Kyadondo East Member of parliament, Hon Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine has said that Inter Party Organization for Dialogue (IPOD) is a complete joke and a desperate attempt by Museveni.
The dialogue which was held yesterday at Protea Hotel in Entebbe with its chairman Hon Nobert Mao who is also the president of the Democratic Party (DP). Among the members who attended the meeting was the National Resistance Movement (NRM) chairman president Museveni.
“The dialogue under the Inter-Party Organization for Dialogue (IPOD) is a complete joke. It is a desperate attempt by Museveni and his regime to sanitise the impunity that he presides over in this country,” he said.
The people power revolution leader has encouraged his colleagues not to fall in Mr. Museveni’s tricks,” I encourage all friendly pro-change forces not to fall for this trick! How can we share a platform with a man who has the blood of our people on his hands and is not ready to admit and denounce it?”
He said that if they want to have dialogue with Mr. Museveni, he should first see them as Ugandans not as mere pawns on his chessboard.
“We have never been opposed to dialogue, but our stand has been and remains that it is only free people who can dialogue- PERIOD. If I am dialoguing with President Museveni, he must first of all see me as a citizen of Uganda with my full rights, and not as a slave or a mere pawn on his chessboard! You cannot have your foot on my neck and then say to me, – ‘let’s talk!’” he added.
Kyagulanyi added, “Citizens’ rights must first be respected and upheld. I say this well knowing that these rights are not a favor from any government- they are inherent!! Secondly, the people of Uganda are the true stakeholders and shareholders of this country. All leaders must never forget that. I always tell my friends that the PEOPLE ARE OUR FIRST AND LAST RESORT. Any dialogue that is worth its name must involve them and listen to them.”
The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) who are also members of the IPOD boycotted the meeting citing brutality and harsh treatment from the police, army and other security agencies.
