Statement by the new Leader of the Opposition in Parliament

18th February 2014

The Rt. Hon. Speaker and Hon. Colleagues, we have returned from our longest recess of the season, prolonged for two more weeks in apparent deceit that it was on account of renovations on the Parliamentary buildings. Yet the truth is that it was mainly because of the retreat of our colleagues on the opposite side in Kyankwanzi. Leaders should always stick to the truth so that they are always believed.

I hope we have come back from the recess with fresh minds; with objective minds to debate and listen to each other in the interest of our country.

The Rt. Honourable Speaker, I stand before this August House today as the new Leader of Opposition, a position that comes with big responsibilities, great demands and challenges on me which I am ready to shoulder in humility.

I hope to work with all of you in a cordial manner, Right Hon. Speaker and Hon. Colleagues. I hope to continue building the non-antagonistic relationship my predecessors Hon. Nandala Mafabi and Hon. Professor Ogenga Latigo have been nurturing with our opponents on the opposite side.

Let me take this opportunity to thank Hon. Nandala for a job well done. He has not been moved because of any shortcoming. He was not incompetent. He was not corrupt. He was not incapacitated in any way. He is not of advanced age. He was a star performer.

But in the FDC’s cherished philosophy of Change, he had to move. We do not want our leaders to overstay in one office. FDC will never have a leader staying in an office for over 30 years however good he or she may be.

Once again, I thank Hon. Nandala and I would like to assure you that FDC values you and is proud of you.

Rt. Hon. Speaker, as we start the second half of the 9th Parliament, some of the urgent and most important legislations we must address at the very beginning are Constitutional and Electoral Reforms.

The reforms are a matter of urgency, needed to give a new Electoral Commission legitimacy and sufficient time to organize credible free and fair elections. From past elections, with diminishing number of turnout of voters at every election, it is clear that majority of Ugandans have increasingly lost 

confidence  in our  electoral system and the current Electoral Commission which they see as partisan and totally controlled by the President of the Republic. The population is therefore lethargic, disgruntled and withdrawn.

In the interest of the future of our country and children, we also wish to call upon this August House and all Ugandans to start taking a hard look at the inevitable change and transition that is coming after a 30 year long one-man-rule. Most of the countries that have had the misfortune of going through similar experiences as ours have ended up in flames and turmoil. We must work hard as a country to ensure a smooth transfer of power when the time comes and avoid chaos.

Rt. Hon. Speaker, last December, this House was told and passed the motion legalizing the sending of our soldiers to South  Sudan on condition that they were going to evacuate our fellow citizens who were in danger there.

It turns out that it was a big lie. From all available information, our soldiers are in South Sudan more or less as hired mercenaries to keep an unpopular minority regime in power.

The other side opposed to the regime is accusing our country of assisting the Kirr regime to carry out ethnic cleansing or genocide against his political opponents.

They argue that they cannot engage in peace negotiations supposed to be taking place in Ethiopia when occupational Ugandan forces are killing their innocent people.  

Like most IGAD member states have done; like several Uganda’s friends from here and abroad have done, we also wish to demand that our UPDF soldiers are withdrawn from South Sudan.

We also demand that the mission of our soldiers in Somalia be reviewed and we start withdrawing them. Seven years is a long time. Other countries should also go in there and assist.    

The Rt. Hon. Speaker, we wish to state that we are going to be firm and steadfast on the issues of choosing priorities for allocation of funds in the Budget, on value for taxpayers’ money and on theft of public resources.

The focus of the Budget must be wealth and income creation, on production and welfare of the lower sections of our people.

The current Budget design gives more and too much to the small so-called middle class, a largely parasitic group that hardly invests in production, in industry and agriculture. That group will take ages to make Uganda a middle income country or to achieve anything to write home about on the 2040 Vision and Strategic Plan.  

Thank you.

RT. Hon. Wafula Oguttu Phillip.

Leader of Opposition