FDC chairman attacks Buganda party heads

By Moses Mulondo
and Cyprian Musoke

ACTING FDC chairman John Butime has lashed out at the way the FDC Buganda leaders behaved following the death of Dr. Sulaiman Kiggundu.

He said party members from Buganda did not market the region’s interests properly and as a result, were misunderstood by other regions. “Buganda’s legitimate concerns continue being misconstrued by the rest of Uganda as selfish demands.”

Delivering his speech on Thursday during the Delegates’ Conference on the state of affairs in FDC, Butime admitted that the Kiggundu succession battle that led to the resignation of Beti Kamya from the position of party envoy, had greatly affected the party.

“It would be an understatement if I termed it the succession battle a storm, a tornado, a tsunami and a hurricane all rolled in one,” Butime said.

“As a result, relations among top leaders in the party have been gravely strained and the party’s delicate unity and cohesion severely undermined. Some sections of the party dropped the principle of peaceful resolution of disputes and adopted the forceful, hence the fist fights that characterised the party wrangling at Najjanankumbi.”

“All is not lost because within the top echelons of FDC, there are still positive forces capable of discerning between being a good Muganda and a patriotic Ugandan. One such distinguished statesman is our deputy party president, Hon. Sam Njuba.”

He cited the comments made by Njuba in his interview with the Sunday Vision of October 5, 2008, where he said: “Those who know me are aware that I am totally committed to Buganda’s interests. But I am also a committed Ugandan nationalist. If I want to effectively implement a Buganda programme or interest, then I must have a foot and control over the central government. I cannot fully devote my service to Buganda and ignore the Uganda factor.”

Dubbing it the emergence of a pseudo-despotic executive, Butime also attacked the party’s top leadership for effecting constitutional amendments that are counter-democracy.

“Unlike the old party constitution, the amended one undermines the chairmanship. It ejects the chairman and the vice-chairman from NEC and demotes them to playing second fiddle to a newly-created and highly obscure steering committee, which is a sub-committee of NEC!” he said
Butime added: “What defeats my understanding is the skewed rationale behind barring the chairmanship, which heads the policy formulation organs, from participating in NEC, which is the policy implementation arm of the party.

I am at a loss trying to understand how the chairmanship that is supposed to monitor and supervise the work of NEC can at the same time be prevented from auditing NEC,” Butime reasoned.
Meanwhile, Njuba has said he will not be involved in active politics beyond 2011.

“I need to rest. I have done my part in this nation’s politics.”