President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni who is also the Commander In Chief of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) has revealed that Uganda is now stable due to ideological and philosophical shift in the country.
“The stability you are talking about is a consequence of the Ideological and philosophical shift here in Uganda, we rejected the politics of identity and started advising our people about the politics of interest,” President Museveni said.
The President made the assertion as he delivered a lecture of opportunity to a delegation of 31 military students and 15 staff members of Botswana Defence Command and Staff College at State House- Entebbe.
He explained that before the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government came to power 37 years ago, Uganda was turbulent, and had become a failed state. However due to the right ideology by the current government, the country managed to pick up and it’s now peaceful and developing progressively.
President Museveni appealed to the students to always promote politics of interest, saying that the ideology was very crucial for the prosperity of their country.
“Right from Independence, we had a crisis of what is primary. What is important? Is it identity or interest? That’s where the departure point was because some people have been saying that what is important in public management politics is identity; that means tribe, religion, race in some cases, even gender to some extent and you find people like in the case of Uganda here, they formed political parties based on identity,” Gen. Museveni disclosed.
“The good thing is that some of us were part of those parties from 1960 but by 1965 we had become disillusioned and said no, what are you talking about? Why is identity so important? Because all these groups were talking about religions and tribes, yet they have needs, they need food, they need shelter, jobs and wealth. Why don’t you talk about their needs? Why do you talk about their identity? Are you not a false prophet? Are you not providing a pseudo ideology?” he wondered.
The President further noted that for any society to be prosperous, it needs to produce a good or service and then sell it to earn money.
“The only way my tribe, who are cattle keepers and banana growers can be prosperous is to produce a good or a service and sell it. In this case, they produce milk, beef and bananas. But now once they do that, they have one problem; they do not easily buy from one another. Why? Because they all have similar products. It is the other Ugandans who don’t produce milk, beef or bananas because they are fishermen, they are producing other things, they are the ones who rescue me and buy my products,” he said.
“When we saw that Uganda was more useful to me as a wealth creator than my tribe, then we developed the principle of Patriotism; love Uganda, you need it, it is more useful than loving just your tribe. You need Uganda for your prosperity.”
The President however noted that since Ugandans now produces more than enough products like milk, poultry, sugar and beef, the internal market is not enough to guarantee the country’s prosperity.
“We also discovered that even when you love Uganda, Uganda is not enough, we need East Africa. That is why you heard us playing two anthems, the one for Uganda and that of East Africa because for our prosperity, we need the East African market, we also need the African market. Therefore, our second principle becomes Pan-Africanism.”
Additionally, Gen. Museveni expounded that in order for Uganda and Africa at large to transform socially and economically, they need to create a new society, and this can only be done if all adults join the money economy.
long stabilisation of the country because you cannot have a backward country with an increasing population and you think that you will have stability, you will get instability at a certain stage. The economy transitioning from raw material production to industrial production is a must,” Gen. Museveni concluded.
The head of the Delegation from Botswana Defence Command and Staff College, Col. Dumisani Bakang Ndzinge thanked President Museveni for sparing time to give them an insightful lecture.
He also commended the President for his visionary leadership that has led to the long-lasting stability and economic development in the country.
The team was also accompanied by Professor Rebecca Lekoko, the Dean of the College, among others.
