| The President of the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) party, Major-General Mugisha Muntu, has attributed the fluctuations in the prices of sugarcane to absence of quality control methods which keeps on drawing the crop growers and processors in dilemma, especially in the Busoga sub-region.
Gen Muntu, who is camping in Luuka District for party mobilisation and sensitisation of people on the importance of change in the country, says they need to study the interventions clearly and influence policy formulation to make meaningful decisions in case they take power.
Addressing a news conference in Iganga town on Wednesday, Gen Muntu said on their trail in the Busoga sub-region, they established that there are related problems like in other region but the area also has unique concerns which need to be addressed with urgency.
"Much as it is around sugarcane in this area, other regions are also having issues with crops like tea," he said.
"There have been a lot of fluctuations of prices of sugarcane and I understand that it was costing around Shs245,000 in January and now it is around Shs165,000 per tonne and this is a bigger fluctuation which impacts the growers of this crop yet factories are mushrooming in the area."
Muntu said the leaders in the country are currently emphasising self-interests as opposed to how leaders should handle interests of the people in the country, stressing that no political party can change the country unless they have focused leaders who are ready to change and prioritize the public interests.
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"The problem though is the men and women who are not honest but if we have people who are honest with integrity and care about their country right from village level, they can influence development," Muntu, who fought in the bush war that brought the current government to power in 1986, said.
"Most people don't grow sugarcane but they have permits to sell sugarcane and most of such people are politician who operate with influence. There is no party which can change this country unless it has men and women who are driven by public interests rather than self-interest."
The ANT coordinator for Eastern region, Mr Hannington Basakana, told the news briefing that as part of their continuous trek around the country to build roots from the ground level, the party invites opinion leaders and any Ugandan willing to dialogue with them regardless of the political party they belong to.
"Those willing to come and listen to us, we dialogue in the hope that those who choose to join us can be recruited into the party," Basakana said.
"There are those who may not join us but when they understand us, they may find us good candidates to cooperate with in different future circumstances in reworking the politics of this country."
The ANT leaders led by Gen Muntu wind-up their mobilisation in Busoga today in Luuka before heading to other regions of West Nile, Acholi, Teso, Bukedi, Buganda, among others.
