The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has accused President Museveni of draining the treasury through his countrywide wealth creation tours.
President Museveni is currently in Buganda sub-region having already traversed the other parts of the country on his tours, which he says are meant to preach the gospel of wealth creation.
But addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in Najjanankumbi on Monday, FDC spokesman Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda accused Mr Museveni of continuing to waste tax payers’ money to campaign for the next term of office.
“FDC is concerned with the amount of taxpayers’ money, Mr. Museveni has spent on tours whose unstated aim is creation of a poor and vulnerable population dependent on handouts from a permanently vote seeking ruler,” Mr Ssemujju said.
He said on these tours, the President has spent Shs33.2 billion just on tours in three months.
“While officially Mr. Museveni allocated himself a whole Shs31.6 billion for inland travel under vote 002 (State House) during the financial year 2018, he processed through Parliament an additional Shs 17.5 billion to specifically finance these useless campaign tours. He has therefore spent Shs 17.5 billion touring the country under the guise of promoting Wealth Creation. In fact in a supplementary request he made in May 2019, he also asked for Shs 15.7 billion for classified expenditure under his residence,” he said.
Of course, everywhere he has gone, he has been bribing Councillors with Shs 300,000 transport refund who in return are required to pass a resolution declaring him sole Presidential candidate/life president,” he added.
The FDC spokesman added that Mr Museveni’s Operation Wealth Creation programme launched in 2014 has been disastrous, the reason the President is trying to move around.
The country knows, that Operation Wealth Creation which Museveni declared on June 9th 2014 and is now five years, has been as disastrous as all his earlier campaign slogans such as Entandiikwa, Modernization of Agriculture and Prosperity for All (Bonna Baggagawale). This is because the aim was never to help the population out of poverty. Today, more than 70% of the population is still producing for the stomach (subsistence),” he said.
Not surprising that Museveni himself and his brother Gen. Salim Saleh, commander of Operation Poverty Creation disguised as Wealth Creation are some of the few most successful farmers the regime has created in the last three and half decades,” he added.
Mr Ssemujju said the money spent of Mr Museveni’s regional tours would have been spent on opening an agriculture bank.
Just imagine, if the Shs 33.2 billion that Museveni has spent touring in three months was used to open up an agricultural bank, what it would mean to farmers? Farmers have perennially complained about limited access to credit for production, lack of water for production, limited access to market, poor and inadequate storage and processing facilities leading to poor-harvest management. This is what a sensible leader must seek to address instead of engaging in annual pilgrimages to poverty stricken rural areas,” he added.
