I agree with an article in a local magazine criticising President Museveni over his utterances against young people in politics. It is sad that the old politicians in Uganda have not considered grooming young people to take over their positions.
Milton Obote died without a young man taking over UPC. The party has brilliant young brains like Joseph Ochieno who are just being wasted.
A politician like Mr Bidandi Ssali, who has been in politics for ages, will not surprise us if he emerges as PPP’s presidential candidate when there are many brilliant young men in the party. The oldies want to stay on till when both their feet and brains develop wrinkles.
The NRM, a party initially blessed with a crop of young leaders including Dr Kizza Besigye, should never have allowed the Besigye’s to leave it. They should have been nurtured to take over leadership now instead of fighting them. The old people in the NRM are constantly fighting each other over the succession issue. For instance, one reads in the papers about the battles between Prof. Gilbert Bukenya and Mr Amama Mbabazi.
Mr Museveni does not want to leave power yet he is not grooming anyone to take over from him. This kind of politics compels young men and women to participate in politics only if they expect immediate gains.
Ugandans should admire the political environment in America where a young man like Barack Obama has been given a chance and is likely to become the next US president. Obama, 47, is not only the first African-American presidential candidate of a major party in the US but he is also a first term Senator to vie for president. He is a model and motivator for all the Black race worldwide.
Old people should give a chance to the youth to take over political leadership in Uganda. May be we need a party for young men and women to strongly send this message out there.
Abbey K.Semuwemba,United Kingdom
abbey@semuwemba.freeserve.co.uk
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Challenges for Youth participation in Uganda’s politics
Uganda’s 2011 election is likely to attract an unprecedented number of youth vying for parliamentary and other electoral seats. At University campuses, young people, still at university, some freshly graduated but still with strong links to the student community are holding candidature launch and strategy meetings. They hope to get all the help they can get from their fellow youth who are, to say the least, deeply satisfied by the status quo.
They are restless that corruption at the highest levels is only increasing. They worry that due to the unprecedented levels of nepotism, most of them will never get a decent job, or any job at all, unless they possess some ethnic advantage or even proximity. They have come face to face with the reality that in NRM’s Uganda, “technical know who” has replaced “technical know how” as the criterion for employment.
They are doubtful, though, about their prospects for active political participation. Some of their political parties don’t seem to regard the youth as particularly important. Thanks to NRMs dubious youth policy, the youth in Uganda have been categorized among “vulnerable groups” not unlike the lame and blind. Uganda could be the only country in the world where the youth are a ‘vulnerable group’, which has to depend on the kindness and patronage of the regime. A few special youth MP slots were created to ‘empower the youth’, which is quite a laughable proposal considering what the youth MP’s contribution in parliament to the youth agenda has been over the years. There are widespread but opposition allegations that the regime has embarked on ‘empowering the youth more this year’, by training them as militia to carry out violence during the coming elections.
To stand for office in a multiparty democracy, the youth, as any other candidate must get the endorsement of their parties. They have to win in a primary. This will be an uphill task, as most political parties have incumbent MPs of advanced age – and also aspirants of similar advanced age.
The exaggerated role of money in Uganda’s politics will frustrate the youth even further. Incumbents have the money to influence primaries. Older aspirants may have some money too, but will seek primarily to “keep the youth out of the race”, to create space for themselves. They will remind the youth: “You are the leaders of tomorrow, not today”.
Tension between the youth who want prominent political roles in the coming elections and elder aspirants may harm some political parties. Serious, honest negotiations should start within parties between aspiring youth and their older but still ambitious party leaders. The objective should be to ensure that a situation whereby the youth would feel ‘wronged’ and subsequently start fighting their older leaders does not arise. The persuasion for the youth to stand as independents, having lost in their parties’ primaries should be averted. No political party can afford to be at war with its own youth league.
Regardless, any aspiring youth with no money and no political experience except perhaps in student politics will need to think outside the box and also start acting responsibly, before they can lay claim on prominence. They must recognise the brutal fact of life; that the youth, the people, the voters, “don’t eat politics”. Before presenting themselves for elections, the youth must prove themselves to be solution providers to their communities.
They must undertake life changing activities that affect the electorate long before the election. To hope that the voters will vote for “the new kid on the block” just because s/he is a graduate, speaks good English and dresses well – is an illusion. Before asking for the vote, a youth candidate must prove that s/he genuinely cares for the people they seek to represent. The decision of the youth to participate in elective politics should not be seen as another innovative way to look for employment. It should be seen as an extension of social work already done among communities. A serious aspiring youth should sound like this on the campaign trail: “This is what I have been able to do together with you as your simple brother/sister. Send me up so that we can together do more for our community”.
Asuman Odaka
0772195384