I AM THE SAVIOUR FOR THE PEOPLE OF UGANDA, SAYS BIDANDI SSALI

Monday, 25th October, 2010
By Andante Okanya and Brian Mayanja New Vision, Kampala, Uganda THE presidential candidate of the People’s Progressive Party, Jaberi Bidandi Ssali, has said he is the saviour Uganda needs today to succeed President Yoweri Museveni who liberated the country. Speaking at his first campaign rally at Kamwokya Park Yard Market in Kampala yesterday, Bidandi Ssali, 73, said Museveni should bring an end to his illustrious political career as the time for liberation was over. “Museveni came to liberate Uganda. I have come to save it. He has done his best, but he has gone off the rails of proper leadership,” Bidandi Ssali said. Bidandi Ssali, who was accompanied by his wife, Susan, said he was compelled to return to elective politics in 2008 after realising that the country needed a new breed of leadership. In November 2004, Bidandi Ssali resigned as the second vice-chairperson of the NRM after the party’s national executive committee endorsed the removal of presidential term limits. Bidandi Ssali, the longest serving local government minister in the NRM government and former political strategist and confidante of Museveni, was dropped from the Cabinet in 2006. In 2008, he formed PPP, and was endorsed to contest for the presidency in February this year. The veteran politician defended his relationship with Museveni. “There is no bad blood between me and Museveni. It is the principles that are my main concern. That is why we disagreed and fell out,” he said. Flanked by officials from his party, Bidandi Ssali took a swipe at the ruling NRM, arguing that the recent controversy that was witnessed in the party’s primaries gives them no moral ground to continue running the affairs of the state.