KAMPALA.
Jailed veteran politician and four-time presidential aspirant Dr Kizza Besigye has said the newly formed People’s Front for Freedom (PFF) party will embrace a non-violent struggle.
According to Dr Besigye , the move will ultimately enable Ugandans to regain control over the country which has for the last nearly 4 decades been ruled by one person-President Museveni . In a pre-recorded address from Luzira Maximum Prison to the conference held at the party’s headquarters in Kampala, Dr Besigye said people in the struggle either use violent means or non-violent means.
The politician who fought in the 1981-85 guerilla war that brought the current government into power in 1986 , was abducted in Nairobi, Kenya, by security personnel last November and sneaked into the country and has been charged with treason.
“The use of non-violent struggle is as potent as armed struggle, but there are fewer casualties and loss of lives. The struggle that brought Mr Museveni to power, the Bush war, is a form of violent struggle that was intended to remove dictatorship following the rigging of elections in 1980.
However, we must understand that our current struggle cannot just be to remove a dictator.
What we need goes beyond removing a dictator because Museveni’s struggle removed a dictator but did not solve the problem,” Dr Besigye said. He added: “We must replace a dictator with a system where people have power, control over decision-making, institutions, resources, and information so that they benefit everyone, not just a few individuals.
Our struggle is going to be non-violent, but this does not mean it is going to be a peaceful one.” Dr Besigye told attendees , including officials from different political parties, that PFF would focus on sensitising the masses on using non-violent methods such as defiance to achieve their goals, especially in demanding accountability and service delivery.
“If you are in a village where you are not getting services, you can use non-violent means to challenge the situation and make sure it changes. There is now a problem of land grabbing, you can organise people in the community to protect their land,” he advised.
Dr Besigye ,69 said dictators will always want to paint those who are fighting for freedom as a problem while painting the dictatorship itself as a solution to people’s problems through propaganda, which he said holds people in captivity.
Tuesday’s delegates’ conference also marked the launch of the new party, which was gazetted by the Electoral Commission (EC) in May after going back and forth, initially functioning as a splinter group of the Najjanankubi-based Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).
During the conference, the party elected a 15-member council of eminent persons led by Dr Besigye, deputised by Ambassador Wasswa Birigwa, and including veteran politicians Chapaa Karuhanga, Wafula Oguttu, Wycliffe Bakandonda, James Garuga, William Mukaira, and lawyer Laudislus Rwakafuzi, among others, as members. Mr Oguttu highlighted PFF’s vision, designed on a federal arrangement.
“There are 15 federal states. When we win power, there will be real devolution of power, and we shall govern Uganda on a federal arrangement, where resources, power, and presence for an organisation will be at the federal state level. We will do it differently, the money will go to the federal states as a percentage, not people staying in Kampala and using all the money,” he said.
The council of eminent persons is the top organ, Mr Wafula said, which will guide the national executive headed by the chairperson, Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, deputised by Nicholas Kamara, Albert Okello, Betty Aol Ocan, and Dr Lulume Bayiga.
Ms Salaam Musumba was named the speaker of the national convention/assembly, deputised by Kenneth Opoka, and Kira Municipality MP Ibrahim Ssemujju as the secretary-general and spokesperson. Mr Lukwago said what “binds the members together is the shared vision of promoting unity, freedom, national consensus, and sovereignty of the people, commitment to values of good governance, democracy, social justice, accountability, constitutionalism, and equal opportunities for all’’.
Ms Salaam Musumba, said when FDC party hit turbulence, a dedicated team of ‘12 disciples’, led by Mr Wafula, was tasked to rescue the party and or propose the way forward. The PFF conference was notably attended by stalwarts of other political parties including the Conservative Party’s Ken Lukyamuzi and the Alliance for National Transformation’s Rtd Gen Mugisha Muntu. Mr Muntu said the formation of PFF has dismantled the alleged prophecy by President Museveni that Uganda will not have opposition by 2026.
PFF new leaders
Some of the leaders of newly-registered PFF are Kampala City Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago was appointed chairperson of the National Executive and is deputised by Nicholas Kamara, Albert Okello, Betty Aol, and Dr Lulume Bayiga. Ms Salaam Musumba is the speaker of the National Convention/assembly and is deputised by Mr Kenneth Opoka. Mr Ssemujju is the secretary general, head of national mobilisation and party spokesperson. Mr Moses Tugume is the secretary of the legal, justice, human rights, defence and security commission