Finally the clerics have stated their position on the most divisive matter in Uganda at the moment: Whether the upper limit pertaining to how old someone should be to qualify to run for president of Uganda, should be cast aside.

Currently no one below the age of 35 or older than 75 is eligible. Reports have it that by the next elections in 2022, President Yoweri Museveni will be 77 years old and ineligible to run.

Some people, who for reasons that remain unspecified want him to be on the ballot, have come up with a ruse. Apparently to bar him from contesting simply because of his age would be unfair and, even worse, discriminatory and therefore unjust.

Knowing that their specious argument would provoke much anger among many who feel Museveni has been in power too long, they decided to dress it up as intended to benefit “everybody.”

And so now they are arguing for the removal of age restrictions for all elective positions. Few are fooled. Which is why there is so much angry talking and issuing of threats between those pushing for change and those on the “don’t touch it” side.

Some “change agents” have already been beaten or roughed up or been threatened with death enough times to have felt unsafe enough to ask to be armed or given protection.

Men of the cloth

In a sense, by coming out to state their position, the men of the cloth have redeemed themselves. Already questions were being asked in political circles, opposition-leaning especially, about whether they really want Museveni to step down, let alone push him to do so.

The questions are not entirely without basis. Always keen to have as many organised interests as possible in his camp, President Museveni has never been one to antagonise religious groups.

On the contrary, he has been very good for and to them. In addition to handing out luxury vehicles to the top leadership of some traditional faiths, for the new-age churches he has handed them almost limitless freedom to operate from wherever, however and whenever.

So when one hears their congregants proclaim how much “freedom of worship” they have enjoyed over the past 31 years, one need not wonder what earth they are talking about.

As I sat down to write one evening early in the week, in my neighbourhood in Kampala, the local “sisters and brothers in Christ” were in their church, emitting such noise one would be forgiven for thinking there are no laws against noise pollution in Uganda.

It hardly mattered to them that the rest of us are entitled to some peace and quiet.

Anyway, after all the angry exchanges on television, radio, in newspapers and sometimes in the streets, the statement the clerics put out came as a breath of fresh air to those who have been watching and wondering whether there was no alternative to all the noisy squabbling.

Until that point, Museveni’s allies were insisting that they would push through the amendment regardless, after all the ruling party enjoys an overwhelming majority in parliament. It is remarkable how they behave as if the country is theirs to do whatever they want with.

Pro-age limit forces

Meanwhile, the rather scattered pro-age limit forces were investing all their time and energy in trying to sow fear and panic in the minds of the general public.

A senior opposition leader was amusingly categorical at some point, claiming that amending the constitution to get rid of the age limit would be like “pulling a pin out of a grenade.”

Another one, talking of the age limit as “a safety valve,” promised chaos if it was removed. Others have spoken ominously of Uganda becoming “like Somalia or South Sudan”.

Rising above the fray as they should, the clerics under the umbrella of the ecumenical Inter-religious Council of Uganda, have called for a referendum on the matter which they have wisely dubbed delicate and therefore not the kind that should be “monopolised by capricious politicians or Members of Parliament.”

They want “the people” to whom all power belongs as per the constitution, to be brought squarely into deciding the issue.

At the same time as they did that, they threw down the proverbial gauntlet and urged President Museveni who so far is acting as if the agitation for change has nothing to do with him, to “assert true statesmanship on this matter” so that it stops dividing society.

Whatever happens from now on, the men of God have come clean.

Unfortunately for them, if Museveni wants the constitution to be amended as most people believe he does, the last thing he and his “volunteer” activists will acquiesce to is a referendum, for however remote it might be, the possibility of defeat cannot be ruled out.

One only has to consider that over 40 per cent of the electorate have been abstaining from voting in presidential elections.

It is believed they are mainly people who won’t vote for Museveni because they want him to go. They won’t vote for the opposition either, because they doubt it is a credible alternative to him or the NRM.

A referendum would offer them a chance to get rid of him without necessarily letting in the opposition. He simply cannot allow it.

Frederick Golooba-Mutebi is a Kampala- and Kigali-based researcher and writer on politics and public affairs. E-mail: [email protected]