Museveni swears in NRM team
Oct 01, 2005
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has called for consensus in the selection of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party candidates during the primary elections in order to ensure that the opposition does not win the 2006 elections.
By Milton Olupot PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has called for consensus in the selection of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party candidates during the primary elections in order to ensure that the opposition does not win the 2006 elections.
Museveni, presiding over the swearing-in of the NRM electoral commission chaired by internal affairs minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda yesterday, said NRM members who would lose in the party primaries should accept defeat and serve in other capacities. The other members of the NRM electoral commission sworn in were Gertrude Njuba, as vice-chairperson, Muzamiru Kibedi, Felistus Magomu, George Odwong and Israel Kayonde. Zam Zam Nagujja was not present.
“The election in the Movement is supposed to be for choosing who will lead us for the next five years in order to achieve our objectives, that is why it is not a matter of life and death between me and the one contending with me,†Museveni said. He said politics should not be a search for a career or employment.
“That is very dangerous. Obote (former president Milton) said he had never done business or farming, that his job is politics. That is wrong. For me, my job is cattle keeping and I serve when called, if not off I go. There should be no enmity. When you are not elected, go and serve in any other position,†he told the NRM members.
“I am happy with people who accepted to serve in our EC and not to stand in the coming elections. I am happy with Dr. Rugunda. We discussed and agreed to leave (MP) Rukundo to keep the constituency. I am also happy with Kibedi,†Museveni added. He also warned members against sectarianism.
“Leave sectarianism to Uganda People’s Congress and the Democratic Party. Let us work together to build capacity and strengthen our party,†Museveni said.
Foreign affairs minister Sam Kutesa administered the oaths before a number of MPs and ministers.
Museveni said the Movement should ensure that the opposition is defeated in order not to derail the party’s policies.
“We have achieved many targets, de-tribalising the army, ending extra-judicial killings. We only have to industrialise our economy further. Anybody who will build a factory here must be welcome without looking at the colour.
“Recently when I was in the US, I told a conference that Africa cannot continue begging but build our own capacity. I told my fellow African leaders that we should first build up capacity in Africa before we think of joining the UN Security Council.
“When you come to the UN Security Council you should have built your own weight, so that you go when you are a heavy weight and when people see you, they just clear the way,†he said.
He amused the guests when he said while in the US recently, African leaders were being pushed in corners to give way for President George Bush and other leaders.
“We would be pushed and when we inquired what was happening, we would be told that Bush was coming…Putin is coming. We were all presidents. When Bush saw me from where I had been pushed, he called me and said, what are you doing there? It is Bush who identified me,†Museveni said, amusing the guests.
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Museveni, presiding over the swearing-in of the NRM electoral commission chaired by internal affairs minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda yesterday, said NRM members who would lose in the party primaries should accept defeat and serve in other capacities. The other members of the NRM electoral commission sworn in were Gertrude Njuba, as vice-chairperson, Muzamiru Kibedi, Felistus Magomu, George Odwong and Israel Kayonde. Zam Zam Nagujja was not present.
“The election in the Movement is supposed to be for choosing who will lead us for the next five years in order to achieve our objectives, that is why it is not a matter of life and death between me and the one contending with me,†Museveni said. He said politics should not be a search for a career or employment.
“That is very dangerous. Obote (former president Milton) said he had never done business or farming, that his job is politics. That is wrong. For me, my job is cattle keeping and I serve when called, if not off I go. There should be no enmity. When you are not elected, go and serve in any other position,†he told the NRM members.
“I am happy with people who accepted to serve in our EC and not to stand in the coming elections. I am happy with Dr. Rugunda. We discussed and agreed to leave (MP) Rukundo to keep the constituency. I am also happy with Kibedi,†Museveni added. He also warned members against sectarianism.
“Leave sectarianism to Uganda People’s Congress and the Democratic Party. Let us work together to build capacity and strengthen our party,†Museveni said.
Foreign affairs minister Sam Kutesa administered the oaths before a number of MPs and ministers.
Museveni said the Movement should ensure that the opposition is defeated in order not to derail the party’s policies.
“We have achieved many targets, de-tribalising the army, ending extra-judicial killings. We only have to industrialise our economy further. Anybody who will build a factory here must be welcome without looking at the colour.
“Recently when I was in the US, I told a conference that Africa cannot continue begging but build our own capacity. I told my fellow African leaders that we should first build up capacity in Africa before we think of joining the UN Security Council.
“When you come to the UN Security Council you should have built your own weight, so that you go when you are a heavy weight and when people see you, they just clear the way,†he said.
He amused the guests when he said while in the US recently, African leaders were being pushed in corners to give way for President George Bush and other leaders.
“We would be pushed and when we inquired what was happening, we would be told that Bush was coming…Putin is coming. We were all presidents. When Bush saw me from where I had been pushed, he called me and said, what are you doing there? It is Bush who identified me,†Museveni said, amusing the guests.
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