President of The Forum for Democratic Change Patrick Oboi Amuriat has defended the opposition political parties saying that individuals switching to the National Resistance Movement (NRM) do not represent the agenda of their former parties.
He made the comments during an interview with RX Radio’s James Onen on The Fatboy Show when commenting on the increasing number of members of the opposition crossing over to NRM.
The numbers spurred after the Democratic Party’s leader Nobert Mao joined the ruling government as the Cabinet Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs.
In recent developments, during the Soroti East campaigns, some opposition members from FDC and the National Unity Platform (NUP) have also crossed to NRM, saying they had seen the light after realizing that the FDC's top leaders had deceived them.
“It's the individual members in the opposition failing the people of Uganda, and this is not exclusive to opposition party leaders and members,” said Amuriat over the phone interview.
Further, FDC threatened to withdraw from the Inter-Party Organization for Dialogue (IPOD), claiming that the remaining political parties cannot be trusted after Nobert Mao signed a memorandum of understanding with NRM stating to work coherently with the ruling party.
“We may take a step backward from the IPOD because we cannot be convening for a dialogue with the same person who has swallowed up members of the opposition. In actual sense, we will appear to be dialoguing with a conglomerate of parties taken up by the NRM,” Amuriat explained.
However, he assured Ugandans of the political stand of the FDC. He revealed that although many members of the FDC have been approached and lured by the ruling government, some may leave and others stay, but the FDC remains.
“So we are open to dialogue but not the kind that would lead to an agreement that Mao has signed with Museveni’s NRM,” he said.
Asked what Ugandans should expect from the opposition amidst the challenges it's facing, the former Presidential candidate said Ugandans should not make conclusions from what they see because the opposition has various followers and staunch supporters throughout the country.
“Ugandans should understand that they owe themselves the responsibility of rising against the ruling regime to say that enough is enough,” he added.
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy, Olive, and Sarah every weekday from 6 am to 10 am on RX Radio.