Yes, Museveni will comfortably win 2021 elections

By Amlan Tumusiime

On Thursday, March 7, I was in a bus travelling to Kwania district via Lira, when I read a screaming front-page headline from one of the dailies reading: "I will stand for president in 2021, says Bobi Wine"

I was going to Kwania to meet my friends at Aduku town to ask them to support and campaign for Judith Acola the Kwania NRM Woman MP flag bearer.

A week before my trip to Kwania, Acola, Harriet Businge (Hoima), Rachael Magoola (Bugweri) and Nawirah Nalubowa (Kassanda) all NRM Flag bearers for their respective districts among others and myself had met the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga at her office to deliver a petition on the delayed elections for the woman MP seats and district chairpersons in the seven newly created districts.

It was at this meeting that I promised Acola that I will go to Kwania and meet my friends and mobilise them to support her in the forthcoming woman MP parliamentary elections. I lived in Apac for three years while working as a head of enforcement for fisheries law on Lake Kyoga and I made many friends in the region.

On the bus, I was seated next to a young lady who from her physical appearance looked to be in her early 20's and she told me she was a Langi from Kole district. She sounded knowledgeable, bright and very fluent in English. On reading the newspaper headline, she exclaimed "I cannot vote for this man just because he is still young. For me, I have never voted, but this time around I have already picked my National ID and am going to register purposely to vote for Museveni because he is an exceptional father who has brought up his children in a God-fearing manner, well disciplined, have respect for people and are free of any controversy"

Her statement excited me and I asked her "You look young, but you sound mature where do you get this confidence?" Looking at me in the face she said "Our parents narrate to us of ugly stories of how children of the past leaders used to misbehave in public, but this is not the case of the children of our current President and many students at campus talk about it and praise him (Museveni) for that."

After reading a few paragraphs of the Bobi Wine story, she covered it and handed it back to me smiling and said "Personally I don't see a national character in Bobi Wine. All I see is Bobi Wine the singer and MP."

This young lady's testimony was spot-on because I personally witnessed how well behaved, adoring, disciplined, lovely, caring and down to earth the President's family is. A few years ago, I attended the burial of the Late Maama Erina Rwabwogo the mother to Odrek Rwabwogo a son-in-law to the President at Rushere village in Kiruhura district.

Rwabwogo whom we mobilise together for NRM in Bunyoro texted me informing me of the death of his mother from a Nairobi Hospital and I travelled to Rushere together with my friends Hussein Magezi and Geoffrey Sunday Byenkya both taxi drivers for the burial. During lunchtime, after the burial, we were shocked when the three of us were invited for lunch and shared the same table with the president's daughters, all his sons in law and other members of the first family. We were accorded a special treatment for the two days spent at that home. It was incredible.

God gave to Ugandans and Africa, in general, the Amos Kaguta family as a blessing and special gift. A family with power and authority, but well disciplined, well mannered, obedient, down to earth, generous and with a huge sense of feeling for others.

Last year, I led a delegation of 20 people from Hoima district to visit General Salim Saleh at his Kapeka home in Nakaseke district. Saleh served his visitors with happiness and excitement and shared the same table during mealtime with them. At one point he guessed that the Hoima District Khadhi, Sheik Ashiraf Kugonza was uncomfortable and asked him "Sheikh you are uncomfortable it seems you want to go for prayers." Sheikh Kugonza answered in affirmative. Gen. Saleh led Kugonza and allowed him to perform his Dhuhur prayers (Afternoon players) in his house.

Therefore, when the Kole young lady revealed to me that her main reason why she was going to vote President Museveni in 2021 is because of his (Museveni's) role as a good father of disciplined and God-fearing children I got happier and energised because I realised the President I have supported and campaigned for, for decades has all the qualities of a good leader.

There are so many factors voters consider while choosing leaders at various positions of leadership and these include individual merit and the behaviour of the leader plus the achievements that leader has registered over a period of time he or she has been in the office. Many Ugandans vote for Museveni because of his personality. He is a good leader and cares for ordinary people (wananchi).

The opposition believes that by keeping feeding Ugandans on false hopes (pipe dreams) and putting on red caps, misusing the media a product of the NRM Government and maligning the Museveni led Government are strong and can win the 2021 elections. Those are false hopes because Ugandans are not fools. They know the difference between liars and truth tellers.

In fact the week Bobi Wine announced that he was going to contest against Museveni is the very week Museveni was ranked among the best presidents in the world. Two internationally respected Professors William Easterly a professor of economics at New York University and Professor Steven Pennings an economist in the world banker's development research group, Macroeconomics and Growth team revealed in their findings that Museveni has contributed hugely for the economic development of Uganda.

According to the findings of these two professors, Museveni scored highly because of the robust peace and security ushered in by his government that came to power in 1986.

These findings corroborate well with reports from Uganda Bureau of Statistics that show the economic growth of the country. For example, in 1986, Uganda's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was $3.923b, but as of 2018, the country's GDP was $27b. Also, Uganda's life expectancy stands at 63.7 years compared to 43 years in 1986. Also, Uganda's population has increased from 15,154,521 million people in 1986 to 40,308,000 million people to date. It is important here to note that since Museveni's government came to power, a total of 25,153,479 million people have been added on. So many factors contribute to this growth and among them is the control of infant mortality rate whereby children are now growing into adults.

By last year, a total of 4,551km of roads had been tarmacked compared to 1,900km in 1986 and also access to safe and clean water has increased from 68% to 78% as of 2017.

Many sub-counties are connected with electricity and rural transformation is noticed by any rightful and honest thinking Ugandan.

Recent research conducted at Harvard Centre in the United States predicts that Uganda's economy will be one of the fastest growing economies in the world by 2026 and beyond.

Therefore, the Opposition should not think that serious Ugandans can allow anything that can hinder these developments and vote for them.

On the contrary, Museveni is going to gain more votes than 2016 and even the youth who are the majority are going to vote for President Museveni and will comfortably win the vote.

All we need to do as Museveni's supporters is to mobilise now by explaining the achievements of NRM to the people, use the media to undo lies of the Opposition and prepare our people to vote wisely.

The writer is NRM mobiliser for Bunyoro Region