By Charles Katabalwa/Umoja Standard.
Najjanankumbi, Uganda: Uganda’s oldest opposition party Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has blamed government for keeping deaf ear on fuel Crisis as well as lower Agriculture budgetary figures which has complicated Uganda’s economy.
The blame has been sounded by the party president Patrick Oboi Amuriat during the press conference at party headquarters Najjanankubi when giving his Christmas and end of Year message, he wished a happy Christmas and a prosperous new year 2023 to all party members and Ugandans at Large.
“As the economy was making a recovery from the tough times, the global prices of fuel shot up exponentially and this has had a trickle-down effect on commodities price indexes but the regime has instead of intervening to manage the crisis of fuel prices kept a deaf ear, leaving the decision in the hands of speculative businessmen hence causing more problems to Ugandans” says Amuriati.
He revealed, “government Agriculture Budgetary figures are still lower compared to what’s supposed to make the realization of agricultural mechanization, saying the Agro-Industrialization takes eighth position on the budgetary priorities list clearly showing the lack of political will from the government to push it further to help more Ugandans benefits because it is among the top employers of people in the country and most contributors to Country’s GDP “.
“The 2003 AU Maputo Protocol where our country committed to allocating 10% of our National Budgetary resources to agricultural and rural development remains a farfetched dream. Instead, we have been treated to ill financed community development programs like Parish Development Model which like the others before has turned into a gimmick intended to hoodwink Ugandans” Oboi added
On the same presser he highlighted on the overall security, saying the year 2022 saw the resurrection of high insecurity and inter-communities skirmishes in Karamoja region coupled with cattle rustling and a whole lot of human rights violations largely by the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) in the name of enforcement of the law and order with the suspects some injured other put out of action.
A government press release in September referred to 400 deaths, while the Karamoja Development Forum counted 600 deaths between 2019 and July 2021.
“As FDC we believe a lasting holistic solution with political will in hindsight is dialogue of warring factions, social economic interventions by IGAD member states, which would be the case of ushering the whole region into transformation other than embarking on arms disarmament campaigns which has been on going forever without lasting peace” says Amuriat
The last quarter saw a series of Security instalments attacks by unknown assailants majorly in areas of Luwero where some security operatives have lost their lives ,this led to the Uganda Police Force top leadership resorted to merging of numerous police posts in an effort to protect their officers’ lives from errant attacks saying the vacuum left behind in these areas has made them susceptible to criminality more especially in these times of economic hardship faced Nation wide, so some criminal elements are taking advantage of the situation to terrorize the communities.
“Our concern is Mr. Museveni is blaming these attacks on opposition leaders. This has been Musevenis trick of arresting and detaining members of the opposition in order to suppress our voices” says Oboi
While commenting of environment, Amuriat revealed that Uganda is one of the most naturally endowed countries on earth, boosting of diversity in flora and fauna, but in the recent most of this has been gradually eroded and destroyed while the authorities that be are on looking that is forest, wetland and bushes and shrubs which must change in 2023 to save environment.
“According to statistics from National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) Uganda’s wetland cover has reduced from 15.5% to 13% within a space of 28 years.
In total, between 1990 and 2010, Uganda lost 37.1% of its forest cover, or around 1,763,000 ha. Uganda’s forests contain 109 million metric tons of carbon in living forest biomass.
“In recent times most lakes Victoria, Kyoga, Albert and rivers have burst their banks which is majorly attributed to an increase in erratic rains increasing the water volumes” he says
“As the FDC we continue to run our campaign dubbed “greening Uganda”
We have so far planted more than 500,000 trees across the country and we shall continue planting more in 2023.
However, he disclosed that “the year 2022 has been a rather tough one from the political rag tags, the ragged terrain though with some positives to bank on, the struggle for democracy continues nevertheless, our beloved Uganda’s Mother Nature has continued to gift us with so much of its fresh breathing air, the bright Sun and the rains which have been pertinent to the growing of food to feed the ever growing Ugandan 40million plus population”
He assured the party members that the FDC’s continued struggle to achieve democracy and the rule of law in the country will continue even well knowing that all the institutions of the State are fully captured by people posturing as the country’s survivors. The state has as always been in cahoots with security machinery and an array of operatives like the RDCs in the practice of jailing, beating, and shooting at political actors and the supporters whose only crime was to stand up to the truth and exercise their constitutional rights as enshrined in Chapter Four of the National constitution.