FDC President Patrick Amuriat last week stirred up Opposition in Parliament by dropping a bomb which saw the leader of opposition and a senior member relieved of their duties.
Amuriat in his campaign strategy did not mince his words about ‘defiance’, which he promised he would recall after the man he defeated Gen. Mugisha Muntu distanced himself from.
The new man at Najjanankumbi is an offspring of Dr. Kizza Besigye, the founding father of the biggest opposition party in the country. Dr. Besigye is a champion of ‘defiance’ and has voiced his frustrations with the party when they maintained silence after the 2016 election.
With Amuriat at the helm, the new boss and his team needed to ensure they sound the ‘defiance’ message across the party structures including Parliament, where they have a bigger share of the cake.
The new FDC chief has since last week been in the different platforms explaining himself about the changes which many fear will break unity within.
Appearing on NBS Monday morning, Amuriat, a former MP, did breakdown down in detail how and why he arrived at the changes.
Amuriat: @FDCOfficial1 prides of having a membership of more than 10 million countrywide, we just lead. We will deal with the repercussions but I don’t expect these reshuffles to cause a divide, they all knew this was going to happen.
Amuriat: These changes were informed by a number of factors like loyalty, financial contribution, other details underground are not for public consumption.
Hon. Amuriat: She’s a fine lady, I congratulate her publicly for the good work done for the party. When I meet her privately, I will let her know what i liked and didn’t like about her.
@PatrickAmuriat: An MP rejected the position of Leader of Opposition, and he had his own reasons. We’ve had a lot of consultation, and work done in so many months. But it’s on record that we talked to everyone before a decision was taken to reshuffle.
Amuriat: This is also in respect of what we plan to do as a party in the field. It has been proven that parliament might not be effective in bringing liberation, so we have to find another way.
@PatrickAmuriat: In making these changes, we’re realigning the work of @Parliament_Ug with the work of @FDCOfficial1, if the party and parliament are walking in opposite directions, there won’t be a point on convergence.
Amuriat: I have confidence in the team I appointed, I’ve worked with them and I believe they’ll push our party political agenda forward.
Amuriat: When you talk about Betty Aol Ochan being little known, you underrate her political capacity and where she came from, she started early and now a third term MP, so why would you think she would never perform in the position of LOP!
@PatrickAmuriat: I think the public is very unfair to Hon. Mubarack Munyagwa, they should give him time to step into the committee and do his work. I’ve been around him for the past months and he is a very honest man.
.@PatrickAmuriat: One thing that we need to understand is that MPs qualify to be in parliament and to my mind, all of them qualify and once they qualify to be in parliament, they qualify to be in a parliamentary committee.
Patrick Amuriat: If the positions are held by just a particular people, how do we measure the strengthens and capabilities for the rest of the people in the party?
@PatrickAmuriat: Viewers must understand that the @FDCOfficial1 changes in parliament happen, they are inevitable. I don’t actually understand why this has raised eyebrows, opportunity should be given to as many people as possible.
Award winning journalist and writer who has worked as a stringer for a couple of acclaimed South Africa based German journalists, covered 3 Ugandan elections, 2008 Kenya election crisis, with interests in business and sports reporting.
