Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) 2021 presidential election candidate Maj Gen (Rtd) Gregg Mugisha Muntu has told incumbent President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni it would be improper for him to appoint a successor.
Campaigning in Rukungiri recently, Museveni took a swipe at bush war comrades Muntu, veteran opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye, and ex-security minister Lt Gen (Rtd) Henry Kakurugu Tumukunde, saying they were useless and that he had to push them like wheelbarrows when they were in government.
In response, Tumukunde reminded Museveni it was he who had helped him fight terrorism; Muntu wondered what Museveni’s definitions of success and failure were; while Besigye seemed reluctant to honour the statement with a response.
During his Rukungiri campaign, Museveni made it clear he would not leave power until he had found a potential successor in whose hands he would be comfortable leaving Uganda.
Meanwhile, Museveni reappointed his son Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba to take charge of his security under the Special Forces Command (SFC).
The reappointment prompted presidential candidate Patrick Oboi Amuriat (POA) of main opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) to claim Museveni and the first son were plotting a palace coup.
Now, Muntu has warned Museveni against appointing his successor.
The former army commander noted that unlike his ANT, Museveni’s ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) had failed to groom leaders, including those who would take over from the 76-year-old within his party.
“As Alliance for National Transformation, we have a team of people of a wide age range working together so that as one team retires, they have already prepared the next team and there is no need to hold onto power, or to think that they are the only ones who can manage,” he told his supporters in Tororo on December 17.
“Unfortunately, that is not the case in NRM, and it is costing us as a country!”
Muntu argues that Museveni has had enough time to prepare as many potential successors as possible.
“He could have groomed other leaders. I have never believed that a leader should appoint another leader,” Muntu said.
“It will also not be right for Gen Museveni to appoint anybody else in the NRM, but he could have groomed many so that those who are capable come out and compete, and there would be someone capable holding the flag of NRM.”
Muntu is one of the 10 opposition candidates seeking to stop Museveni’s quest to extend his rule to four decades.
