The newly appointed Leader of Opposition, Joel Ssenyonyi has said he doesn’t need to be on good terms with the Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among in order to succeed in his new position.
“Someone asked me how we can work together if the speaker and I are not friends. I want to tell you that don’t need to be friends with the speaker. We simply have to respect each other as leaders and fulfill our responsibilities,”Ssenyonyi said while appearing on NBS TV’s Frontline show on Thursday.
The National Unity Platform less than a week ago appointed the party spokesperson, Joel Ssenyonyi as the new Leader of Opposition in Parliament to replace Mathias Mpuuga .
Many have since opined that Ssenyonyi doesn’t have the qualities and experience in politics to qualify as LOP.
Others said Ssenyonyi is the direct opposite of Mpuuga when it comes to diplomacy that they said is so much required while handling parliamentary business.
To this, the commentators said Ssenyonyi’s assertive nature will see him clash with Speaker Anita Among.
However, commenting about the comments, Ssenyonyi insisted that his work is guided by parliament’s rule’s procedure to hold government accountable.
With the help of my colleagues, I will fulfill that role .I am here to work with my opposition colleagues in Parliament because, despite our different party affiliations, we have more similarities than differences.” he added.
Ssenyonyi earlier this year clashed with Speaker Among over the COSASE report into the operations of Uganda Airlines.
He accused Among of sweeping the probe report under the carpet.
“We submitted the report to the Speaker and the Clerk so that we could table it on the floor of Parliament. All this while, Speaker Anita Among has been saying she is studying the report, and that she will give feedback. I saw the energy used to censure Francis Zaake and now Persis Namuganza over what are largely personal issues. I wish the same energy could be applied to executing Parliament work such as committee reports.We shall not be deflated in our quest to do our work as we expose the rot in the government entities, whether the reports are eventually tabled or not,” Ssenyonyi said.
Later, Speaker Among trashed the report by COSASE headed by Ssenyonyi which she said was comprised by being leaked to the media.
He said investigations would help identify the person responsible for leaking the report.
