| KAMPALA
TANZANIA is getting increasingly apprehensive over Uganda's move to
amend its Constitution and abolish presidential term limits, a move that
could jeopardise harmony in the East African Community and make the
attainment of a political federation a pipe dream.
The national parliament in the political capital of Dodoma was last
week asked to reconsider Tanzania's position on the community if it means
partnering with Uganda.
The neighbouring country's independent media have also started
questioning Uganda's suitability as a regional economic partner and part
of a future political union.
Moshi Urban MP Philemon Ndesamburo said Tanzania should withdraw from
the East African Community (EAC) to "protect its credibility" after a Bill
that would give President Yoweri Museveni the green light to vie for
athird elective term when his current mandate expires next year passed the
first stage in the Ugandan Parliament last week.
"Tanzania should not co-operate with an undemocratic country that wants
to have a president for life," Ndesamburo charged. "We are respected the
world over as a democratic country that upholds the principles of
democracy and good governance. We should protect this honour at all costs
even if it means quitting EAC."
The MP argued that Tanzania would lose
its credibility if it co-operated with undemocratic and dictatorial
governments. EAC is made up of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Ndesamburo, who made the call in his contribution to the 2005/2006
budget estimates for the Office of the President, was widely reported in
the Tanzanian media, which have followed up the matter with several
commentaries calling on President Museveni not to endanger the EAC by
clinging onto power.
Mkapa’s secret visit
But even before the MP spoke
out, there were clear indications that President Benjamin Mkapa and his
apparent successor, Jakaya Kikwete, were opposed to Uganda's attempts to
amend the Constitution to remove term limits.
Mkapa travelled to Uganda earlier this year for a private meeting at
which he is reported to have told Museveni to abandon the plans of
amending the Constitution and retire at the end of his current and last
term.
Kikwete, a close friend of former First Deputy Prime Minister Eriya
Kategaya, who fell out with Museveni over his opposition to the term
limits amendment, has also privately expressed outrage at the Ugandan
leadership's decision to amend the Constitution.
The Tanzanians have
reportedly said Museveni is "ashaming African leaders" by manipulating the
Constitution in order to extend his stay.
Reports that the Tanzanians are developing cold feet over the East
African political union because of Museveni's apparent bid to stay in
power beyond his current constitutional mandate will be unsettling for the
president, who has privately told confidants that one of the reasons why
he wants to carry on is to achieve his long dream of East African
federation.
Museveni said in an interview with Kfm on Sunday that the East African
political union was one of the things he had not accomplished in his last
19 years.
But in Kampala, the State Minister for Regional Cooperation, Mr.
Augustine Nshimye, said the East African federation was in the interest of
the entire region and had no relationship with Uganda's move to lift
presidential term limits.
He said even if Uganda's Constitution is amended to remove term limits,
Museveni might not be in power in 2013, when the political federation is
expected to start.
"If Museveni contests for another term, it has no harm on the
federation, and should not be a cause for alarm to other East African
countries," Nshimye said. He said when East Africans go for full political
federation, there will be general elections to determine the head of the
federation.
Nshimye said, "Assuming the people of East Africa choose Museveni, what
would be wrong with that?"
But the growing view in Tanzania appears to
be that the dream of political federation would rather wait than play into
the hands of Museveni, "who has shown no respect for his country's
Constitution."
Museveni studied at the University of Dar es Salaam and lived in
Tanzania for many years, benefiting from the direct political tutelage of
the country's first president, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.
Museveni was commander of one of the Ugandan fighting forces, Fronasa,
that joined the Tanzanian army in its war to remove Idi Amin from October
1978 to April 1979. Although Nyerere backed the subsequent regime of
Milton Obote, he finally switched to Museveni's side as he entered his
official retirement.
Nyerere’s favourable disposition towards Museveni generated respect for
Uganda's new leader in the Tanzanian establishment and public.
After Nyerere entrenched the two-term limit for presidency in their
Constitution, Tanzanians regard any attempts by an African leader to
remain longer than 10 years in power with disapproval.
However the Tanzanians, who contributed a lot to Africa's liberation,
have a lot to frown about on the continent:
A referendum in Chad recently lifted term limits to allow President
Idriss Deby to remain in power; Congo's lawmakers adjusted the
Constitution to lower the minimum age for president to allow Joseph
Kabila, the former president's son, to remain his father's successor;
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has stuck on for a quarter of a
century.
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