Why Nandala denied FDC Chairman funds to organise delegates conference

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | There will be no delegates conference this month, Nathan Nandala Mafabi, the Forum for Democratic Change-FDC  Secretary-General has confirmed.

Mafabi has turned down a request to fund the delegate’s conference organised by the National Chairperson, Ambassador Wasswa Birigwa, saying it is not a party meeting.

Nandala says that the notice for the conference was run without the knowledge of their President who is the Chief Executive Officer of the Party and the Treasurer General who is responsible for the party finances.

Nandala says that it seems the party Chairman is following the resolution of Dr. Kiiza Besigye and 17 other party members including the party Vice President in charge of Buganda region Erias Lukwago, the Deputy Secretary General Harold Kaija, the party Spokesperson Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda who have previously held press conferences at Besigye’s Katonga Office and Fairway Hotel respectively.

“…Katonga is not an organ or structure of FDC that the Chairman has to implement its resolutions. This clearly shows that according to you, the leaders of those two press conferences are above National Council, which is not the case in the FDC Constitution” writes Nandala adding that the party Chairman who has held the position for eight years had the time to call for a delegate meeting but chooses to do so now when his term is ending.

“At this critical time, you are enhancing disharmony and implementing the roadmap of the Katonga and Fairway Press Conferences which contravenes Article 28 (1) (b) (iii) of the FDC Constitution,” argued Nandala. He says there that since the summoned delegates meeting is not a party meeting, the party working committee resolved that the party cannot fund the extraordinary delegates conference, amidst financial constraints faced by the party.

He says this is so because the Conference “is not budgeted for and you (Birigwa) have no authority to cause liability to the party by claims of third parties”. It’s more than two months now and the FDC is embroiled in conflict with top party officials exchanging tantrums publicly. The origin of the pandemonium is the allegation that Nandala brought money into the party from the ruling government without proper accountability for it. The allegation has put Nandala, Eng Patrick Oboi Amuriat, the party president, and their sympathizers against the party founding President Dr Kiiza Besigye, and his adherents.  The party’s National Chairman is scheduled to address the press tomorrow Wednesday on the fate of the Delegates Conference.

Birigwa wrote to the Secretary-General on August 24, 2023, requesting over Shillings 638.2 million to facilitate a delegates’ conference scheduled for September 19th, 2023.

Birigwa expected 1970 participants including 1560 delegates and 410 other guests to attend the meeting. However, Nandala wrote back on September 02, 2023, declining the request by the party Chairman. Nandala says that Birigwa ran a notice in the papers calling for an extraordinary Delegates Meeting “without knowledge of any party organ including the Secretary-General who is the Principal Accounting Officer of the Party under Article 28 (4) (b) (i) and Secretary to the National Delegates Conference in accordance with Article 28 (4) (b) (iii)…”

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