Former Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Mathias Mpuuga has said no one will force him out of National Unity Platform and accused some party leaders of pursuing selfish interests at the expense of working to overthrow the ruling National Resistance Movement party.
Addressing a press conference in Kampala on Tuesday morning, Mpuuga, whose NUP party wants to replace as a Commissioner of Parliament over corruption allegations, said he is ready to push for internal party democracy and will not follow instructions from some party leaders.
“I’m here to assure the country and NUP members that I’m still a member of NUP. No one will force me out of NUP. In the coming days, I’ll embark on streamlining the operations of the party. We have to follow the party policies and rules, and not instructions,” he said.
Mpuuga, who is also the NUP vice president for central region, claimed that his party president, Bobi Wine, has not met him for a discussion about the corruption allegations.
RELATED STORIES
“I have not had a meeting with my party leader [Bobi Wine ]. I have only been hearing him speak [about our meeting] at funerals, the media, among others, trying to convince the country to believe that I’m a terrible human being but the country has refused to believe that. I would want to meet him,” he said.
NUP has written to the Clerk to Parliament, Adolf Mwesige, seeking to replace Mpuuga as Parliament Commissioner over corruption allegations after he and other Parliament Commissioners of the ruling NRM awarded themselves Shs1.7b as a service award.
Uganda’s biggest opposition political party says Mpuuga admitted to the corrupt act and apologized following a meeting. But it says he has refused to resign. It has now written to Parliament, seeking to replace him as a Commissioner with Mityana Municipality MP Francis Zaake.
But Mpuuga at the press conference denied any wrong doing and asked the party leadership to handle internal issues maturely.
“When we find ourselves disagreeable in our midst as a party, as change-seeking forces, we must find mechanisms for mature resolution which is different from grandstanding and desire to set political scores at the expense of reputations of comrades with whom we struggle to offer the country better leadership, he said.
“In the current circumstances that we are observing, General Museveni has been candid with us, at least over his dynasty agenda, including the latest reshuffles in the UPDF that saw his son ascend to the helm of the country’s military. Unfortunately, the largest political opposition party in the country looks clueless.
We should be embarking on a joint push for major reforms in our electoral laws and constitutional shifts to enable diaspora citizen participation in our electoral activities beyond manipulating the change agenda by selfish individuals.”
