Birigwa begs cash from public to fund meeting

Opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party chairman Wasswa Birigwa has turned to the general public to fund his upcoming extraordinary delegates conference after party officials at Najjanankumbi  refused to fund the same.

While addressing journalists at Busaabala beach near Kampala yesterday, Mr Birigwa said the extraordinary conference will go as planned with the help of different contributions and donations.

“Money has never been the number one problem I have. If there is a will, there is a way. As I speak to you now, I said to our delegates, friends, and everybody else, this is your party, donate whatever you can, and by the way we already have two bulls donated for the occasion, “he said.

He added: “We also received 30 bunches of matooke, so you are telling me we can fail to have a delegates’ conference. Some people go to places and sit under a tree and have a meeting and we can do the same thing. So as far as having the funds to do this, the owners of the party will definitely contribute and if you can, you too please, hopefully by the end of this [press conference] I will give you a number that you can send money to.”

The party chairman also called upon the secretary general, Mr Nandala Mafabi, among others, to contribute towards the extraordinary conference.

“This is not our conference per se, it is an FDC special extraordinary conference, so I hope the Nandala Mafabi’s and others who have the funds will find it necessary to release the money, which I know they do have,” he said.

Mr Birigwa said: “We feel there is an emergency or a need to call the owners of this party to come and make decisions on the way forward. The conference will take place as scheduled on the September 19 at Natures Green Beach Resort Busaabala.”

Mr Birigwa owns the resort.

He said Chapter 5, Section 23 of the FDC constitution gives the party chairman powers to convene an extraordinary meeting.

The same constitution under section 5 (a-d) further demands that the said extraordinary meeting shall be convened by the chairperson in any of the following circumstances; when the chairperson so decides, receipt of a petition from one-half of the district executive committees, on receipt of a petition from 30 percent of delegates from at least 50 percent of all districts in the country and a request from the national executive committee.

At the same press conference, Ms Proscovia Salaamu Musumba, the FDC vice chairperson for Eastern Region,  was asked whether or not the Busaabala beach venue would be free of charge since it belongs to the party chairman.

“We will not take it free of charge, we will take it into consideration because 1,000 people in a place use water and so we don’t expect free things. We are a political party and we are duty bound to pay for services we require not at commercial rate but at a complimentary rate,” she said yesterday.

Ms Musumba said so far, their working budget for the meeting is Shs250m.

Last week, the Najjanankumbi-led faction declined to give Mr Birigwa Shs638.2m that he had reportedly sought to cater for the said extraordinary conference on grounds that the governing organs of the party were not informed in advance.

But Mr Birigwa during the press conference, claimed the budget that was rejected by Mr Mafabi was drafted by the same people who rejected it.

“….. this was their budget because they are the ones who prepared it and I endorsed it and these are the same people who rejected it. It was worked by the secretary general [Mr Nandala], which I can prove….,” he said

Efforts to reach Mr Mafabi were futile as he did not answer our phone calls by press time.

But Mr John Kikonyogo, the deputy spokesperson of FDC, told this publication that the public is allowed to contribute to a delegate’s conference before insisting that whatever is collected, has to be channeled through the proper party channels.

“Fundraising is allowed in the FDC but we have a deputy treasurer general in- charge of fundraising, so any amount of money you fundraise has to be taken to the deputy treasurer general, he hands it over to the party, he puts it on the account and then you can requisition and they give it to you,”Mr Kikonyongo said last evening by telephone.

Sources told this publication that the working committee of the FDC party held a meeting yesterday. But Mr Kikonyogo did not delve into details.

“The working committee sat today (yesterday) although I did not finish it personally. I had to leave and go do other things. They were supposed to meet with the cabinet and chairman’s office but the chairman was busy addressing a press conference at his place,” he said.

According to Mr Birigwa, the list of those invited to his conference include; the chairman of the national Electoral Commission, political parties represented in Parliament and also the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) headed by Gen Mugisha Muntu.

Others invited are those in academia, the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament and civil society organisations.

Background

 The once-largest opposition political party has in the recent past been embroiled in internal wars that have seen two contrasting camps emerging, with one sitting at Najjanankumbi and another at Katonga Road.  Senior party officials for the last two months have been at each other’s throats, accusing each other – but without providing proof -of pocketing huge sums of money allegedly from State House to disorganise the party.

The climax of the feud started in mid-July when the party spokesperson Ibrahim Ssemujju, accused senior party colleagues including party president Patrick Oboi Amuriat and the secretary general, Mr Nandala, of having received “dirty money” from President Museveni ahead of the 2021  polls, which money was allegedly hidden at Dr Kizza Besigye’s home in Kasaganti.

MP Ssemujju claimed part of the money was used to buy brand-new cars that they used in the campaigns.

Mr Nandala and Mr Amuriat have since denied ever receiving the said “dirty money” from Mr Museveni.