The Leader of the Opposition in Parliament (LoP), Joel Ssenyonyi, has declared that opposition members will boycott President Museveni’s upcoming State of the Nation Address scheduled for Thursday.
Ssenyonyi announced the decision following a private shadow cabinet meeting held in the opposition boardroom at parliament on Tuesday.
President Museveni is set to address the nation on June 6 at the Kololo Independence Grounds.
“The Shadow Cabinet has held a meeting and we have agreed not to attend the State of the Nation Address and budget speech,” Ssenyonyi stated on Tuesday.
Ssenyonyi criticized Museveni’s addresses as predictable and lacking substance, thus not warranting opposition attendance.
“The State of the Nation Address has become ritualistic. Museveni repeats the same things he said in the 1990s and early 2000s. I have already prepared my response because I know what he is going to say,” he told journalists.
Additionally, Ssenyonyi announced that his team would boycott the presentation of the 2024/25 national budget, which was approved in a plenary session on May 16 chaired by Speaker Anita Among.
The budget speech is set for next week at Kololo.
“We submitted our ministerial policy statements that contribute to the budget and presented our minority report highlighting what the budget should focus on,” Ssenyonyi explained.
“Our views were ignored. We are advocating for a reduction in consumptive expenditure to improve service delivery,” he added.
Despite the opposition’s annual boycott of the State of the Nation and budget addresses, the events continue as planned.
