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Implore other means not House boycott, FDC tells Mpuuga
Mr Mathias Mpuuga, the Leader of Opposition in Parliament, with NUP MPs address the media in Kampala on November 6. PHOTO/DAVID LUBOWA
The Opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party has advised the Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LoP) to seek other strategies as a way of demanding the 18 missing persons, saying the parliamentary boycott may not yield anything.
Mr John Kikonyogo, the FDC spokesperson, urged the LoP, Mr Mathias Mpuuga, to engage all opposition party leaders so that they reach a consensus on the issue of boycott.
“FDC as a party has been a victim for many years, and inevitably, we have brought a lot of experience and a number of us are here for consultancy as of today on how we can handle these issues. This is an issue which all of us are not comfortable with [and] even some people in NRM are not comfortable with it. It should not be an individual’s responsibility to fight alone and try to blackmail anybody else,” Mr Kikonyogo said.
He noted that one of the strategies to use is singling out different individuals, taking them to courts of law and tasking them to produce the missing persons as opposed to demanding the entire government. He made the remarks while addressing journalists during the weekly press briefing at their party headquarters in Najjanankumbi, Kampala, yesterday.
He added: “It is very dangerous if you are looking to rescue someone and at the same time you are fighting for political recognition. You may not succeed because those people who don’t want you to succeed may end up fighting from your own camp. We expected our brothers to plan this boycott properly. You are going to the boycott, how are you going to play about it, and what type of end game do you expect?”
Mr Kikonyogo noted that FDC Members of Parliament are not participating in the boycott by the opposition because the party was never consulted.
However, he asked the Opposition not to blackmail FDC saying they never understood their plans for the boycott and that the strategies of the boycott were not properly indicated.
“From my experience, when you are planning for a boycott, you have to look at many issues. Even if somebody doesn’t follow you, he has not understood the reason why you are fighting, just move on, he will follow you when you teach him more on what to do,” Mr Kikonyogo said.
However, Mr Mpuuga said all political parties were engaged through their whips during the shadow cabinet and that the whips are expected to convey the outcomes to their party headquarters.
