowed these things to happen but soon the NRM will be like KANU in Kenya. When a party lacks ideological grounding, it is like a house built on sand that is soon swept away by water. When we came from the bush where our thinking was ideologically homogenous but it seems the thinking changed. We will soon end up like KANU, Mobutu’s MPR and the United Independence Party of Zambia.”

The Internal Affairs Minister however tasked the party leadership to ensure they change this state of affairs through ideological orientation but also to ensure a return to the old values that the NRM was formed upon.

"Leaders of the National Resistance Movement should read and understand the ideology of NRM party in order to be different from leaders from different political parties."