The Opposition Justice Forum (JEEMA) has appealed to sister opposition political parties to stop playing to the gallery and act in the interest of Ugandans by attending the Interparty Platform for Dialogue (IPOD) s summit.
JEEMA’s call follows a planned move by the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) to withdraw from the summit questioning the agenda as well as reports that the Democratic Party could also boycott the summit.
The contentious long awaited summit is set to take place on December 12 at State House Entebbe after President Museveni and Chairman of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) agreed to be part of the meeting having spent a lot of years expressing no interest in the forum.
The Secretary General for JEEMA, Muhamad Kateregga in a statement noted that the opposition should stop working disjointly but act for the good of Ugandans
“It should be noted that before JEEMA’s brief exit from the IPOD, we had decried the lack of meeting of the summit as the NRM Chairman Mr. Yoweri Museveni was never available for IPOD issues,” Kateregga said.
“It’s that position we found on the table when we were readmitted to the platform this year and our efforts were geared at seeing all IPOD internal processes are actualized,” he said.
Katerega wondered how two of the biggest opposition parties could suddenly turn around on a decision (to hold the summit) which was taken unanimously in a previous meeting.
“I wish to state that all member parties agreed to hold the Summit with the top most leadership of NRM under their Chairman Yoweri Museveni, (not as Head of State) because some members did not feel comfortable with it based on the outcomes of the 2016 Presidential elections,” Katerega said.
He said this has been the position ever since the resolution was made and that there has not been any other meeting to amend or quash the summit slated for next week.
“On that note, we wish to call upon our colleagues to respect the outcomes of the meeting we have had in preparations of the summit much as we as a party do not expect much to be agreed on based on the nature and handling of State affairs by the NRM”.
He as well called upon the party leaders to urgently bring back any outstanding issues to the IPOD Council so that the next course of action can be agreed upon instead of appearing to be acting in a disjointed manner.
“The electorate we claim to represent through our parties are watching our every step. They desire to see more order amongst us, even in disagreement,” the
JEEMA Secretary General said.
He said that there is no subject too difficult to discuss, a notion he said his party believes strongly in.
IPOD is a platform that brings together all political parties that have representation in Parliament and these include; FDC, DP, NRM, JEEMA and Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC).
Last month, President Museveni hosted members of IPOD at State House in Entebbe, including representatives from JEEMA, UPC and NRM. During the meeting, both FDC and DP were not represented.
