KAMPALA – Following Forum for Democratic Change party poor performance in the 2016 national elections, many in the opposition stronghold were eagerly anticipating the four-time presidential candidate not to contest.
But before the elections, Rtd Col. Dr Kizza Besigye has already indicated that he would contest the 2021 elections to the shock of very many.
The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) leader, ‘has let the cat out of the bag’ and assured that he will contest for presidency in the 2021 elections because the struggle is not about him but liberation of the country.
Although his critics see him as a power-hungry attention seeker, Dr Besigye says his mission is “to work with millions of other Ugandans in bringing about a stable democratic and peaceful Uganda”.
“I have pointed out; the struggle is not about me and being a leader, not at all. We use elections, simply as an opportunity to advance our broad cause. A cause for regaining our power to decide, to have the rule of law in our country, to have our rights and freedoms respected and, indeed, to have a country where our resources are applied for the benefit of all equitably,” said Dr Besigye.
He added that: “As long as these objectives are not met, it means if I give up, not only will I live the remaining part of my years in a bad situation, but it means I have condemned the young people, our children to suffer the kind of situation that I suffered all these years,”.
Rtd Dr Besigye used to be President Yoweri Museveni personal doctor but has gone on to become an opposition leader and now refers to Uganda’s leader as a “dictator”.
Mr Besigye has run against Mr Museveni in the presidential elections for four times and has lost all of them, this means that in 2021, he will be making his fifth attempt at ending president Museveni’s reign
While appearing on the Morning; a local TV channel, Dr Besigye said those who are comparing him to President Yoweri Museveni are wrong, describing them as supporters who are bent to tarnishing his name.
He said that if he wanted to deal with Museveni, he would have accepted to be given one of the top positions in government, instead of receiving money from the statehouse in darkness, like what other political comments these days claim.
He said there is a question of legitimacy, one, we have an illegitimate person who violated the Constitution by detaining his opponent to declare himself winner and two a person who is in office illegitimately, he has already illegitimately appointed the new Electoral Commission headed by Simon Byabakama.
“And thirdly, he is an illegitimate president who has violently destroyed the Constitution and invaded Parliament with his troops in order to procure an amendment to allow him contest beyond 75yrs. Of all the people who have so far shown interest to contest for the presidency, only Museveni is already 75 years,” said Dr Besigye.
The FDC struggle has not yet ended, I know that what we are still struggling to know and understand is that we are looking for a country and first mission should be to recapture the country and then once we reclaim the country and have power over it, then we can choose the right leaders.
