Uganda age limit law will make Museveni 'president for life'

Yoweri Museveni of Uganda is aiming to follow in the footsteps of other African leaders who want to remain in power for life, this is the view of international press rights outfit, Freedon House.

According to its Senior Africa Program Manager, Jenai Cox, recent moves by lawmakers of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) was aimed at helping Museveni to achieve life presidency in Uganda.

“President Museveni’s party is attempting to make him president for life by removing the presidential age limit, violating the basic principles of democracy,” Cox said in a recent statement.

The group further bemoaned how the state had employed brutal agression against opposition Members of Parliament who stood against the controversial ‘Age Limit’ motion. It is currently before a parliamentary committee for consideration.

“The ruling National Resistance Movement undermined the country’s democracy by ordering the military to remove opposition members of Parliament and authorizing police to raid human rights organizations opposed to this change in the Constitution. Museveni is apparently determined to stay in power by changing Uganda’s fundamental law,” the statement concluded.

There was two successive days of chaos in the country’s parliament when the motion was being moved. MPs exchanged blows and threw chairs at each other on both occasions. The speaker ordered opposition MPs to be led outside which order resulted in further chaos.

Museveni is aiming to join the ranks of Equatorial Guinea’s Theodore Obiang Nguema, Congo Republic’s Denis Sassou Nguesso, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and Cameroon’s Paul Biya among others.

There is no presidential limits in their respective countries allowing them to rule for as long as they wished. He has meanwhile yet to comment on the agitation around the law.