The Democratic Party president Norbert Mao has told the Inter-Party Organisation for Dialogue (IPOD) to handover leadership to Forum for Democratic Party (FDC) to avoid causing more damage to member parties.
IPOD comprises five-member parties and according to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), each party has a chance to lead the other four members for a period of six months.
The members include; National Resistance Movement (NRM), Democratic Party (DP), Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), FDC and Justice Forum (Jeema).
In a November 20, 2019 letter, Mao who is also the outgoing IPOD summit chair told IPOD Executive Secretary Frank Rusa that he has been carrying out consultations with stakeholders to realign IPOD members to the goals of the organization following the fallouts around the previous two summit meetings.
He also revealed that he held a very fruitful meeting on the subject of IPOD leadership with Ambassador Wasswa Birigwa, the FDC National Chairman.
“I resolved to undertake this because the concerns raised about the FDC’s toxic behavior and utterances is a matter which has been resolved by the top leaders of the IPOD membership. Unfortunately, subordinate officers and spokespersons have continued to foul the atmosphere making cordial deliberations difficult,” said Mao.
“Nevertherless, I’m experienced in dealing with difficult relationships and so I have persevered to see through the grandstanding and unhealthy jostling and focus on solving the real problem. I have also observed that many of our leaders in IPOD have succumbed to the baits thrown by various media houses and have consequently fed fuel to the fire of animosity. I call for restraint in our media statements.”
Mao further disclosed that if IPOD cannot solve a matter such as the attitude of one member towards another then they will not be able to tackle the teething problems that bedevil Uganda as a country.
“So I wish to inform you that after meeting the President of FDC in a few days time, we should organize a handover ceremony before the end of this month. A lot of damage has been done and none of the IPOD members has been left unscathed. It is now up to all of us to repair the damage, mend fences and heal the broken relationships. I will update you after we have met with the FDC President.”
The development comes barely a month after FDC put a rumor to rest that they wanted to exit IPOD.
While addressing journalists, FDC spokesperson Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda said that they are not planning to leave IPOD and that they are in the process of taking over the helm.
“I would like to confirm to the public that FDC rejects any insinuation made by some of our colleagues in the IPOD that we are reluctant to take up the leadership of this voluntary organisation upon expiry of the term of office of DP,” Ssemujju said.
He added that FDC was willing to lead IPOD however there are some proposals which must be put into consideration if the dialogue is to benefit all the party members.
“The FDC Secretary General Hon. Nandala Mafabi will in consultation with the IPOD Summit Chair Hon. Eng. Patrick Amuriat present proposals on the issues the FDC wants IPOD to consider in the next six months of our leadership. We are aware of some manoeuvre by some IPOD colleagues to illegally handover leadership to another party. They want to skip FDC because it refused to sit on the same table with the dictator Yoweri Museveni. The FDC would like to remind the country and our colleagues in IPOD that this organization was formed to strengthen multiparty in Uganda and a culture of democracy.”
In May 2019, Mao and President Museveni attacked FDC for snubbing the dialogue activities having refused to take part in the summit for second consecutive time.
Mao urged FDC leaders to change their mindsets if Uganda is to achieve the political democracy they yearn for.
“We call upon our colleagues who have consistently denounced IPOD Summit meetings simply because they feel that sitting in a meeting with President Museveni waters down their image as an opposition party to change their attitude,” Mao said.
On the other hand, Museveni said, “We invite FDC but I do not know why they don’t come but that’s up to them.”
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