12th April 2012
While appearing on the spot at NTV, Bishop Zac Niringiye- Morris Mugisha: why are you calling for the restoration of term limits?
An on-going debate by the citizens of this country in their demand for the restoration of term limits. This demand is from a cross sections of people, of sections of our society.
The first example is the UJCC in 2004 opposed the lifting of term limits from the 1995 Constitution. The Roman Catholic Church, Church of Ugaanda, Othodox Church, and the Obersvers in 2005 presented to Parliament objections to the removal of Presidentail Term Limits. UJCC has not changed its position on term limits. Last year, UJCC repeated their call and stated that there was no national consensus for the removal of term limits. They called for their restoration.
Another group is the Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) - the Country review recommends that the removal of term limits has no national consensus and should be restored. APRM - 2010 repeated the same demands for the restoration of term limits.
The third group is the Citizens manifesto - over 10,000 Ugandans consulted on how they wanted to be governed - they demaned that the removal should be reviewed and term limits restored.
The fourth group is the Inter Religious Council - during the elections monitoring campaign - the term limits issue shaped the campaign and people demanded that they should be reviewed.
Morris Mugisha: The question is: President went into the campaign for the 4th term and 68% of Ugandans voted him- who are you representing?
Uganda Joint Christian Council (UJCC) represents 75% of the people. And there is also the moslem community - the Inter Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU) is much broader. They spoke for the restoration of term limits.
These people went to the ballot and voted for H.E President, yes, but i dont want to disucss whether these elections were free and fair, these elections were not about the restoration of term limits. If people were asked their views about term limits in 2011, they would have supported the campaign.
The poll question of the night - Should religious leaders have the mandate to discuss politics?
The people are requesting the involvement of religious leaders on governance, but the media choses what they report on and politicians chose what they call politics. For example, religious leaders support infrastructure- isn't that a government programme? But nobody reports about that. When we talk about governance- you brand us opposition supporters. But religious leaders support social justice, equity/equality, common good and good governance- these are issues for which religious leaders will rightly speak for and support.
NTV Video clip - where Archbishop Lwanga and Pastor Serwada made bold statements about the restoration of term limits and the debate on succession. They further called for change after 31 years of President M7's rule. They both ackowledged and quoted the President and recommended him as a Leader who has done well. They affirmed that its precisely the acknowledgement of work well done that President M7 should not end badly. Thats why thet are asking the president to leave in 2016. And yes, this is not the usual church message - its a message of peace.
Bishop Zac "Iam not constrained by faith to love the President but we need to appreciate the work put in by the President right from the bush to-date and promote his dignified retirement- this is peace".
This country in its history has never had any peaceful hand over of power. Beacuse we love our President, let him be the first to finish well. The restoration of term limits is central to a peaceful transition. This is a positive thing; restore term limits and then succession becomes orderly. We need a peaceful change of power.
"For people who think that for religious leaders to speak politics, governance, they are lost, this is a good place to be lost. I wish the whole country was lost in that direction!"
About the economy, walk to work protests and calling for change when oil money is coming in - and to think that The President wants to address the pending challenges with oil money, Bishop Zac thinks that this is a very good time for the President to leave when the economy is very strong. Because, He has done very well and he should leave the country with a gitf of oil resources.
"Its for the future of this country - for our children and oil is a wonderful thing to hand on the button to another. What a wonderful way to say that I have done well, please take it on from there!". Bishop Zac further asserted that after 30 years in leadership, its a good time to leave power.
Uganda is celebrating 50 years of Independence - the country has made some achievements but we have had a long history of turbulence and it would be good as we celebrate the 50 years, to declare that the country must have a predictable sussession calender- by restoring term limits. 2012 is a good year to be able to finish this work, restore term limits, pass on the button, we become positive, we need to get away from the contest on the streets- its confrontational - lets have dialogue!.
About the use of Article 1 of the Constitution in the message; power belongs to the people - if government responds, it will show that its the government of the people, if Parliament says yes, they are responding to the peoples' demands and the people are speaking - this is the demand of the people.
Let President Museveni come up and say that "I want to be the first one to end well, yes I have finished".
85% of the respondents to the poll question say yes, religious leaders have the mandate to discuss politics. We need to make a distinction between partisan politics and talk about issues that affect the lives of the people. and this is real politics and not partisan politics.
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