Gen Mugisha Muntu
Muntu, who seemed to adopt his predecessor Kizza Besigye?s style of oratory, characterised with vigour and emotion, delivered an hour-long speech at Serena Hotel in Kampala that kept being interrupted by cheers and applause from the audience.
The speech was punctuated with biblical analogue, drawn from Deuteronomy 1:6-8. He said Ugandans are complacent like the children of Israel at the foot of Mt. Sinai, where they spent 11 months after they grew accustomed to their surroundings, like many Ugandans have grown accustomed to the ways of the NRM regime.
?But of course they had not reached the Promised Land. And God told them: ?You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Break camp and advance. See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession,? said Muntu.
He added: ?Fellow countrymen and women. We, like the children of Israel, have been let into a state of complacency for close to 30 years. We have stayed on this mountain for too long and we must reject the status quo.
Jobless growth; a broken healthcare system; an education system that does not prepare our children to compete regionally and globally; a patronage system that has reduced many of our people to beggars; and a business environment that is biased against those who play fair; and a corruption machinery that is robbing our country to the marrow.?
Muntu castigated what he termed as President Museveni?s ill-intentioned move to keep Uganda in perpetual poverty by issuing them with handouts so that he can easily rule them. He pledged to strengthen national security, law and order and build a credible public service leadership that is patriotic, time-conscious and confident.
?Our policy package also focuses on strengthening our local government system,? said Muntu. Conspicuously absent from the function was Nandala Mafabi, who has been critical of Muntu?s leadership. Reacting to Muntu?s speech, Lumumba said unemployment and corruption afflict all Ugandans, irrespective of their political affiliations, calling on all Ugandans, including the opposition, to support the Government in developing the country.
Earlier, the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party bigwigs yesterday broke with tradition of being a political nemesis with the opposition when they turned up at the Forum for Democratic Change?s (FDC) meeting.
The presence of the new NRM secretary general and Bugiri Woman MP, Kasule Lumumba and President Museveni?s special advisor for research and information, Morrison Rwakakamba, at Serena Conference Centre during the launch of FDC Policy Agenda for Uganda?s Leap Forward, stunned the audience.
Lumumba?s entry left tongues wagging as members in the audience went into murmurs, wondering what had brought her to an opposition function. It was the first time in decades that such a high ranking NRM official graced an opposition function.
Upon her introduction, Lumumba stood up and waved at the audience, drawing applause from the crowd, as Kasilo MP Elijah Okupa teased her, saying she was welcome back home. Lumumba?s seat was well secured among the opposition honchos, including former FDC president Kizza Besigye, Conservative Party president Ken Lukyamuzi, Jeema president Asuman Basalirwa, Uganda Federal Alliance president Beti Kamya and embattled Kampala Lord Mayor, Erias Lukwago. ?I came here at the invitation of our colleagues in FDC.
It shows we are now moving away from being rivals, to being partners in developing our country. The launch of FDC agenda is important because it is a blue-print that gives responsibility to all party leaders and makes them accountable to Ugandans,? stated Lumumba.
FDC secretary general Alice Alaso said the party has embarked on grassroots mobilisation through talkshows, political rallies and town hall meetings at regional and district levels ahead of next year?s polls. ?The agenda we are launching today is a revised position of the one we gave to ourselves in 2005.
This time, we have chosen to have a public launch to disarm our detractors who say we don?t have a party agenda,? said Alaso. Former Makerere University guild president Ann Adeke, who was the keynote speaker, called on the youth to make right choices, saying they should be concerned that while their counterparts in Kenya, Ghana and elsewhere on the continent are acquiring purposeful education and employment, in Uganda, they are stuck in poverty.
FDC Party President Mugisha Muntu Speech March09 2015
By Alfred Wandera, The New Vision
