President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has commended the people of Busoga for taking part in the protracted struggle that brought the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government into power in 1986.
“I want to thank the people of Busoga because they took part in our struggle. In 1972, I was with Eng. Sam Kasadha. First of all, we went to Busesa, we turned to the left and went inside where we had a group. We also had William Nkoko, Rashid Ntale and James Mbigit, who drove a tipper for us, then in Jinja town here, we had Badru Lubanga, the photographer. In the second round, we had the likes of Mzee Kivejinja and they supported us all the time and after the victory you have been supporting the NRM,” he said.
The President who was in company of the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Maama Janet Museveni, made the remarks while officiating at the 38th NRM victory anniversary celebrations held in Jinja City at St. John SSS Wakitaka Playgrounds in Jinja Northern Division. The commemoration ran under the theme: “Building a Country we all cherish”.
President Museveni noted that he was happy that Ugandans were celebrating this year’s victory day in Jinja, attributing the decision to the support the people of Busoga have been giving to the ruling government.
He however urged wanainchi to listen carefully to the NRM message if they are to overcome poverty and create wealth for their homesteads. He emphasized the need to embrace the four-acre model with calculation in order to enhance their livelihoods.
“When I came here in 2018, I told you what you should do. You never heard me talking about sugarcanes because to recommend sugarcanes to someone with four acres or less is to condemn him to poverty; sugarcane and cotton are not crops for a person with small land. We need them but they should be grown by people with medium or large pieces of land,” the President noted.
“For the small pieces of land we recommended coffee, fruits, zero grazing for dairy cattle, food crops, then in the backyard you put pigs if you are not a Muslim, chicken for eggs, then finally fish farming, you can have fish farming in a friendly environment.”
President Museveni also cautioned the people against encroaching on swamps in the name of rice growing. He advised that swamps should be preserved so that the water from them is pumped to dry land for irrigation.
President Museveni rallied the people of Busoga to support his renewed fight against the saboteurs of the Universal Primary Education (UPE).
“On my way here, I stopped by a place called Nyenga to greet people by the road side, I asked them if the children I saw go to school, they said some, but many don not, I inquired why they dont, I was informed they were sent out of school because of fees. You remember in 1996 after that election, we introduced UPE,”
“We said government will pay it fees for school going children don’t pay any more. And we have been sending that money to these schools, but the Head Teachers and the PTA don’t respect that, they take the money and go ahead to charge fees from parents and that is how children are sent away from schools. We told these people, stop charging these parents money and if the capitation grant, we are sending is not enough say it so that we add more,” he added.
President Museveni told the people of Busoga that in the coming Financial Year, the government will start a new campaign to deal with the issue.
“But I want support from all of you so that we don’t tolerate anybody who undermines that program.”
President Museveni also revealed that during the Nyenga stopover, the residents informed him together with Maama Janet that they have never received the Parish Development Model (PDM) funds, thus noting that, “So Maama Janet said she will go back to that particular place with the MP of the area to find out what happened to the money of Parish. That was free Intelligence from the wanainchi.”
“Then they told me that this road from the Bridge to Mukono through Buikwe was finished two years ago but potholes have started developing and indeed I started to see the potholes when I was coming. So, I want Gen. Katumba to find out what happened, we have just finished that road.”
On the issue of missing drugs in government health facilities, the President assured the people of Busoga that the government is going to check and deal with the matter.
“I will come back to Busoga for a regional tour so that we can discuss more. Now the other issue is peace, that one is assured with the army directly involved.
For the jobs for the young people, I urge you to among other things adopt the method of commercial agriculture like the method of Nyakana in Fort Portal, you can employ 10 people like him. We have like 9 million families in Uganda, let us say the ones in the villages are 7 million, and most of them have land. If each one employs 10 people, we shall have 70 million jobs, more than the population of Uganda, we shall have to import more workers from other countries.”
President Museveni assured the people of Busoga that the government was in plans to work on the major roads in the subregion.
“There are many roads we want to do but we shall start with the major ones like the Jinja Bridge- Budondo- Butagaya-Matumu road, Kamuli to Bukungu, Iganga through Luuka to Kamuli and Kaliro.”
President Museveni also noted that the government was aware of the opposition that uses some Ugandans for their ill and selfish motives.
This was after, an accident victim, Moses Ssimbwa, was paraded before the President during the celebrations and confessed that he was used by the opposition to falsely accuse the government of torture.
“I’m a victim whom they took to Nairobi to claim that I was tortured by the Ugandan government. I’m here to ask for forgiveness for all that happened. The politicians use us because we want money. I am here today to expose the dirty linen of the opposition. They took me to a conference in Kenya, they told me to accuse government of torture. I said so because I needed money. Mr. President, I’m very sorry for all that I did. I spent 3 years in hiding until I called Hon. Babalanda for help because my health situation was not good. My leg got injured in the accident but not torture,” Mr. Ssimbwa said.
In response, President Museveni said, “At the right time we are going to expose this group, the opposition. They go talk with Europeans to see how to force Uganda to be a foreign puppet, but they don’t know how strong the NRM is. Like some people announced that we are not giving more money to Uganda, but we are moving forward because of the strength which we have, we built it on our own with the support of our two brothers Mwalimu Nyerere and Samora Machel.”
During the event, 52 people received medals and one of the medalists was the former Kyabazinga of Busoga His Royal Highness Henry Wako Muloki who contributed greatly and largely in the external wing of the struggle.
The ceremony was also attended by the Chief Justice, His Lordship Alfonse Owiny-Dollo, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Rt Hon. Thomas Tayebwa, the NRM First Vice National Chairman, Alhajj Moses Kigongo, the 3rd Deputy Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. Rukia Nakadama, Ministers, Members of Parliament, Members of the Diplomatic Corps, security agencies leadership, religious and cultural leaders, among others.
