Minister Ogwang directs on FMU actions on governance

The motorsport governing body, FMU has been experiencing governance turmoil for the last 4 months. A faction within the fraternity is pushing the narrative that there exists a power vacuum and that the current leadership is holding office illegally.

Their argument is premised on the fact that on February 3, 2024, there should have been an elective assembly held as per the constitution. Unfortunately, this assembly never took place as it was interrupted by the Uganda Police and didn’t have elections on the agenda.

In a subsequent assembly held on February 9, 2024, in line with article 7.1.5 (d) which calls for recalling the assembly within 7 days upon failure to raise quorum at a convened assembly, the term of the current executive was extended for 6 months under specific terms of reference. The executive then engaged with NCS and the State Minister for Sports to guide on the internal FMU issues.

FMU was guided to convene an extraordinary assembly with a specific agenda for the appointment of an executive committee and also hold proper elections within 45 days of that assembly. However, it’s critical to understand that governance issues within FMU are far beyond elections but go down to how clubs’ function and if they also meet their obligations as affiliated members of FMU.

The current constitution has several overlaps between the management committee and executive committee which need to be streamlined. This will probably be done in the new constitution. In essence, what FMU is struggling with is a severe case of poor management approaches.

However, the guidance of the Minister and NCS serves two purposes, 1) provides the political and technical l leadership from both entities whose mandate is exactly that. 2) puts FMU into the patronage of the entities moving forward. Thus, upon that guidance, an assembly was held on March 16, 2024 which extended the term of office of the current administration and also tasked it to conduct elections within 60 days. Suffice to note that this assembly was witnessed by NCS representative with a duty to witness and report back to the minister.

The action taken by FMU thus provides the route to correct an earlier error of not including elections on the assembly agenda much as it comes at the cost of extra assemblies. This solidifies the fact that there is a properly constituted and legal management in place. The outcome we wait for is the election process that will usher in new leadership. The fact that the assembly was blessed by NCS erodes the narrative that FMU has a leadership vacuum. In the next few 2 months, the fraternity should be preparing for elections. May the campaigns begin