Opinion: Why Uganda's National Resistance Movement needs to rebrand

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni

Kampala; Uganda: Soon after the ruling NRM took over power in the latter half of the 1980s, it was pretty understandable why there was need for a National Resistance Movement. “National” in a sense that the mayhem caused by the so-called bad governments had become an issue of general concern; “Resistance” meaning that everyone had to stand up against a return to the past; and “Movement” meaning a mass of people sharing a common goal and ideas.  Fast-forward to 2014, and I am not quite sure that the connotation of “N.R.M” is still relevant, particularly the “R”.

Two decades ago, each time the President took to the podium to address citizens, he was quick to remind them where they came from, and how bad the situation was. He castigated his predecessors Iddi Amin and Milton Obote, up till the days the two passed on, and they were buried-threat no more. Hearing anything to do with the two past leaders simply reinvigorated the need for more and more “Resistance” fire. However today, with an increasingly young ‘1986’ population commonly known as the M7 generation, talk of Amin and Obote would be absolutely irrelevant. But why is the “R” in NRM still seemingly vital? What’s still there to resist, going by the original connotation?