Everybody should wake up now, says Museveni

DEVELOPMENT    INFRASTRUCTURE 

President Yoweri Museveni has said his government has provided good roads and electricity and now the onus is on all Ugandans to wake up and join the four key sectors in which wealth and jobs can be created.

The four sectors he urged Ugandans to join by forming savings and credit cooperative organisations so they are supported by the government are; commercial agriculture, industries, services and information, and communications technology.

"In the past, we had a problem of electricity, bad roads, so I could not quarrel with Ugandans for not manufacturing because there were many obstacles. But now we have good roads and electricity. So this is the time for everybody to wake up and make sure that we go in these sectors with the support of the government," he said.

He said this on Thursday evening at State House Nakasero while addressing journalists just after speaking about his countrywide tour to meet and sensitise Ugandans on job and wealth creation.

He noted that Ugandans are very rich because they import everything they put on including clothes and shoes.

He, however, said when he told leaders from districts of Greater Luweero, Greater Mpigi and Greater Mukono at the Lugogo Cricket Grounds in Kampala early this week that Ugandans are very rich they couldn't believe it.

"They laughed that I was I am mocking them but I said no because look at all of you, you are all dressed up with clothes, with shoes and they are all imported and you pay for everything you are putting on in dollars," he said.

He added: "If you want to see how rich you are, you see what you are consuming and then ask the question: who makes these things I am consuming? And the answer is that many of them are made by foreigners. Then you should ask yourself: suppose I am the one making them, how much money would I generate and how many jobs will I create? Most of these things we can do them here."

On the sector of agriculture, the President said poverty comes from sticking to the traditional way of life when you are in modern times.

"If you live without earning money then that is a recipe for poverty. The people in the villages are only producing for eating. Yes, you get food for eating but what about all the other needs? First, solve the issue of subsistence farming and be able to work for food but also for money," he said.

He, however, asked farmers to do this with a calculation. "Some of the activities when they are done on a small scale they don't help the families like sugar cane, cotton, tobacco, maize, looking after indigenous cattle. Those ones you don't get much if you do them on a small scale. When you do them you on a large scale you will get money although you are getting small per acre per annum," he said.

RELATED TO THE STORY