The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party has accused some individuals of trying to stop the opposition party from taking over the rotating leadership of the Inter-Party Dialogue (IPOD)
IPOD is a coalition of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), the Democratic Party (DP) Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Uganda Peoples’ Congress (UPC) and the Justice Forum (JEEMA).
While FDC in March refused to attend the second IPOD meeting that was also attended by President Museveni, the party spokesman, Mr Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, insists that they are ready to assume the chair of the coalition that is currently held by DP Secretary-General Norbert Mao.
“The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) rejects any insinuation made by some of our colleagues in the Inter-Party Dialogue (IPOD) that we are reluctant to take up the leadership of this voluntary organisation upon expiry of the term of office of the Democratic Party (DP),” Mr Ssemujju told journalists at the party headquarters in Kampala on Monday, October 21, 2019.
He added that the term of office for DP expired on September 25 and according to the Memorandum of Understanding, FDC took over the IPOD leadership then.
“The DP President General Hon. Nobert Mao and DP Secretary-General Dr. Gerald Siranda have been the IPOD leaders respectively. The FDC has taken over and await the official handover ceremony and handover reports from both Hon. Mao and Dr. Siranda. The FDC Secretary General Hon. Nandala Mafabi will in consultation with the IPOD Summit Chair, Hon. Eng. Patrick Amuriat, present proposals on the issues the FDC wants IPOD to consider in the next six months of our leadership,” Mr Ssemujju said.
“We are aware of some maneuver by some IPOD colleagues to illegally handover leadership to another party. They want to skip FDC because it refused to sit on the same table with the dictator Yoweri Museveni,” he added.
Mr Ssemujju explained that whereas the IPOD Council sat and agreed on management of public rallies and meetings, these are yet to be ratified by the government.
“We, the five political parties represented in Parliament, agreed on a set of regulations. They were supposed to be ratified by the Summit. Unfortunately, when our colleagues convened a not fully constituted Summit, Museveni refused to sign on the agreed regulations. He told them that he had given different instructions to his security chiefs and he needed to convene a meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the IPOD regulations,” he added.
“To date, Museveni has not convened the National Security Council to reverse his draconian orders. As a result, our rallies and meetings are still being interfered with,” he added.
The FDC spokesman said their party removing the military and Police from our politics if achieved, will be the single most important thing IPOD has ever done.
“Negotiating an end to the life presidency will be another milestone. This is what the IPOD must strive to achieve. There are colleagues who accuse us of benefitting from IPOD money yet we don’t want to meet with Museveni. We want and we will advise colleagues not to create an impression out there that IPOD is all about money,” he added.
