{Kampala: President Museveni has claimed that he is the leader of the “Go Forward” movement, saying it is himself and the ruling National Resistance Movement, taking Uganda forward and not the group led by former Prime Minister John Patrick Amama Mbabazi.}
Addressing the press at Entebbe State House, this afternoon, Mr Museveni said the party has been going forward from way back during the revolution days and wondered if Amama was not aware of that.
“Some people are asking for change. This means changing direction, which we have been doing all along. When you hear others say “GoForward”, you wonder which forward they are talking about. We have been going forward all this time. What forward are you talking about?” he asked, adding:-
“We have been moving forward from the revolution to removing bottlenecks. In fact we would have moved more forward if you (Mbaabzi) were not confusing somethings while you were the Prime Minster.”
At his debut rally yesterday, however, Mr Mbabazi explained that the Go Forward movement, the pressure group under which he is running for President as an Independent, is intended to deliver Uganda a peaceful transition, and make Uganda work for everybody, among other things.
But at his press conference, Mr Museveni insisted that going forward, it is the NRM government, which has the ability and capacity to fight corruption in Uganda.
“NRM has a strong historical and political base to fight embezzlement and abuse office. This is because NRM does not fear anyone. Those running around with change and go foward slogans have no ability to fight corruption. They invite everyone in their camp,” he said.
He, however, admitted his government being dented with isolated incidents of embezzlement of public funds and abuse of public office.
“This is because corruption is practiced in a covert way. What we need are new soldiers to deal with that problem. New soldiers like, Permanent secretaries, auditors and accountants, among others,” he said.
According to him, all the civil servants need to be removed and replaced with freedom fighters who will work on behalf of, will and in the interest of citizens.
“I’m a freedom fighter and not a politician or a civil servant. We (the freedom fighters) liberated this country and employed civil servants to run it. So, when you talk of embezzlement, who is embezzling? It’s you the civil servants. It is because of this corruption that I started recruiting non civil servants like [UNRA executive director] Allen Kagina, mulokole and [KCCA executive director] Jennifer Musisi.
Mr Museveni further observed that his government has been able to contain crimes like rape and extrajudicial killings that had become rampant in the past governments.
“We fought things like rape and extra judicial killings. We are only remaining with embezzlement which is also under attack,” he said.
DAILY MONITOR
Leave a Reply