FORUM FOR DEMOCRATIC CHANGE (FDC)SECRETARY GENERAL’S STATUS REPORT FOR THE

6th NATIONAL DELEGATES CONFERENCE HELD ON 2nd SEPTEMBER, 2015

1.0 SALUTATION

The Party President and your Deputies, the Party Chair Person and your Deputies, the Treasury General and your Deputies, my col-leagues in the Secretary General’s office, our Development Part-ners, Colleagues from our Sister Parties, Religious Leaders here, Members from the Civil Society and the Media, distinguished Del-egates, Ladies and Gentlemen. It is my great pleasure to welcome all of you to this FDC 6th National Delegates Conference and I would like at the onset to heartily welcome all of you for coming all the way to this venue to be part of the great history, not just for our party but for our mother Country- Uganda!

1.1. INTRODUCTION

Mr. Chairperson and dear delegates, you will realize that this is my first report since I took over office. I feel deeply honoured by the trust and confidence exhibited by you for having entrusted me with this high office of the party. I would like to thank my pre-decessor Hon. Alaso Alice Asianut and her entire team for having worked tirelessly hard in keeping the secretariat and the party op-erational amidst all challenges. I promise to build on what the team has done to make the party grow further.

Delegates, since I came to office on 15th June 2015, the Secretar-iat has been busy organizing FDC Presidential Flag bearer elec-tions. The office of Secretary General halted a number of activi-ties because it did not want to interfere with the Presidential can-didates’ countrywide campaigns. Since this is now coming to an end, other programs are now going to be rolled out immediately.

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We thank the districts with functional offices. As a party, we want to operationalize all district offices by making a humble contribu-tion of Ugx. 100,000 per month for rent. We shall need agree-ments a twelve months agreement between the FDC district branch and the land lords with advance payment of 6months. Those with already functional offices can use this fund in running the office. Those who can negotiate for less rental fees, the differ-ence will be used for the day today work in the offices.

The telephones I pledged are ready for collection but I want to quickly add that this is Party property and will therefore be man-aged by the District General Secretary. Guidelines on the usage of these phones have been communicated.

Let me draw your attention that office stamps are a property of the party and are to be maintained and kept by the General Sec-retaries. The party is in the process of withdrawing all old stamps, to replace them with new ones.

Colleagues, I implore all of us to get up and work extra hard so that we are able to salvage this country from human wolves! NRM is using money to buy support amongst the population and using propaganda that they are very strong as we can all see, it is at its weakest. Let us use our energies and the little resources we have to interact with the population in our respective places. It is during these interactions that we can preach the message of change. The population is now ready to listen to us.

2.0 ORBITUARY

On a sad note, our beloved Deputy Party President –Central Re-gion Owek. Joyce Sebugwawo lost two members of her family; her own daughter and her father in law. Once again, we send our heartfelt condolences to you Owek. Ssebugwawo and your family.

Also our member Mr. Asuman Semakula lost his beloved wife. We are deeply saddened for the demise. Our thoughts are with you and your family during these difficult times. To the rest of you who have lost your dear ones, we offer our deepest condolences to you and your families. .

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3.0 FINANCES

Mr. Chairman and delegates, you will note that our sources of in-come are through the sale of party cards, donations, grants, fund raising and contribution by members, well wishers and Govern-ment.

Mr. Chairman, through you, I take this opportunity to thank our funders and partners for both financial and material support they extend to our party. In particular we thank Democratic Gover-nance Facility (DGF), Netherland Institute for Multiparty Democ-racy (NIMD), International Republican Institute (IRI) and The Con-servative Party UK for their continued support.

We are grateful to those Members of Parliament who have contin-ued to contribute towards the financing of party activities. May the Good Lord Bless you for your generous contributions!

Similarly, we extend our sincere thanks to the Government of Uganda through the Electoral commission for obliging to the Party financing Act passed five years ago. This financial year 2015/2016, the party received funds amounting to Ugx .1,163,522,013/=. These resources have greatly helped us in building of our party structures and implementing other party re-lated activities.

As a secretariat we shall enforce total accountability in the party without exceptions.

4.0 STAFF

The total number of staff employed by the Party based at Head Offices is 12 headed by the Chief Administrative Officer. I am sure you will agree with me that the secretariat is understaffed. For sure, the amount of work that the secretariat has to contend with far exceeds the staff allocated to it. The truth of the matter is that we are a severely under-resourced Party and as such we are forced to do with this grossly unacceptable situation as we look for a solution. On this note, I give credit to the secretariat team

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working hard to cope with demands and pressures on a daily ba-sis.

Our staff Patricia Alaroker and Honest Kansime left us for further studies and campaigns respectively. We are in the process of re-cruiting a policy analyst, an Assistant Administrative Officer and a Desk Officer Western Region. We thank the two for the work they did for the party.

5.0 ELECOTORAL COMMISSION OF THE PARTY

Mr. Chairperson, I commend the Electoral commission for the work well done right away from the building of Party structures through today. I report to you members that this team has organ-ised two successful elections in a space of two months;

1.National Women's League NDC that was held on 26/07/15 at Tal Cottages that elected women’s league committee headed by Hon. Winfred Kiiza.

2.National Youth League NDC that was held between 16th – 18th

August 2015 at Joka’s hotel in Bweyogerere in which Mr. Iddi Ouma emerged victorious as Chairperson of the league.

All events were successful and I congratulate all women and youths who emerged as leaders to these important wings of the Party. The list of these leaders is here attached.

Today is another day to conclude unfinished election of NEC and election of Party Presidential flag bearer for 2016 General elec-tions. On this note, I recognize our own two (2) Presidential con-tenders; Major Gen. (Rtd) Mugisha Muntu and Rtd Col Dr. Kizza Besigye who have been campaigning for the last two months. It is important for each of them to note that the matter will be con-cluded today by these delegates and we hope to move forward here after.

6. PROPERTY LOAN FACILITY:

This facility was renewed on 16.04.2015 and it will expire on 29/02/2016. The outstanding value is to the tune of Ugx .41, 300,000. We are negotiating with the creditor to have this loan cleared before February 2016.

7.0 PLANNED ACTIVITIES & PROJECTS

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In the course of our journey towards forming and building of a vi-brant party, we are planning to ensure that FDC keeps growing throughout the country as we approach the 2016 General Elec-tions and after. To achieve this, we have to work with our people at grass root level to address the needs of the party. We have to work together as a team and the secretariat is soon embarking on the following program:

The Secretary General will issue out an extensive program to visit the districts to meet and discuss with leaders about pertinent is-sues necessary for bringing cohesion in the party.This is aimed at making our leaders and members to get involved and have a substantial contribution in building FDC Party towards the greater desired heights. We must ensure that the presence of FDC grows throughout the country despite challenges caused by the NRM Government. This can be achieved through working with the pop-ulation to address their needs. With stronger district branches and tighter coordination at regional level we can do much better.

We intend to train the Youth and Women in leadership on how to articulate party values. A program is soon to be rolled out imme-diately. We want vibrant Youth and Women Leagues.

We shall fully support Independent Electoral Commission of FDC in this election period to achieve its mandate.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have to do this and do it quickly be-cause the population is looking at FDC to rescue the country from the loot by the NRM regime. The instance of loot by the regime are innumerable the latest being public land for Research parceled out to one individual.

8.0 PUBLICITY AND COMMUNICATIONS

In principle, I believe in communication as a tool in building the party. I have in that respect fulfilled my pledge of giving a fully connected mobile telephone to each district to ease communica-tion amongst ourselves and to drastically reduce calling related costs.These phones will be managed by District General Secre-taries. The Party will always meet the monthly subscription.

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Secondly, through the department of Publicity and Information with the help of Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) and other Partners, we have copies of; the Party Constitu-tion, Party Agenda, and Strategic Plan. We are also developing a Party Brochure and copies of simplified Policy Agenda booklets. These documents will be distributed to all districts so that people can know more about what FDC as a party stands for. We hope these materials give us a competitive edge.

Thirdly we shall continue to address weekly press conferences on issues that generally affect our country and the economy. It is also important to remember that the political scene is ripe for FDC victory in 2016 General Elections especially if the environment is cleaned and the ground levelled. We must use this opportunity to inform and educate the general public of any issue affecting the population.

9.0 PRIMARY ELECTIONS.

The Party Electoral Commission will conduct Party‘s Primary Elec-tions at all levels between 2nd September 2015 and 15th October 2015. The complete program will be sent to all districts. The nom-ination papers and guidelines for this important exercise will soon be available to all districts.

10.0THE DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE (TDA)

The most significant political development in the opposition has been the grand political alliance called The Democratic Alliance (TDA) which is an umbrella of all democracy loving organizations to which FDC subscribes. Members present here are aware that there have been a series of informal meetings involving the mem-bers of TDA, with an aim of forging the way forward.

It is important to note that the decision to join TDA was discussed and passed in NEC. Through NEC, the Party committed itself to fulfill all the conditions and requirements in TDA’s Protocol.

11. OPENING OF DISTRICT OFFICES

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The party plans to have all district offices operational. The party will make a humble contribution of Ugx100, 000/= per month for rent to each district. We request all the districts to open FDC Dis-trict bank accounts for ease of transfer of money. The party has greatly suffered from dishonest people within our midst and therefore, we want to make all transactions through bank ac-counts.

12. SUPPORT TO SPECIAL GROUPS

FDC will continue to support the Women and Youth leagues to carry out their activities on behalf of the Party in all Districts. We expect them to extensively hold public meetings, seminars and workshops to discuss and sensitize the people on issues that af-fect women and youth such as health, unemployment, poverty, bribery and corruption that have been occasioned by the NRM regime. These activities if carried out with resolve and vigor will increase our visibility.

13.0CONCLUSION

FDC is our home that brings together the entire fratenity. It is a home, built on the foundations of unity, peace, reconciliation, prosperity, accountability, transparency, commitment, mutual re-spect, decency, trust and open discussion. We must begin the fight against evil forces that are in control of our society through political education and practical activity. We therefore must place FDC Party in the forefront of the struggle for Constitutionalism, Democracy;, Good governance; Rule of Law; Observance of hu-man rights and fundamental freedoms; Emancipation of women, Workers, PWDs, Youth and Zero tolerance to corruption. We must engage the people in every aspect and constantly analyze and assess the political situation so that we compete favorably for victory to be on our side.

For God and my Country

One Uganda One People

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Nathan Nandala Mafabi, (MP Budadiri West)SECRETARY GENERAL

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