Moses Byamugisha, For FDC party flag bearer
Moses Byamugisha, For FDC party flag bearer.
On the
request of Moses Byamugisha, I republish this article on my blog courtesy of The
London Evening Post (The LEP).The recordings are in its original form with no
alteration of views and comments.
Kampala
Correspondent Ruth Namatovu caught up with Mr Byamugisha at the offices of the
FDC in Baumann Building in Kampala the Ugandan capital and sat down with him to
explain his declarations to our readers. In a lengthy interview, we began by
asking him to explain who he was to the people who may decide his fate.
Moses
Byamugisha (MB): I am Byamugisha Moses from Rukungiri District. I come from a
family of six children; four boys and two girls. I am the first born and I will
be making 33 years on the 28th of May. I am a son to James and Alice Byarugaba
who are entrepreneurs in Rukungiri district. I am married to Katitwa Rebecca
with a one month old daughter. While in Kampala, I reside in Ntinda, a suburb
in the outskirts of Kampala.
I went to
Kinyansano Boarding School for my Primary education then proceeded to Makobore
high School for Senior One and Senior Two but completed my ‘Ordinary’ and
‘Advanced’ Levels at Rukungiri Senior Secondary School. In 2005 I joined the
Law Development Centre for a Diploma in Law before proceeding to Uganda
Christian University (UCU) for a degree in Law. I graduated in 2011.
I have
basically been doing Forum for Democratic change (FDC) work as a National Youth
Mobilizer. It is not a paid job and you know in Uganda when you are an
Opposition youth you can’t get employed. So my survival has been through doing
private work to earn a living. In addition, my father is an entrepreneur in
Rukungiri district where we run different family businesses. You are such a
young man, what has prompted you to want to step into Gen. Mugisha Muntu’s
shoes. Aren’t they too big to fit? (Gen. Mugisha Muntu is the FDC Party
President)
Though
youthfully looking young, it’s been 15yrs of active Opposition politics in the
struggle. Actually, FDC came and found me in the struggle. We started with
Reform Agenda in 2000 when I was in Senior Three, long before FDC was formed.
So in these 15 years, I have been exposed to a number of situations and
challenges and I have acquired some skills and capabilities that I am putting
at the disposal of the FDC Party for a choice for the Presidential flag bearer.
he LEP:
Aren’t you too young to campaign for leadership?
MB: Today
all people that Mr. Museveni began with serving in this Government, none of
them was of my age when they came to power.
Rtd. Col. Dr. Kiiza Besigye became a Minister at the age of 28 years;
Gen. Salim Saleh was Army Commander at the age of 29. The same applies to Gen
Gregory Mugisha Muntuyera. All these were still young men but they entered
these very high offices and served. So service is not limited to age.
The LEP:
Article 102 (b) of the 1995 Uganda Constitution (amended) forbids you from
standing for the Office of the President because you’re not yet 35 years old.
How do you intend to go about this roadblock?
Moses
Byamugisha (BM): Since I declared my intentions to offer myself as a candidate
in the race for FDC Presidential flag-bearer, a lot has been said about my age
than my abilities. Let me first of all state that the public should not be
mistaken by my seemingly young age with my capacity to run such a
national/public office. After all, most of Mr Museveni’s team was way below my
age at the time they came to power in 1986. Notwithstanding their age, their
performance in the offices that they occupied at the time was good, especially
in their first years (1986-1996). So Ugandans can trust in my demonstrable
abilities for this job.
At my age,
you may wish to know that we are currently running a serious campaign of “Elections
only after Reforms”. In essence, there is no reason for Uganda to rush to
organize a fraudulent election. We note that to be able to adopt and implement
the necessary reforms it will require us to prepare for at-least two years.
This we are not just pleading with government to accept, but it’s an agenda we
are working and preparing to enforce by popular support. Therefore, if an
election is organized after 2017, I will be “over-aged” for this matter. My mention of 2016 is basically because it
offers me a platform and also ushers the country into an election mood.
Otherwise, we needed to have solved this governance problem long ago.
The LEP:
Have you been in any other Party apart from the FDC?
MB: No. I
have grown up and been breastfed on ‘FDC milk’ and I am not about to change,
unless otherwise. I am now grounding myself firmly into the party so this
cannot be the time for discussion on whether to change. I have paid a very high
price for this party that we cannot afford to change. We have been beaten [up]
several times [by Ugandan security forces] and locked up in prison during the
Walk-to-Work protests. It was my first time to go to prison and I spent at
least a week and a half in jail.
The LEP: Do
you belong to any faction in the FDC? We have the Nandala Mafabi one, and the
Mugisha Muntu one, where do you fall?
MB: Right
now I belong to the faction that says that “the youth must rise and make a
contribution”
The LEP: So
where has Gen Mugisha Muntu gone wrong or failed that you want replace him?
MB: The
situation that demands that I offer myself as a candidate has very little to do
with Gen Mugisha Muntu. It rather has to do with what our country is facing. A
country where 83 per cent of youths are unemployed. When you come to FDC, 75
per cent of their support base are youths. Isn’t it only reasonable that the
youths should therefore take centre stage in shaping the direction of the
Party? I think it is logical that we the youth should be able to come up and
shape the direction of the party. My vision to contest therefore has nothing to
do with what Gen Mugisha Muntu has failed to do. It has something to do with
what the country is demanding from us as the next generation. Certainly every
generation got their leaders so our generation has to think about its own
leaders.
The LEP:
Who is backing your bid for FDC presidency? Is there any FDC stalwart we know
of or you are just a young man fighting for fame and popularity?
MB: This
initiative is being backed by young leaders in the party and we are trying to
make it understood that we are doing it in our own simple ways, simple town
hall meetings and that is why you have not heard us launch in Serena (One of
Kampala’s major hotels). If we had anyone backing us, then we would be in such
places. It is our thing as young people and we are trying to reach out to
fellow young colleagues to tell them that we need to be more serious, more
active to get to the centre stage and make a contribution. People should not
misunderstand this as young people trying to overthrow or take over, No. We are
rising to make a contribution like we have not done before.
The LEP:
Don’t you think you are just looking for fame?
MB: No, No.
Byamugisha Moses has a history. I have lived a public life and it is not that I
have dropped from abroad to get into this. My track record can be traced right
from Primary, High School and University. It has been a political life so
people can look there and see if I can be trusted. I have already sacrificed a
lot in my means for the party. There is a lot at stake, we cannot play games
here.
The LEP:
There are so many internal wrangles in FDC, just to mention but a few – the
Muntu and Nandala factions. How are you prepared to solve them?
MB: Like I
said earlier on, the young people in FDC compose 75 per cent of its support
base. My announcement is slowly, but surely galvanizing the young people in the
party to speak with one voice. If the 75 per cent can remain united and form
the basis and engine onto which the party is run, am sure the rest of the party
will be called back into order. For as long as young people say “You know what
seniors, this is our future you are playing with, we will not allow that to
continue happening”. So I think that can restore some sanity into the party.
The LEP:
What is your agenda for the next General Elections (2016). Can we expect a
change of guard after your former party President Rtd Col Dr Kiiza Besigye
failed to cause change in the country’s leadership for more than twice?
MB: First
of all, one thing should be made clear. It is elections after reforms. That’s
very, very important. That is why I insist that this initiative is not tied
onto deadlines like 2016, 2021. It has to be a credible election after reforms
because as we talk now, it would be an insult to common sense for one to expect
that you are going to join a “Museveni organized election” and you win it. So I
call upon the young people in Uganda who like this initiative that we must
first work to advocate and achieve electoral and political reforms. When we
have achieved that, then there’s a lot that is going to happen and it means we
can be able to change government through an election. And as Ugandans, we
should not wait to let Mr Museveni first spoil everything before being forced
to remove him. They should be able to keep advising him so that we can have a
credible election and when he loses power, he should be able to stay away and
when he wins, well and good and his lease will be extended.
Now, when
we have come into power after the management of a post Museveni Uganda, my
dream is that youths should be at centre stage of what is taking place. For
every government policy, we should be able to see that the youth is at the base
because our population is increasing. 83% of young people puts Uganda at either
the 2nd or 1st youngest nation in the world. We cannot have such a nation
abandoning youths. Instead, the youths should form the basis. If it is any
development programmes, it should be sensitive to the youths. If it is any
government policy, it should put young people into consideration. To me, that
is what I think should be worked out and we can’t avoid it. The youth are the
biggest population and if we don’t plan for them, Uganda will surely be putting
itself in a powder cage. We wouldn’t want to see youth unemployment becoming a
social problem like it is happening [now].
The LEP:
There are so many youth programmes that have been put up such as the youth
livelihood programmes, youth loans, SACCOs etc. What is your take on that?
Aren’t they working?
MB: The
programmes that are meant to help the youth that have been introduced by the
NRM are yet to help the young people in this country and the reason why they
are not yet helping is because they are not introduced to help. These
initiatives are simply introduced to hoodwink. Mr Museveni is concentrating
more on survival politics, making his regime survive than really service
delivery. So every programme that comes,
we only stop at seeing it simply launched and reading about it in the papers,
[headline stories like] “204 billion given to the youths”. The next thing you hear, it has been
deposited in the bank but they ensure that it is six months before the youth
can access that money. Within those six months before the youth can access that
money, it’s on someone’s fixed deposit account and it is making profit. No, No.
It’s not helping and it is not meant to help.
The LEP:
Going back to the electoral reforms and the tight time-table to the elections
by the Electoral Commission, do you think these reforms will be ready before
the next elections?
MB: One
thing we must first of all know is that the environment as it is today favours
Mr Museveni and his government. So we will be naïve to expect that it will be
Mr Museveni to push or even be willing to have electoral reforms. We at least
know what kind of reforms we have because there was a consultation that was
done and there is a compact of records of what reforms we would need both
political and electoral. If we don’t have these reforms in place, we will be
wasting time. Unfortunately we will not be able to have these reforms and then
be able to hold the 2016 elections. For us to be able to level the playing
field, we would more or less need like three years to be able to level the
playing field and also put these reforms first before Parliament. Remember,
these reforms have financial implications; we have to make sure that the budget
of the Electoral Commission is improved because you are talking about
decentralizing electoral systems that even an MP can be announced at a
constituency, not waiting at the district. So it is going to call for
fundamental reforms and for those reforms to be implemented, it cannot be one
year. We need at least two or three years, we would be wasting time to rush
into elections without these reforms. There is no hurry because the cost of
having fraudulent elections in this country is very high. We should have
reforms first and then elections.
The LEP:
What should we expect from FDC in case the reforms are not done?
As a party,
we have not decided to boycott and this is a matter that is being discussed.
There are party members who insist that we should first have reforms before
going for elections and without them, we shouldn’t go into an election.
The LEP:
The chances seem high that these Electoral reforms may not be achieved by then.
What will you do?
MB: We
intend to ensure that they are there. Mr Museveni needs to be encouraged and we
know how we can encourage him.
The LEP:
How are you going to encourage him?
MB: We need
to create an environment that can make them understand that we can either have
reforms to hold peaceful elections or they will not be elected. It is that
simple.
The LEP:
Can we expect Walk-to-Work protests again?
MB: If in
our wisdom we believe that resuming Walk-to-Work protests is what can give us
reforms, we will surely happily resume.
The LEP:
Discussions have been going on for a joint candidate for the Opposition. How do
you view this suggestion?
MB: First of
all, Nigeria has given us a good example. When you have a politically leveled
play field and then you organize yourselves as the Opposition, present a common
candidate, there is an element of unanimity that gives confidence to the
voters. There are also chances that you can always make it. But looking at it
as a young leader in a leading opposition party, my prayer is that we the young
people should be able to encourage our senior leaders to go on to a common
platform of advocating for change in Uganda. Some of the senior leaders might
be reluctant and yet it is our future that is at stake. So for me my call to
young people in this country would be that we should be able in our political
parties to encourage senior leaders to agree to a joint candidate and if that
is achieved and electoral reforms have also been achieved, that would be
perfect. May be that would give us hope.
The LEP: So
as a youth, what style of leadership are you going to base your leadership on?
Besigye’s aggressiveness or style or Gen Muntu’s humbled and moderate approach?
MB: My
style or our style as young people. We do not need to have any of their styles.
You see, the situation at hand somehow determines how we will respond to it. I
don’t see why we shouldn’t engage government in our conference rooms, present
papers, and have actual think tanks. If government can always receive our
proposals, there is absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t go in to form think
tanks, develop alternative policies and present them to government. But what
sometimes prompts us to go traditional is when government is reluctant to act
and understand. So we think that sometimes we need to voice these issues
further so that they can be able to understand them.
The LEP:
Opposition leaders have been called by President Museveni for discussions but
they have never heeded these calls. How are you expected to achieve some of
your goals when you avoid round table discussions?
MB: We don’t need to go to Sate House to take
tea with President Museveni for him to know our alternatives. We can be able to
have them published and it is upon his technocrats and his government ministers
to be able to buy them and use them.
The LEP:
What is wrong with having a cup of tea with Museveni as you hold talks?
Serious
business cannot be done over a cup of tea. The problem with having a cup of tea
is that it ends up being a tea party. We have Parliament that is good at giving
them alternatives through shadow ministers and the Leader of Opposition. We
don’t have to go to State House because policies are passed by parliament and
never at State House.
The LEP:
But most of the policies are challenged in parliament because of numbers. The opposition legislators are few and so
bills are passed because the NRM party has the majority in the August House.
MB: That
picture you are painting presupposes that Mr Museveni would remain in power and
it is going to remain business as usual and so the NRM will remain the majority
in Parliament. We don’t think that is what is going to happen. We do think that
there is going to be a change in this country in the governance and the change
will come with its own way of doing things. Mr Museveni will not be an issue at
that time. He will be in Rwakitura. So as long as young people in this country
have realized that it is possible, for as long as they can be able to inspire
them and motivate them and they go and vote and protect their vote and defend
the win, then really Mr Museveni will only be in Rwakitura.
The LEP: So
how are you going to mobilize all the youth in other political parties, the DP,
CP, NRM, and JEEMA etc. to support you?
MB: The good news is that the youth in this
country are already mobilized by the problems they are facing such as disease,
hopelessness and drug abuse. We have a number of challenges as young people,
although unemployment is most prominent. Mobilizing young people shouldn’t be a
problem. What has always been the problem is the way they shy away from
governance and politics just because everyone is talking of “when we were in
the bush, where were you when we were fighting?”
Some of us
were not yet born so I would not have gone into the Luweero jungles when I was
not even in my mother’s womb; so really we don’t relate with them. So as long
as someone puts in place a youth agenda, certainly the youths will rally around
him. And I am calling upon the public to watch the space. Yes, today they might
take us as attention seekers, they might think we are looking for survival but
I promise them to watch this space. One
month down the road, one year down the road you are going to see that there is
a difference. Our plan is both short term and long-term. In the short term, my
aim as a leader is to ensure that we build a critical mass of young people.
Those young people will also include young leaders. After we have achieved
this, we will be able to give alternative leadership to this country and things
will change.
The fact that Mr. Museveni is preoccupied with
surviving into power to be able to see tomorrow is at the base of everything.
That is why he wants to be the only man in every event because he thinks that
can help him to survive. That’s why he will not have money pass through the
banks but carry it in sacks and he’s busy giving handouts in envelopes because
he wants to remain the main man in the game so that he can be able to see
tomorrow. And that style of managing public offices is at the base of Uganda’s maladministration.
So as long as we have dealt with that problem, surely things can be different.
The LEP: Is
there any good thing that President Museveni has done?
MB: Yes.
There are a number of good things that Mr Museveni has done, the issue is; We
have 40 minutes to drive from here to Mpigi. We set out as Ugandans that we are
going from City Square to Mpigi, we are at Busega and we have already used 50
minutes but still far away from Mpigi. It is true that we are no longer at City
Square but we are not in Mpigi as yet and we have used all our time. That is
the problem we have with Mr Museveni. Where we are as a country, we have moved
but this is not where we would have been given the time and resources. We
should be better.
The LEP:
How has the removal of term limits affected the youth?
MB: The
removal of term limits has in essence rendered us hopeless as young people. It
is the reason as to why many young people are no longer interested in the
politics and governance of this country. The term limits were the best
safeguard for the transition. Now without them, you cannot be sure of term
limits. At first we had term limits, [and then] they were removed. Now there
are efforts to remove age limits. So all the safeguards for transition are
being removed and that is impacting heavily on the youth. That is why you will
find some youth are saying that “we need guns” because they know that the
people are here to stay and are not going anywhere. It de-motivates young
people who ought to have come up.
The LEP: Apart
from you, who else is in the race?
MB: I have declared my intentions and I have
made sure that all party members are informed. I first of all called a meeting
of FDC youth leaders, mainly in higher institutions of learning such as Guild
presidents and then the executives of youth leaders. I called them for a
meeting last week, we met and I declared my intentions, explained my agenda and
they gave me a go ahead. From there I sent a communication to the whole party
leadership including the National Delegates’ Conference of about 900 people
including the party President and those who serve under him. Today, all these
people have received a communication directly from me telling them that I have
decided to offer myself as a candidate for the FDC Flag bearer.
The LEP: If
by God’s Grace you take over the FDC Presidency, who would you choose as the
Leader of Opposition in Parliament and how could your cabinet look like?
MB: We
would have to balance many interests. You see, the fact that there is going to
be a youth government in place doesn’t mean that senior people will be done
away with. We still have very intelligent senior leaders in this country. There
are positions which will need people who have been there. They hold the memory
of this country. So we would be naïve to expect that we could do away with them
even if it is President Museveni. My prayer as the next president of this
country is that President Museveni must be able to retire peacefully, go to his
ranches either in Rwakitura or Kisozi and once in a while I can drive from
State House to Kisozi and consult him as our elder. That is if he has left
power and we have had a transition peacefully.
The LEP:
What’s your appeal to the young people?
MB: My
message to the young people both local and international is that don’t abandon
politics. Don’t abandon issues of governance. The politicians determine whether
you should have salt on your table or not. Whether you will send your children
to school or not. Do not leave governance issues to politicians alone because
they impact on our daily lives. And now we are rising up as young leaders. We
want to offer them leadership. We want to give them a reason to want to get
interested. Let us have a new way of doing things so that we can direct the
course of our country. Our future is at stake, whatever those senior leaders
are doing, they are not going to be here in ten years from now but the
decisions they are making today will still be in force even 20years later. So
it is important that you get interested in what they are doing.
The LEP:
Just to wind up this interview, what is your comment on the controversial ID
registration?
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