By Bizimungu Kisakye

John Butime, former FDC national vice-chairman, has returned to the ruling NRM.

Butime announced his comeback yesterday during a meeting at the NRM party offices in Fort Portal.

The meeting burst into jubilation as he was received by secretary general Amama Mbabazi together with the district NRM leaders, Godfrey Nyakahuma, and Fort Portal MP Stephen Kaliba.

To symbolise the exit, Butime handed to Mbabazi his FDC party card.

There was more celebration when Alex Ruhunda, the director of the Kabarole resource and research centre, formerly rumoured to be an FDC sympathiser, also joined the NRM.

Butime said his come-back was as a result of a one-day meeting he held with Mbabazi at Mountains of the Moon Hotel where he presided over the Kabarole district NRM conference.

In a brief interview yesterday, Butime said: “I had never left the NRM on my own; it was after I had been dropped by the President without reason. I joined the un-deployed and the President never recalled me for another assignment,” said Butime, brother to former minister Tom Butime, who represents Mwenge county in Parliament.

Butime last held public office in 1993 when he was a special district administrator in western Uganda.

Asked if the return was connected to any job offer, Butime said it was out of his personal decision to return to where he belonged.

In February 2009, Butime, then acting national chairperson, presided over the FDC national delegates conference at Namboole in Kampala and handed over the party offices to Sam Njuba, replacing the late Sulaiman Kiggundu.

Yesterday, Butime said: “There are many people who will not like this, in particular FDC members, but I hope they understand me. I do not have any debt with them.”

FDC deputy spokesperson Sarah Epenu, however, said: “We are in a multiparty system where people are free to move on. Free entry, free exit.”

Mbabazi said winning Butime back to the ruling party was a great achievement. “FDC is a platform for protesters, people with frustrations. Look at Besigye, he is permanently annoyed.”

He said the Kabarole NRM district leadership would get Butime a party card since at the time he left, they were still practicing politics based on individual merit.