KAMPALA – The Spokesperson for Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Ssemujju Nganda has said that he isn’t bothered by some members leaving the party saying the main opposition party isn’t a prison to incarcerate its subscribers and people are at free will to leave the party.
Mr. Ssemujju made the remarks on Wednesday during a Twitter session at Parliament in which he was highlighting achievements of the opposition in the 3rd session of Parliament.
He said; “FDC isn’t prison that there are people who should stay in FDC permanently, I joined FDC in 2010 maybe I will leave, what should be permanent are the institutions, not individuals, others die. All the founder chairmen of FDC have died, so what is permanent is the institution, not individuals, the human resource will keep changing.”
Mr. Ssemujju who doubles as Opposition Chief Whip was responding to a question on whether the party is conducting an audit after some members of the Party left to form another party like former FDC President Mugisha Muntu who formed another party, Alliance for National Transformation, he said all the emphasis should be put on ensuring the institution of FDC stays in existence not individuals.
“I don’t have problem people leaving FDC if they have found another party to join other parties. Amanya Mushega told me when we lost elections in Namboole that there is no world that is perfect you only seek to improve where you are. So if you are in a journey to look for a perfect world, maybe you will find one in heaven. FDC must work hard to attract those who are leaving and those who aren’t in it because we must keep growing FDC and growth means meeting challenges,” Ssemujju added.
He also alluded to the fact that people shouldn’t be surprised if those going to form parties walk out later looking for other political affiliations arguing that that is the beauty of pluralism that one can subscribe and change your affiliations when they need to.
While addressing the achievements of the Opposition in Parliament, Ssemujju said that there is need to improve civic education among Ugandans who have on several occasions castigated members of the opposition for being dormant saying they are using wrong parameters when auditing standards of MPs.
He said; “The trouble is that individual MPs usually employ the wrong standard because of the nature of our politics in Uganda, they want MPs to be activists. They tend to be happy when you’re jumping over tables you can’t do that all the time, it isn’t possible. Ordinarily, there shouldn’t be fights in Parliament. The moment you build antagonistic relationship, you are in trouble, you have to compromise sometimes.”
He also blasted those accusing opposition MPs of being compromised questioning why they don’t use the same energy to criticize those responsible for compromising MPs; “They’re not angry at someone compromising people, why do you have politics where an individual compromises others? Where does he get money to do so? It’s the country’s problem we must deal with head-on.”