Let Museveni make army professional

By Frank Tumwebaze PRESIDENT Museveni, while addressing the National Executive Conference (NEC), which urged him to stand as a Movement candidate, gave two, among other reasons, as to why he needed an extra presidential term. These were, to ensure a smooth hand over of power and making the army professional. I wish to restrict myself to the latter. Different political analysts have conceived professionalising the army in a different context and taken it as a basis of criticism to the President. It has been said that if president Museveni has failed to bring this professionalism in the last 15 years, how then does he dare to say that he will professionalise the army in the next five years? lI do not agree with this kind of criticism and possibly the critics need to know the history of our forces, the composition of UPDF and the achievements registered in the army. lUganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) is an amalgamation of different forces of NRA, UNRF (forces of Moses Ali), UNLA and former forces of Amin. All these absorbed in the UPDF. One important thing to note about these forces is that they were of different backgrounds, different training and different goals to defend. Each force perhaps was intentioned to defend the political agenda of its founder. The leadership of UPDF had to first tame these forces into one national army owned by the people of Uganda. Indeed, this was successful and that is why the army has kept united. l Another step of professionalising the army, was the retrenchment and demobilisation exercise of soldiers. Nine to 10 years ago, we had up to 100,000 soldiers as infantry, who could consume a big portion of our budget. With the outcry from World Bank and also because a lot of money was being spent on defence without necessarily achieving the professionalism in the army we required, government set up the Uganda Veterans assistance board which retired about 50,000 soldiers. These soldiers were sent home with retirement packages and had to go and settle in private life, without any threat of a coup or causing insecurity to the civilians. Such an act of demobilising soldiers was unheard of 20 years back. There was no set minimum condition one needed to fulfill before recruitment. Today these exist. You need at least to have a minimum of 'A' Level. You need to be Aids free and free from any physical handicaps. l After the successful retrenchment exercise, government was able to save money and it switched expenditure to buying equipment, building army infrastructure and training soldiers. Tanks, helicopters and heavy firearms have been secured and our army is now well equipped to defend our territorial integrity. l Advancement in military science is also part of professionalism in the army. Sudan now can no longer attack us or even Kabila because of our capacity to acquire military hardware and train soldiers. l Another phase of professionalising the army has been the emphasis on training personnel. Serving senior officers have gone for courses like officers basic course on compulsory terms. Recruitment of graduates into the army, who later come out as cadets after training is also a measure of ensuring professionalism and quality in the soldiering profession. Actually, professionalising the army, that President Museveni talks about, implies building a strong force that pursues soldiering as a profession. l It is timely for the President to promise, that he intends to professionalise the army. It is not a revolution he is to start, but a gradual task he started long time ago and intends to accomplish in the next five years. It is not a new policy like UPE, that he intends to pioneer. Ends