The Senior Special Advisor to President Yoweri Museveni, and son in law to the first family Odrek Rwabwogo, has called for the protection of the head of state from alleged wrong, unthinking characters within the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) who are undermining the greater good, for the country.
“All Ugandans now have a stake in him, and no one group should seek to monopolise him or to pretend to act on his behalf. He is our asset, if we do not rebuild the moral and principle foundation of the movement when he is with us, what happens when he is no longer here or in charge?”
Rwabwogo has revealed that he has proposed several internal reforms in the movement, which he hopes to bring in the years to come with consultations from thousands of people.
“People of goodwill who are confounded by what is going on but are silent. We do this because we see a dearth of wise leadership from many young people who have been raised in a peaceful environment and have sometimes, not always, sometimes very limited knowledge of Uganda’s history, and its uncanny habit of repeating itself” he said.
Rwabwogo, made the remarks during in a video podcast, shared on his X account on Saturday evening.
Rwabwogo, who is also the Chairperson of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Export and Industrial Development (PACEID), condemned the recent vote rigging, bribery, ballot stuffing, shooting of voters, allegedly carried out by wrong army and NRM individuals.
“There were also groups inside the movement in the last elections, dressed up in military uniforms, beating up people, invading polling stations in some of the constituencies, shooting and dispersing voters, and then openly doing ballot staffing” he said.
He added, “Some of these scenes were extremely disturbing for me to watch, other people lined up others and paid them to vote for them. No independent choice at all from citizens,….This is what happens when we undermine or when we lack a central uniting idea”.
According to Rwabwogo, NRM suffered a brain atrophy in 2005, which led to the paying a blind eye and deaf ear to several leaders as they allegedly parrot surface statements, of the NRM’s ideology, which worries him to the core.
“I have heard some of the most shameful words, I have seen some of the most undignified behaviour from some of our leaders lately. I worry about public language very much because words are not just empty sounds, they are vessels carrying seeds into the future” he said.
Rwabwogo said the situation worsened, when the party introduced money into the movements running of structures and the country’s politics in general.
“If politics becomes a dumping ground, then we lose the moral authority to raise good leaders, teachers, engineers, doctors, and many more, because it doesn’t pay to be good at what you do” he said.
He added, “There is nothing new I am telling you that you may not have heard if you are Ugandan and lived here. Uganda has a weak supply system for the demand we generate”.
