Kira Municipality Member of Parliament, Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda has revealed that the quality of most of his fellow legislators is worrying since almost 85 percent of them cannot address issues on the floor of the House.
The former opposition Chief Whip made the revelation over the weekend on CBS FM. He said that out of the 500 plus members of the August House, only 100 members can vividly debate issues at the national level in a satisfying manner.
“In Uganda, we are facing a dangerous problem that many people see politics as a lucrative business, which is not true. Parliament needs people that are well polished. But electorates normally send people to Parliament who cannot even chair a village meeting.
I have one member who has always asked me to help him speak but whenever I ask him to stand, he pleads with me to leave him because he is not ready. So over 300 members fall in such a category who cannot debate but they are waiting to say yes or no depending on what the majority wants,” The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) Spokesperson said.
Ssemujju added that electorates must be blamed because they always elect incompetent people relying on petty reasons which don’t make their elected members worth sitting in the country’s House of honor.
“So many voters based their votes on who normally attends burials, who attend weddings, and who attend vigils most. They forgot that in Parliament we don’t come to attend burials or wedding meetings or vigils but we come to design policies on which the country thrives, so if we have such qualities as most burial attendants in the House, expect nothing useful from such a parliament.
Late Dr. Okule Epak was representing Oyamu South but in his last two terms, he did not campaign nor print any posters because he was a well-polished legislator and his people trusted him and they could not risk changing him with burial attendants. Even the late Prof Apollo Nsibambi respected his integrity in the way he explained issues in Parliament.”
“We have not trained or groomed our people like how UPC used to do. This is the problem we are facing now and we are going to pay a heavy price for it,” he added.
The leader of the Opposition Matias Mpuuga also agreed with Nganda’s submission and noted that in the Hansard, they are few names of people who speak and debate issues in the Parliament of over 500 members.
“Most of the Members of Parliament we have are there to say yes or raise a hand but not debating or diagnosing the policy or state issues, or a bill before passing it. This is one of the most dangerous waves the country is facing now. The quality of our members is much wanting,” he said.
Mpuuga added that as a way of improving the quality of members especially those on the opposition, he has developed a training program for newly elected MPs to sharpen them on how the House moves.
“In my first nine months, I first accepted that my MPs are young in age and politically immature and as their leader, it’s incumbent upon me to ensure quality in them by training and orienting them on several issues. And those that have embraced this idea, have really changed.”
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