By Our Reporter
NATIONAL
Dr. Patrick Wakida, the Chief Executive Director of Research World International and a former Forum for Democratic (FDC) Think Tanker who formally crossed to the NRM Party has justified his move.
Wakida who crossed to the ruling NRM party on Monday, 11th November, 2024 says his urge to fight perennial poverty in Kibuku informed his decision.
“I grew up in Kibuku and every time I have worked out there, I have remembered that as a Statistician, Kibuku is the poorest area where you go in a house and smell poverty! That is why I took a decision to work with NRM to look for power and neutralize poverty,” Wakida wrote on his X-Handle on Tuesday, 12th November.
He also promised to deliver for his new Political Party saying, “I promise the @NRMOnline that I will deliver. I do not want to go where they don’t deliver. Those who have interacted with me know that I deliver.”
The former NRM critic reveals that he has already been appointed by the President as a Director on the Uganda Investment Board.
Meanwhile, Emmanuel Dombo, the NRM Secretariat Director of Communications agrees with Dr. Wakida saying, Bukedi region is the poorest region in Uganda.
“They don’t have any perennial crop, the soils are old and swampy, and the educated are fixated on looking for white collar jobs! We need some knee-jerk solutions. The recently adopted Bukedi region strategic plan will be the ans,” he wrote back on X.
Dr. Wakida was received by NRM Party National Chairman, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, at the local leaders meeting in Butaleja district headquarters.
Dr. Wakida has been a critical think tanker in the opposition FDC party and hails from Kibuku district. He pledged to work closely with NRM government in combating poverty levels within the Bukedi region.
“NRM tolerates others and the only way of paying them back is to join them. I am here to work with anyone in NRM but not to fight within NRM,” he stressed before adding that he was aware of the likely attacks from his former side but vowed he is ready to counter them.
“I therefore denounce all my positions in FDC today and officially announce that I have accepted to join NRM willingly. I am also in talks with others to follow,” said a visibly excited Wakida.
