Why Sudanese protesters targeted the army headquarters

WHY THE SUDANESE PROTESTERS TARGETED THE ARMY HEADQUARTERS

CHANGE OF GUARDS - During his Bush War (1981 -1985) his National Resistance Army (NRA) was the armed wing of his political platform, the National Resistance Movement (NRM). While he hoodwinked the Baganda by letting Prof. Lule to be the Chairman of the NRM, he remained the Vice Chairman. He was the Chairman of the more significant NRA High Command.

A few months to capturing power, Prof. Lule died and Museveni assumed the chairmanship of the NRM and upon capturing power in 1986, he automatically became the President of Uganda, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Chairman of the ruling NRM, Chairman of the NRA Council and Chairman of the NRA High Command. The quasi legislative body was the National Resistance Council (NRC) while the local government was restructured along the Resistance Councils (RC).

When Service Numbers were introduced in the NRA, commissioned officers were classified as Resistance Officers (RO) while men were classified as Resistance Army (RA). During the constitution making process in the early 1990s, some gullible Ugandans pushed for the changing of the name from NRA to Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) in the hope that the army would be detached from the NRM. Though Museveni lost the fight for the army to retain the name (NRA) and UPDF was adopted, it has retained its historical role and identity - the armed wing of the NRM. Its Service Numbers continue to be identified as RO and RA respectively.

Thorugh in a multiparty dispensation and the country having a parliamentary system, major governance decisions and policy formulation are made by the army, compulsorily passed by NRM M.Ps either at Kyankwanzi and State House before being brought to Parliament just for formality. The army is allotted 10 seats in Parliament on the side of the ruling NRM. Where Parliament is to rubber-stamp controversial constitutional amendments and other sensitive bills, the army is at hand to repeatedly raid the floor of the house, beat up MPs before brutally arresting and detaining a number of them.

The NRA/UPDF has not reneged on its historical role of championing the ideological brainwashing. It runs the political indoctrination institute dubbed Nationa Leadership Institute (NALI) at Kyankwanz. It is running the so-called Patriotism Clubs Secretariat under the President's Office. It is running the impoverishment agenda under Operation Wealth Creation (OWC). It is making incursions into the traditional civil and public service. It is soon making inroads into government construction projects.

It raids courts of law to reverse court decisions. It manages the electoral process through the preparation of the Votes Register from NIRA database, curtails opposition campaigns and manages parallel election result collection centers which feed into the statutory Electoral Commission. It has successfully incorporated the Police, Prison Services and the intelligence services in its core function of brutally suppressing rights and freedoms of Ugandans, promoting economic deprivation, and ensuring the continuity of Musevenism. Therefore, the recruitment, training, deployment and even retirement is premised on 'political clarity' - subscription to the NRM. Any member of the armed forces who is thought to express divergent views or acting to the contrary (real or perceived) is treated as being highly subversive and a subject of harsh treatment with dire consequences.

Therefore, those seeking to dismantle Musevenism should not look at the NRM in isolation but its custodian, the NRA. The NRA has expanded to include the Police, Prison Services, the Intelligence Services and other auxiliary forces like Crime Preventers, LDUs, and Rangers. Those are the NRM armed forces for which Museveni is the Commander-In-Chief. Gullible Ugandans pretend not to have seen Gen. Nalweyiso in NRM uniform attending its Central Executive Committee (CEC) or army MPs dancing at a recent NRM retreat in Kyankwanzi.

Unlike Ugandans who are dreaming of constitutional petitions, empty electoral reforms and registration for elections (endangamuntu), the Sudanese protesters identified the center of gravity, the army.

INFORMATION IS POWER AND THE PROBLEM OF GANDA IS MUSEVENISM