IPOD has turned into a social club - FDC

The Forum for Democratic Change FDC) party has defended its decision not to attend the Inter-Party Organisation for Dialogue (IPOD) summit in Entebbe, saying IPOD is turning into a social club.

The IPOD brings together five political parties represented in Parliament including; Democratic Party (DP), National Resistance Movement (NRM), FDC, Jeema and Uganda People's Congress (UPC).

The party spokesperson, Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, said they are still sceptical about whether IPOD will ever yield any agenda, adding that it is very unfortunate that over the years, despite proposals made by IPOD, the government has not shown any commitment.

While addressing journalists at the party's weekly press briefing at the party headquarters in Najjanankumbi on Monday, Ssemujju said they expected to have a summit to ratify IPOD resolutions, which was not on the agenda.

He said IPOD members generated proposals for electoral and political reforms in 2014, which were processed into bills and handed over to Parliament, but were frustrated by NRM hiding under the guise of the lack of time to implement them.

"Now another election is approaching and NRM as the party in power has prevented the adoption and passing on any meaningful reforms," he said.

"Restoration of term limits and now the age limit are some of the reforms we had proposed. These key issues are not even on the agenda of the summit. So what are we going to discuss? This is just turning into a social club," he added.

Ssemujju also noted that it is very disappointing that the state continues to frustrate opposition political activities yet they are the same issues which were discussed in the previous summits.  

He also raised concern over the unexplained sharp increase in the country's security and defence expenditure.

"The defence budget has increased from sh1trillion in the financial year 2017/18 to sh2trillion in 2018/19 to now sh3.5trillion in the 2019/20 budget which Parliament is about to pass. We are suspicious that this money might be used to procure votes. Even the money which the President will donate has increased from sh89bn to sh200bn. This is three times bigger than Mulago Hospital's budget which stands at sh71bn," he noted.

Ssemujju said the government should increase teachers' salaries, invest more in the education and health sectors.