Museveni: Old man of the State

President Museveni held a mega celebration of his 80th birthday yesterday, making him the eighth oldest head of state with a firm grip on power in Africa.

The festivities were held in Luweero District, the heartland of Museveni’s five-year guerrilla bush war with a rag-tag force that shot him to power in 1986. 

Mr Museveni has over the 40 years of his rule often retraced his warpaths in Luweero to rekindle his combative spirit and kick-start big tasks, including the 2021 presidential election. 

READ: Why Museveni birthday has become a big deal

Rule Uganda more 40 years, NRM leaders tell Museveni at 80th birthday fete

Museveni and team fired the first shot of the war when he was at a youthful 42 years. Today, at 80 and greying but fit with strict adherence to what he calls African diets, Museveni paces closely in the footsteps of eldest African statesmen, including his peer, Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo, 80.

Museveni is only a few years shy of matching other Africa’s eldest statesmen, including Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso, 81; Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Nguema Mbasogo, 82; Namibia President Nangolo Mbumba, 82; Ivory Coast President Alassane Quattara, 82; and Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa, 82. 

The presidents of the same age are only set apart by months. 

Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, 91, is the oldest head of state in Africa and the world. Mr Biya became president in 1982 after the resignation of Ahmadou Ahidjo. 

Mr Biya has remained president, contesting several disputed presidential elections. But Mr Nguema, 82, is now the longest-serving African president after he seized power from his relative in 1979. 

The second oldest, Mr Mbumba, became the head of the state of Namibia in February this year after the death of Hahe Geingob, who died at 82. Mr Quattara, 82, of Ivory Coast follows in third after he came to power in 2010. 

Zimbabwe’s Mnangagwa, who staged a coup that toppled veteran liberation leader Robert Mugabe in November 2017, comes in fifth. 

In sixth place is the Republic of Congo’s Nguesso, 81, who has stayed in power for 40 years, and seventh is Ghana’s Akufo-Addo, who is the seventh oldest president. He was first elected in 2017 and was reelected in 2020. 

President Museveni, 80, who comes in eighth, has spent nearly half of his age as head of State. With 38 years in power, he is the fourth longest-serving president in Africa and the 17th non-royal head of State in the world in the last 124 years. 

Mr Museveni is remembered for saying the problems of Africa are leaders who overstay in power. In Uganda’s 1995 Constitution, which Mr Museveni signed, introduced a two-term and age limit on the presidential tenure. 

But in 2005, as Mr Museveni was about to end his second elective term, the presidential term limit was scrapped, allowing him to stand again. 

 Mr Museveni then said the term limits were removed to enable his party to resolve historical problems like defeating the Lord Resistance Army rebel group and achieve stability in the country. 

After the defeat of the LRA and gaining stability in the country, many of his supporters, including then Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, thought he was going to hand over power once he clocks 75, the upper limit for a presidential contender.

 In an interview with talk show host Patrick Kamara on NTV, a sister television to this publication, President Museveni said he wouldn’t stand again because he would be beyond 75 years, and a person’s body at that age would scientifically not have enough energy. 

President’s becoming more active - minister Nakiwala on Museveni’s 74th birthday

But in December 2017, after a tense debate in Parliament, the age restrictions to contest for the presidency as set out in the Constitution were scrapped. 

This allowed President Museveni, who wouldn’t have been eligible to stand since he was over 75 years old, to contest again in 2021 and without any more limits. Mr Museveni defended his stay in power despite being elderly, saying the issue shouldn't be about age, but what a person can do. 

In 2021 general election, Mr Museveni contested and faced a stiff challenge from a youthful candidate, Mr Robert Kyagulanyi, who is better known by his stage name of Bobi Wine. 

 Mr Museveni, who won the 2021 dispute election with 6,042, 898 votes against Bobi’s 3,631,437, now has under two years to conclude his sixth elective term in office.