What is swaying the youth to NRM lately?

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OPINION

By Quillino Bamwine

The National Resistance Movement (NRM) won most of the positions in the youth village committee elections held across the country recently.

The elections were held in 71,000 villages across the country. The NRM leads in many urban areas, including Kampala, which has been an opposition stronghold.

What could be swaying the youth to NRM, yet the opposition has for long attracted this population segment. The answer could be in President Museveni’s consistency in his message on poverty eradication.

While President Museveni has preached poverty eradication as a simple household based model, his critics have for long concentrated on castigating his approach as outdated and out of touch with modernisation.

Although Museveni has tried out with several poverty eradication projects since coming to power, the latest Parish Development Model (PDM) is resonating with the youth.

Museveni has projected himself as a leader in touch with Uganda’s rural poor. His organic interactions with peasants — often involving manual labour or humble gestures — have come to define his servant leadership style.

A familiar sight has become a symbol of President Museveni’s enduring connection to the grassroots. He is often photographed carrying bundles of grass for livestock or pushing a bicycle alongside peasants. He has cultivated an image that resonates deeply with rural communities.

While critics dismiss these gestures as political theatrics, for many Ugandans, they reflect a leader who — despite decades in power — still speaks their language, literally and figuratively.

In a country where over 70% of the population depends on subsistence farming, his willingness to engage in the daily struggles of peasants sends a powerful message: “I am one of you.” Whether he’s inspecting crops, milking cows or sharing a meal in a village hut, these acts humanise a leader often accused of growing distant from the people. Museveni has also pinned poverty alleviation hopes on PDM, a programme targeting Uganda’s poorest at parish level. Launched in 2022, PDM aims at transitioning subsistence farmers into the money economy.

While the programme has faced criticism over delays and mismanagement, its intent aligns with Museveni’s grassroots narrative. The President understands that poverty isn’t erased by handouts but by empowering people where they live.

Sceptics argue that Museveni’s rural charm offensive masks systemic failures. They say carrying grass won’t f ix unemployment or corruption.

Museveni has been photographed multiple times hauling bundles of grass (for livestock feed) alongside peasants. In 2023, a viral video showed him cheerfully balancing a stack on his head, joking: “This is how we fought poverty in the 1980s — by working, not complaining.”

Museveni abandoned his convoy to help an elderly man push a bicycle loaded with firewood up a hill. The moment, captured by villagers, was later shared by State House with the caption: “Leadership is service.”

Why it matters: Bicycles are lifelines for rural transport. The act symbolised shared struggle — a stark contrast to urban elites’ luxury cars.

Last year, in Bushenyi district, Museveni grabbed a hoe to till land for a demonstration farm, urging youth to “return to the soil”. Critics called it a stunt, but farmers applauded his call to “value dirty hands over white-collar unemployment”.

It endured the youth to stop flocking to urban centres in search of deceptive good life and tied into his PDM, which promotes agriculture as a wealth-creation tool. Museveni’s team frames these acts as proof of his “pro-poor” ethos, linking them to policies like the PDM.

PDM is probably the most inclusive development initiative the country has undertaken in a long time.

It is one of the most well-thought-out development programmes the country has undertaken over the last three decades. Policy implementers have for a long time used the top-bottom approach where bureaucrats sit in air-conditioned offices and come up with development initiatives which are imposed on people at the grassroots.

PDM came with a different approach. It has put the beneficiaries at the heart of deciding how they want to get out of poverty. It is hands-on and will endear the Government to the population. It has also resonated with the youth who form the biggest percentage of the population.

I can equate PDM with the good old days of Bulungi Bwansi (community work). It involved the population in projects such as road clearing/opening, clearing wells and sanitation. Bulungi Bwansi was successful because it put people in charge of identifying their needs and solutions.

Therefore, PDM should be consolidated and improved in terms of allocating it more resources and targeting more youth under the programme.

Although previous schemes like National Agriculture Advisory Services (NAADS), Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP) and the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP) have contributed a lot in reducing poverty, the parish model stands the greatest chance to record the biggest percentage in poverty reduction.

Despite the challenges Uganda faces, it is on track to acquire middle-income status, if PDM is accelerated over the next five to 10 years. However, the question is how to ensure we don’t backslide. This is why PDM should be implemented aggressively by all stakeholders. We should support the President to ensure the initiative is successful nationwide.

We should not give room to anyone who doesn’t appreciate the programme. Those planning to undermine the initiative should be dealt with decisively.

Also, confidential channels of communication should be available to the local communities so that they give feedback on how the PDM implementation is going on in their areas. PDM is an opportunity Ugandans should use to write another chapter in our development history.

Socio-economic transformation is staring the country in the face. However, PDM has faced opposition, especially from some political actors and the cancer of corruption. Several leaders have been accused of misappropriating PDM funds. Stringent measures should be taken against those misusing PDM funds.

The writer is the Honorary Consul of Eswatini Kingdom in Uganda