By Sam Evidence Orikunda
On Wednesday night, this ending week at 10:37PM, I received a call from the NRM Secretariat. I was told to immediately travel to Kampala and assist on some of the work in the National Delegates Conference.
The person, who called me, told me that they wanted me to be at the venue at 6:00am in the morning without fail.
Even when the journey from Kabale to Kampala takes about 6-7 hours I had no choice but to board and immediately leave for Kampala.
When I received the call, I was having a good time with my colleagues somewhere in Kabale.
They were shocked when I told them that I was leaving them for another assignment that needed me immediately. I did this because of the love of my party- the National Resistance Movement.
However, to my disappointment, at around 7:30am, the Kololo entrance was crowded with people who were waiting to be cleared by security.
Some of them were delegates who were not on the lists provided by the Secretariat. This took about seven hours and I am told some delegates left the gate without being allowed to enter.
They were advised to return back in the next morning for clearance.
This meant that they stood for the whole day without being given food or water until evening when they were told to return for another process of clearing them to access the venue.
On that same day Thursday, only 400 people had shown up and that means the next morning of Friday we were expecting over 10,000 people. One would wonder how the people in charge would manage over 10,000 people after failing to handle the four hundred.
Just like we expected it, on Friday morning the numbers doubled and security was overwhelmed which caused a demonstration at the entrance. People shouted and sang the national anthem several times. Good enough the media wasn’t quick to capture the moment.
I, together with soldiers and other caders helped to carry the bars to block the huge crowd from accessing the venue before being checked by security. We were rushing to save the situation that would result into problems of security and we succeeded.
At that moment, the Secretariat remembered to call for the assistance of NRM district admins to accredit their delegates before they access the venue.
This is what they would have done on the first day but maybe they didn’t think about it.
Even on the food, there was a lot of chaos; no person was deployed at the serving centers to ensure there’s order as the Delegates picked their food. Even when food was available and enough, there was no access at all and some people decided not to eat others resorted to buy cakes and water for lunch and supper.
The documentation of the delegates and support staff at the Secretariat has a lot of issues.
Some people are not on their lists and yet they are delegates, others are on the list yet they’re not delegates.
This caused problems in giving tags and bags to the Delegates. I don’t know who got the contract to make those tags but the person delayed and frustrated the process.
Because at the time tags were issued, some hadn’t got them and the communication was that their tags were still with the person who was making them.
The health department was nowhere to be seen at the venue until people started fainting to almost losing their lives. There’s one that fainted at the line and we waited for over 3 hours to have the person attended to.
I can’t say that there was any department that performed to the expectation of the delegates; everything was a mess up to the closing day and no wonder the Delegates booed the party secretary General almost stopping her from addressing the party conference.
I did not like the way media wrote the story of booing the Secretary General. They zeroed it down on the Shs600,000 which was given to the delegates as the sole reason to why they booed her. The Delegates had a lot of issues. I thought the media would have listened to all of them, maybe they chose to give attention to the one about the money.
One young lady, from the group which the president had appointed to make research for him and come up with a report said “Once a woman keeps getting miscarriages you try some other woman” and I agree with her. The Secretariat should be reorganized or else we are killing the party. The Secretariat is the home of the party and once it has problems, then entire party has problems in all the districts in the country.
The Secretariat could be having their defense to what caused all this and other reasons as to why all this is happened but some things are undefendable especially when one is given resources and assigned with duty.
The officers at Secretariat are very lucky that NRM has offices in each district.
Each district has staff and they ran the party activities in their respective districts.
One could ask if these people in the district NRM offices had a role to play in the just concluded delegates’ conference and if not why?
I think they didn’t involve them because I heard them inviting the district admins only when things had gotten out of hand at the entrance. I think issues of tags, bags and other things to use in the conference would have been given out by the NRM offices as the delegates waited to travel to Kampala.
Ten thousand people are very many and they need a lot of time and thinking to manage.
Once there’s a loophole in the top party management, the subordinates can’t do anything to save the situation. Therefore, I think there should be a reorganization of the Secretariat.
If it needs a training, let it be done because the delegates are the leaders of the party at different levels so when you disappoint, them you’ve disappointed the entire country.
A ruling party should be an example to the other parties which are not in the Government. Parties like FDC and others should be learning from NRM on how they can do their work, but how will that be possible if we’re so disorganized like that?
It will also bring criticism against us and those criticizing will be right.
Actually, there was a discussion that the disorganization and all the mess that happened was intended such that the delegates get frustrated, leave their money and bags such that all can be taken back by the leaders at the Secretariat.
I didn’t defend this because I had no reason as to why all that mess was happening.
And if that discussion goes undefended of course the Cadres will take it as true and as a strategy that was used to steal party resources instead of using the resources to build the party.
Another issue that got me disappointed was the issue of tribalism. A certain department was full of people from one region same as that of the Secretary General and they were using their local language all through. You would even think that you’re being insulated. You can imagine the NRM party is fighting to unite Ugandans but someone’s is dividing them on tribalistic tendencies using their position in the party.
The Secretary General while speaking to the delegates said that “every moment is a learning time” but I don’t think what I saw can easily be changed because even after her speech, problems still continued and I think some people slept at Namboole stadium even when they were not supposed to but because of the unresolved issues, they had no choice.
It’s the responsibility of us Members of the movement to make sure we build a strong party and not destroy it. I would be ashaming to us if we kill NRM instead of building it to be stronger and recruit more people.
The members who are already in the party and those who are already leaders in the party shouldn’t be frustrated by the Secretariat because it will affect the party national wide, hence affecting our performance in the coming general elections.
Just like the National Chairman promised, I hope he will go ahead to do something to save the situation. I believe he has more sensitive ears on ground and some of the issues delegates complained about will be worked upon for a better Secretariat and a better Party. Salutations to all the delegates who traveled to Namboole to exercise their duties as leaders and salutations to the Cadres who volunteered to make sure all goes well and as planned.
It’s our responsibility to build NRM and we shall only manage if we speak the truth and do what we are supposed to do, for a better management of the party and for the growth and strength of NRM.
The writer is an aspiring western youth member of Parliament.
