Choose ideas, not age, Museveni tells NRM leaders in West Nile

President Yoweri Museveni, also the National Resistance Movement (NRM) presidential candidate, kicked off his scientific campaigns in West Nile sub-region with a message to leaders, focus on ideas, not identity.

Museveni, who arrived at Muni University grounds in Arua city to a cheerful gathering of NRM leaders from the region at 3:00 pm, entreated leaders to preach a message of unity and prosperity.

He told the gathering of party chairpersons, flag-bearers and select supporters to reach out to voters with a message of transcendence that the NRM has stood for over the years.

"The biggest message I want to give you is the message of ideology because the leadership of society is like a medical doctor who cannot treat people, unless he diagnoses what they are suffering from. If the diagnosis is correct, he makes a prescription and if wrong there will be no cure," the NRM chairperson said.

He told delegates that the NRM had established ground for curing the underlying weaknesses that held back Africa from wriggling out of slave trade, colonialism and underdevelopment.

"The biggest problem we have had for a long time, during colonialism and after independence, was the mistaken identity based on tribe, religion and gender," he explained.

He appealed to the people of West Nile to support the NRM, saying it has the best blueprint for Uganda's future.

"The story of the NRM is a clear story. It is a political, socioeconomic, spiritual and cultural clinic. If you want to solve your problems, the NRM is the right clinic," he stated.

He chastised what he described as talk by some politicians swaying people to vote candidates on the basis of age, saying it was primitive thinking.

"When you hear some confusion, people don't know what they are talking about — youth or old. We are not talking about biology. We talk about ideas, which are either right or wrong How old is the Christian idea? Are we going to abandon it because it is 2,000 years old? The law of Moses. Stop talking nonsense if you want to solve your problems. I was in my 20s and Mwalimu Nyerere in his 50s. I was following his ideas, because of the East African federation, liberation of southern Africa," he said.

The NRM leaders from the region gave Museveni a gift of a spear, a shield and a gourd of milk as a blessing for his campaign.

Politics of unity According to the NRM leader, the resultant disunity frustrated the first attempts at political party formation as politicians joined parties on the basis of tribe or ethnicity.

He cited the formation of the Democratic Party in 1954 by Catholic leaders, while Protestants and Muslims were associated with the Uganda People's Congress in 1960. Unlike other parties, he said the NRM has placed emphasis on the needs of the people, such as education, food and fighting poverty, rather than identity.

"You could also not build a national army at the time," he said of the 1960s politics, citing the example of Uganda's first officer cadet to graduate from Sandhurst Military Academy, but was sidelined ostensibly because of his religious affiliation. "After completion of his studies, he came back, but could not stay in the army because he was a Catholic. They removed him and deployed him in civil service," Museveni explained.

"Catholics, Protestants, Muslims have same problems. If people have got similar needs, why treat them differently? Why bring identity among them?" The NRM leader, who facilitated the return of Ugandans from South Sudan following insurgency in the region in the 1970s and 1980s, said the NRM does not believe in politics of retribution. "Why should people of West Nile be blamed for Idi Amin's mistakes. He made them as an individual. That is how dangerous identity is," he explained.

He said the prevailing peace in the West Nile region has attracted foreign investment, a strategy that has allowed the NRM to create jobs and promote prosperity countrywide.

According to the President, there are over 5,000 factories countrywide that have helped to create 700,000 jobs and address shortages of essential items, such as salt, sugar or kerosene.

Similarly, the growth in the services sector, such as hotels, insurance and banking has created 1.3 million jobs, while ICT created 300,000 jobs, altogether more than all 480,000 civil servant jobs.

Wealth creation Museveni tasked politicians from the region with explaining the party's strategy to the electorate and for MPs to support government in allocation of budgets to priority sectors.

"It is just a question of sacrifice and planning. You need to tell people in villages that NRM has done its work. Things are now much easier," he stressed.

He noted that many politicians, particularly MPs, were making a mistake of making promises that they cannot fulfil, leading to public resentment.

"This is not the time to make mistakes. Some leaders want to carry the constituencies on their heads. The job of a leader is to show the way, not to carry the constituency, lest your neck will break," he stated.

Candidate Museveni asked NRM leaders to take advantage of government special funds, like Emyooga to ensure that people within the same expertise can benefit from it for production.

Under the arrangement, the government will provide sh560m per constituency as a revolving fund, he disclosed.

He credited the people of West Nile for embracing commercial agriculture but advised them to shift from tobacco growing to embrace alternatives like fruit farming, which fetches at least sh12m per acre. Museveni encouraged the residents of West Nile subregion to remain hospitable to refugees. The region is home to more than half of the 1.2million refugees in Uganda. Fanfare By 11:00 am, NRM leaders from Arua district and the entire West Nile sub-region had already painted Arua city yellow as they waited to receive their candidate, Museveni. Across rows of neatly arranged seats at Muni University grounds, the NRM leaders, strolled in, clad in matching yellow outfit, singing and dancing to tunes praising their candidate. Outside the venue of the meeting, supporters of candidate Museveni draped posters of their candidate around trees and hang banners by the roadside and on vehicles. All invited officials entering Muni University premises to attend the scientific campaigns had to undergo COVID-19 tests beforehand, with a negative result to be allowed in. The strict guidelines, however, did not stop supporters from convening in controlled groups around Arua town to show support to their candidate. First Deputy Prime Minister, Gen. Moses Ali and ministers Karooro Okurut (general duties-Office of the Prime Minister), Grace Kwiyucwiny (state for northern Uganda), Obiga Kania (state internal affairs) and Gabriel Ajedra (general duties — finance), were among the top party officials, who turned up to receive the NRM candidate.