It’s not the Shs500 million that is going to transform this country—Sseggona weighs in on NUP-Mpuuga stand-off

National Unity Platform (NUP) lawyer and Busiro East Member of Parliament, Medard Lubega Sseggona, has said that the corruption allegations against former Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Mathias Mpuuga, have been handled in a speedy and somewhat shabby manner.

Sseggona, who expressed his disdain for hearing the words ‘theft and corruption’ being associated with Mpuuga, stated that the position of Leader of the Opposition is high-ranking and deserves to be entitled to terminal benefits.

“The Leader of the Opposition is the only high-ranking officer in parliament who didn’t have terminal benefits. Others like the Prime Minister have lifelong benefits,” said Sseggona while appearing on NBS TV this morning.

He added, “As LOP, you need resources to operate. We are now moving slowly but steadily. It’s not this Shs500 million that is going to transform this country.”

Sseggona further revealed that currently, they’re facing a situation of two powerful people (Mpuuga and NUP President Robert Kyagulanyi) in the party (NUP) going against each other. He advised them to cease the bickering.

“It takes a lot of time to build a good leader, but a good leader can be destroyed in one day. The time will come when you will look for this leader but you won’t find them, like FDC with Mugisha Muntu,” he said.

Last week, NUP asked Mpuuga to step down from his current position (parliamentary commissioner), accusing him of corruption and abuse of office after he was allocated Shs500 million by Parliament as his ‘Service Award’.

In response, Mpuuga declined to step down, explaining that the said money was granted to him by the Parliamentary Commission as gratuity and thus he cannot be accused of any crime.