Reagan Okumu, the Deputy President of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party has described presidential aspirant Amama Mbabazi as a friendly force.
Addressing journalists in Gulu town on Wednesday, Okumu said the FDC will not attack the former Prime Minister since the main agenda of the Opposition in the forthcoming elections is to defeat and dislodge from power the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM).
Okumu who doubles as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Aswa County in Gulu district said Mbabazi is not an enemy of the Opposition.
Mbabazi was supported by the majority political parties in the loose Opposition alliance, The Democratic Alliance (TDA), while FDC’s Besigye got only the support of his party and that of the Conservative Party (CP).
As a result, the TDA, which had chosen consensus as a means of choosing the single Opposition presidential candidate failed in its mission.
Consequently, both Besigye and Mbabazi are likely to contest as separate candidates against President Yoweri Museveni in the coming presidential elections.
Reagan Okumu said that despite the challenges the TDA has faced, it still represents the principles that FDC and Mbabazi’s Go Forward stands for.
The legislator further said that the FDC has not left the loose coalition since both Besigye and Mbabazi are in talks.
In statement released this week, Mbabazi and Besigye said they were meeting in London to continue discussions that had began in Nairobi. The London talks, the statement said, are being held under the auspices of the Koffi Anan Foundation. Koffi Anan is a former UN Secretary General.
But in a show of how divisive Mbabazi’s presidential aspirations has been to members of Uganda’s leading Opposition party, the FDC, Gulu Municipality MP, Christopher Acire, himself an FDC member said he cannot support Amama Mbabazi . Acire faults Mbabazi for alleged involvement in a scandal in which more than 50 billion meant for post conflict recovery in northern Uganda was stolen was stolen by officials from the Office of the Prime Minister, a docket which was under Mbabazi until September 2014 when he was dropped and replaced by Dr Ruhakana Rugunda in a lone reshuffle.
By James Owich
