The opposition Forum for Democratic Change party has admitted the need to engage NRM’s Gen. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni in a discourse if the country is to be placed on the right track.
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Addressing journalists during the midweek FDC delegates conference where rivalling presidential candidates were granted audience, Ambassador Wasswa Birigwa rallied FDC party supporters to open room for dialogue with members of the ruling NRM party. “We need a negotiated settlement with the Government, without fighting,” he said as he tasked his party members to abandon Besigye’s calls for plan B.
He also gave a glimpse into his presidential manifesto where he pledged to uplift the livelihood of the youths. “I will be working for and serving all Ugandans. I will be working to lift the hope of the youth. I am sorry to the youth on behalf of my generation, because if we were not selfish, they would not be suffering,” he stated.
His rival, Eng. Patrick Amuriat Oboi pledged to cut the unnecessary expenditure on useless public offices which he says siphon too much from taxpayers yet services and infrastructure are more vital. To effect his prayer, an envisioned Amuriat pledged to trim parliament from the inflated 500 legislators to at least 280 and also deflate cabinet to about 32 Ministers. “I plan to reduce these unnecessary wasteful expenditures to be used for more productive things, which can benefit all Ugandans,” he said.
SEE ALSO: FDC makes U-turn on Besigye as Amuriat offers himself to hold the presidential flag
From the time Dr. Besigye dropped the towel in August, the opposition FDC party has faced its unprecedented decline in terms of vibrancy. The party is currently faced with multiple defections of MPs and Councillors who have since sought solace in the deeply rooted Robert Kyagulanyi’s National Unity Platform party which is now the ‘new kid on the block’. Despite calls for a coalition with fellow opposition forces, the FDC stubbornly thinks it can dominate the political arena in the absence of its key playmaker, Dr. Kizza Besigye. Birigwa’s utterances make Museveni’s prophesy on the ‘death’ of the opposition by 2021 lively and outstanding.
