NRM's journey has just started

Jan 21, 2012

Next week, the country will be joined in unison to celebrate 26 years of the National Resistance Movement (NRM), whose main celebrations will be held in Kapchorwa.

By Pamela Ankunda

Next week, the country will be joined in unison to celebrate 26 years of the National Resistance Movement (NRM), whose main celebrations will be held in Kapchorwa. 

My piece is not to praise the NRM party or in any way, outline the achievements of the party, because any achievement is as a result of the set objectives.

If anything, 26 years present an audit inquiry into the promises based on the ideals of the NRM, a liberation movement that history has chanced upon Uganda.

The journey, well known by most Ugandans was well articulated by a group of young people, historically placed to change this country when they launched the struggle, and they didn’t disappoint.   

NRM that has evolved over time and seeks to retain power must envy what the African National Congress (ANC) did right to celebrate its 100th anniversary amidst pomp and glamour, yet, amidst stormy challenges in a very historic evolution only a few weeks before Jan 26, when NRM celebrates its 26th anniversary.  But if the ANC has made 100, will NRM make 50? 

Probably no, but most likely yes, if like the ANC, the NRM party faithful work for the strength of the party, get involved in struggles that build the future, respect the party, and work tirelessly together for a shared vision, because what the ANC has achieved, is certainly as a result of invested efforts that link the young and old-based not on age, but ideology.  

NRM, like the ANC, should build a critical mass thinking base, mobilise and work for the masses without antagonising or compromising the party ideals. 

The party faithful must welcome all wanderers and help them arrive at the common understanding of what the NRM stands for, because NRM-lately seemingly infiltrated by populists, means well. 

All they do is use party symbols and funds, to fight the party. Those too, need to be helped-ideologically.  

The press runs screamers of party contradictions; sometimes rather healthy contradictions-well exaggerated, but when unsolved and manipulated by the media, remain a thorn in the face of the peasant faithfuls who elected the NRM in their thousands and millions. 

So while Members of Parliament (MPs) retreat at the Kyankwazi National Leadership Institute, it is not enough to converge with out reflection where the country has come from and, more importantly, where we are destined as a people who have one common goal, or as a people in a mass movement, a mass journey. We have not yet arrived. 

If anything, the journey is getting started. Time is ripe for the historical stretch into the future with the youths taking on the mantles of leadership. 

But the youth should be guided, trained, mentored, and nurtured in the party ideals. In other words, the youth must be helped to belong somewhere. 

That said, our elders can not hold onto history forever. Today, the debate promoted especially by the social media exposes many flaws that history might have answered, but yet, new questions emerge. But through deep reflection and interaction, the NRM can and must provide answers.  

Besides, we must also begin to re-think what kind of social contract we hold with the leadership of the NRM by asking the tough and unpleasant questions like accountability to the people. 

Again, answers to these are easier found, discussed and harmonised from within, than from outside. 

In other words, a member, sympathiser, or follower of the NRM must champion the mission, defend and protect the ideals of the party as a full time commitment for party building.  NRM at 100 is possible. The Journey starts now. 

The writer is an NRM sympathiser 

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