Author
FRANCO BALYA
There comes a time in life of any political organisation when the sun that once rose in glory beginns to cast a long shadow. This moment, if received with wisdom can make a graceful transition; a moment to pass the torch and preserve the legacy. If ignored however, it risks consuming everything that was once built with vision and sacrifice. Uganda’s ruling NRM stands at the very crossroads.
When they captured power in 1986, the air was full of optimism. Their leader Yoweri K Museveni promised that this wasn’t just mere change of guards but a fundamental change. Democracy, National Security and Unity are the ideals that defined the system in its early years. The economy and institutions were stabilized and rebuilt respectively and indeed’ Uganda emerged from the ashes of misrule and dictatorship as a beacon of reform in a politically turbulent country.
In its early years, the NRM brought a sigh of hope to a nation broken by coups, state abductions, corruption and conflict. The 1990’s saw relative stability return, with restored institutions, expanded infrastructure and the revival of an economy battered by years of mismanagement. The Universal Primary Education (UPE) as a policy by the movement opened classroom doors for millions of children. The decentralization program promised governance closer to the people. These were the years Uganda was hailed as a model of African recovery. Museveni’s government attracted international goodwill, donor confidence and foreign investment.
Yet, like all revolutions that outlive their purpose, the National Resistance Movement’s promise began to dim under the weight of its own success. Power once a tool for transformation, slowly but steadily became an end in itself. The constitution of 1995 once a proud testament to national renewal has since then been amended over and over to meet the interests of those in power and to accommodate the ambitions of permanence. Today, the generation that once welcomed the saviors into power has aged into quiet resignation while a restless, jobless youth born long after the bush war questions why history must remain frozen in 1986.
The NRM’s long rule has outrightly produced relative stability but not always democracy. Uganda’s institutions have grown more loyal to personal interests than to principles. The line between the party and the state has blurred to near invisibility. Opposition voices have been muzzled by the familiar language of “agents of foreign interests”. Meanwhile, the nation’s social contract is fraying. Unemployment among the youth especially has hit record high, corruption scandals multiply faster than completed government projects and are never fully brought to their logical conclusions, public debt grows faster than the economy itself and the promise of transformation now only feels more like a mirage on a long political journey with no clear destination.
Human history is rich with examples of leaders and movements that failed to recognize when their shadows had grown too long. “Liberation” movements from Harare to Burkina Faso, from Algiers to Tunis, all faced the same dilemma: the inability to see that staying in power too long erodes even the noblest legacy.
The NRM is now at that moment of reckoning. To retire gracefully, to hand over to a new generation wouldnot be an admission of failure but a celebration of success. It would affirm that the movement was never about an individual but about a vision for Uganda’s progress.
If the NRM indeed believes in the principles of democracy, patriotism and transformation that it once religiously preached, then this can only be proved by planning for oderly transition and not indefinite occupation.
Uganda’s future won’t be built on nostalgia for past vixctories, but on courage to face the new realities. The youth, now the majority demand a fresh social contract that speaks to innovation, fairness, accountability etc.