Ill-guided people want to destroy FDC - Alaso

Forum for Democratic Change president Mugisha Muntu addresses the 9th national council at the party headquarters in Najanankumbi, outside Kampala yesterday. PHOTO BY ABUBAKER LUBOWA

Kampala- Forum for Democratic Change’s secretary general Alice Alaso has scoffed at the party’s detractors.

The Serere Woman MP also vowed to defend FDC at all costs.

“I sense that some ill guided individuals want to destroy our party and we will defend it. To some Museveni is not the issue any more, their obsession is how to kill FDC. This we will not allow. Our commitment is to work passionately to stay alive, to grow, to expand and to work with others,” she said in her last address as party secretary general to the 9th national council at FDC headquarters in Najjanankumbi yesterday.

Alluding to the biblical story of Noah’s ark, Ms Alaso said FDC was formed to liberate Ugandans and not an instrument of infighting.

“Noah’s ark was meant to save people from a ravaging flood. The FDC party is meant to save Ugandans from a ravaging dictatorship, corruption, nepotism, personal insecurity and gross mismanagement,” she said.

“It is not, therefore, time for the lion in Noah’s ark to begin hunting the antelopes in the ark. It is not. It is not time for the giraffes in the ark to begin stepping on the snails because all of them need that ark to be saved. It is even wrong for the rats in the ark to begin eating the ropes that anchor it because they will drown together.”

The FDC leadership under Gen Mugisha Muntu has come under intense criticism from both within and outside the party for making FDC docile but Ms Alaso who outlined the party successes like the launch of the FDC policy agenda dubbed “Uganda’s Leap Forward” instead appealed for unity.

“This party will only survive if you stick together, if you are disciplined and passionate about it. It is time to break camp and advance. I hope we have broken camp and understand that we are advancing.”
She advised that before FDC thinks of collaboration with any other democratic movement it should be viable.

“Today as you reflect on collaboration with democracy forces, you want to ensure that you are viable inside out before you even collaborate with any other person and this is your mandate.”

During the same meeting, Gen Muntu asked the Opposition to develop a common agenda in order to win the trust of Ugandans.

The former army commander said Opposition parties need to organise and rise above the petty party difference, observing that President Museveni is in charge of the national finances and security with the trust of Ugandans as the only way to outcompete the regime.

“The more we do things in a mature and organised way, the more we will be able to change the perceptions of the public to see us as a credible alternative political force. Mr Museveni cannot fight that, we are in charge of that. That is why we must focus on it to ensure that we change the image in the public mind of who we are as the Opposition to see us as mature political actors.”