The Forum for Democratic Change, Uganda’s biggest opposition political party by parliamentary representation, Monday launched its grand policy shift, dubbed ‘Uganda’s Leap Forward’, designed to project FDC as the party of the “future.”

Politicians across the divide, foreign dignitaries, civil society luminaries and other notables turned up to witness FDC lay down a four-point agenda switch which revolves around bringing positive change to the lives of Ugandans.

At the function, Mugisha Muntu, its president, directed a veiled attack at President Yoweri Museveni who was represented by Ms Kasule Lumumba, the NRM Secretary-General, noting that Uganda’s progress should not be measured by failures of the past but the promise of the future.

“The challenge of our time is not so much about whether we haven’t made progress but that the current regime measures progress in relation to where we are coming from rather than where we should be,” he said.

President Museveni likes to quote the pre-1986 events and compares them to what Uganda has gained today.

Gen Muntu likened the progress of NRM’s 29 years in power to a bus journey from Kampala to Nairobi.

“A bus journey from Kampala to Nairobi is 10 hours but the 10th hour the bus is in Iganga. When you ask the driver why we are still in Iganga, he says but we were in Kampala. The answer is we should have been in Nairobi.”

Ms Lumumba’s presence at the event caught some by surprise, given that leaders of the ruling party and those in the FDC rarely attend each other’s functions.

Ms Lumumba was attentive even as she sat between Uganda Federal Alliance party leader Betty Kamya and Conservative Party leader Ken Lukyamuzi.

In a later interview, she thanked FDC for inviting her and asked them to reciprocate when the NRM makes similar gestures.

“I want to thank FDC for inviting me and as leaders of political parties, we should keep up the spirit. What they have said is ideal but there are other policies, so I encourage them to work with NRM,” she said.

Former Makerere University Guild President Anna Adeke Ebaju also delivered a speech in which she spoke passionately about the plight of the youth.

“There is a deliberate effort to cripple the youth in this country through envelopes, patronage, handouts and sacks of money. We want to disassociate ourselves from this system of patronage that has destroyed our country,” said Ms Adeke.

-Daily Monitor