For the first time, opposition strongman and former Forum for Democratic Change presidential candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye has responded to President Yoweri Museveni’s remarks late last month, that he is not a servant of Ugandans.
Speaking during the Liberation Day celebrations in Masindi last month, President Museveni said he has never been a servant of any Ugandan but a freedom fighter who works for his own beliefs.
Addressing journalists on Friday along Katonga Road in Kampala, Besigye said Museveni has never been a freedom fighter but rather a self seeker.
“He has never been a freedom fighter because when a freedom fighter gets to government, they become servants yet Museveni is not one,” Besigye told a news conference on Friday.
“Servant leadership is a philosophy with a set of practices, where you have to put the needs of others first not like the one of Mr. Museveni. What we have is a predatory regime. We are in trouble.”
Besigye said that President Museveni cannot be a servant of the people because a number of policies initiated by government don’t favor the population but the big wigs in government .
Citing the land laws, the four time presidential candidate said that the land grabbing taking toll in many villages has forced people to come to Kampala in search for jobs which has exerted pressure on the resources in the central business district.
“We have an explosive crisis brewing up and will explode over land. Government and people in government have been grabbing land for a long time which is frightening.”
He said the main achievement of the 1995 constitution was transfer of ownership of land from government to private ownership but said the intended constitutional reviews would only do harm.
According to the opposition strongman, there are efforts by government to amend the Constitution so that government can acquire any piece of land from anyone and not fairly compensated.
He said this act of using government valuers to determine the worth of land for individuals is unfair because on many occasions government can influence them (valuers) to under value the land.