Nudo youths want to disempower traditional leaders

National Unity Democratic Organisation (Nudo) Youth League Secretary General Veparura Kandirikirira wants the party constitution to be amended to address the excessive involvement of Owaherero Traditional Authority (OTA) chiefs in the party structure.

The youth leader believes that party politics and traditional affairs are too closely bounded.

In a recent interview with Evening Review, Kandirikirila said the current constitution was stuck in the past and should be amended to relegate the involvement of traditional chiefs to advisory and mediating roles rather than automatic executive posts.

“We need to amend our constitution. They (traditional leaders) should be respected, either serving on the party’s advisory committee or actively involved in the party’s management. They are supposed to be peacemakers but unfortunately, some of them are the ones who create unrest in the party. How can you respect them when they do that?” he said.

“This can’t go on any longer”

He said it did not make sense from a political perspective that there were more traditional leaders than elected leaders in the party’s executive structure.

“Today, if I put the two factions, Paramount Chief Mutkinde Kategia and Paramount Chief Hoze Liruako – neither of them are from the Nudo Party – together, now the traditional leaders of the Nudo Party are now commanded by non-Nudo Party members. They either serve on the party’s Council of Elders, but not all 40 members have to serve on the party’s central committee. This is unreasonable,” he said.

He was quick to add that if both leaders were members of Nudo, things would go more smoothly and consensus would be reached, and it would not be a big deal for them to be on the central committee. Kandirikirira also pointed out that times have changed, as the party previously had only one supreme leader, but now has two.

“For all these years we have had one OTA, one PC and now we have two PCs. Where we were yesterday will not be where we will be tomorrow – even these factions will be divided into four. We just have to run Nudo like one party. Even if we have to go down because of these problems, we have to rebuild, but we can’t go on like this. Nudo is not divided; it is just these two functions of the OTA. It is just a matter of sitting at the table,” he said.

Headache

Nudo Party chairperson Esther Muinjangue said they must discuss the matter at the party level, acknowledging that the matter had caused turmoil for her during her tenure as party chairperson.

“The problem is that during the time of the late Riruako, he was the traditional chief and president and in that situation the centre of power was concentrated in one person but then things changed,” she said.

“We had the late PC Vekuii Rukoro who was not the party leader but the leader of OTA. Then we had two centres of power. Sometimes it is difficult for people to distinguish – even now, I see people handing petitions to traditional leaders but they have no mandate, so there is a need to look into this. We will have a national executive committee meeting later this month and that will pave the way forward.”

She added: “At this point, we need to look at some urgent issues and the NEC has to decide whether this issue is a matter of urgency.”

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