30 years in power, Museveni still seeks another term

THE Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni has said he needed more time to develop the country as he opened his bid to contest for the presidency leading to his fourth decade in power, urging the voters to re-elect him.

AP noted that Museveni as a younger man he declared that leaders who “overstayed” in power were the root cause of Africa’s problems, but 30 years later he is still in charge and hoping to win a fifth term in elections next month.

“Those who say, ‘let him go, let him go’, they need to know that this is not the right time,” Museveni said at an election rally in the western Ntungamo district on Saturday.

“This old man who has saved the country, how do you want him to go? How can I go out of a banana plantation I have planted that has started bearing fruits?”

Seven opposition candidates are vying to end Museveni’s 30-year rule in the next February 18 polls.

“We must concentrate on development, my time will come and I will go,” he added.

Museveni, who is thought to be at least 71 years old, successfully changed the constitution in 2005 abolishing a two-term limit.

The man who has been in power since 1986, will face his stiffest opposition from Kizza Besigye, a three-time loser for the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), and Amama Mbabazi, a former prime minister and ruling party stalwart now running for the new Go-Forward party.

Mbabazi had said if he wins he would restore term limits to the presidency. “When he (Museveni) told me that he will not retire and requested me to support his continuity, I said ‘no’ and here I am,” Mbabazi said at a rally on Saturday.

“In the first 100 days of my presidency, we shall restore term limits in the constitution and we will lay everything possible to make sure that in the first five years we bring whatever it takes to be done to prepare the young generation to take over power in Uganda.”