President Yoweri Museveni is wearing a sad face with the way his much-billed physical infrastructure like roads such as the Gulu-Kampala highway appear to be useless yet locals can earn a living from their existence if guided properly.
As such, the Head of State has implored the Members of Parliament to mobilize the wanainchi to take part in wealth creation initiatives in order to stabilize their homestead income.
“I have been telling you since the 1960s that whatever you do, if you want people to develop, start with the homestead incomes because now you are talking about the roads and others, there are places where the roads are good. The road from Gulu to Kampala is definitely good, what are you selling along that road?” he furiously inquired and got no answer from MPs!
The President made the remarks while addressing MPs chaired by speaker Anita Among during a parliamentary regional sitting at Kaunda Grounds, Gulu City.
Museveni informed the MPs not to be selfish but to sensitize their voters to embrace the four-acre model which he said is a proper dose to help Ugandans to create wealth and jobs.
“In 2018, I made a countrywide tour, zone by zone and I gave you this booklet where I talked about the four sectors and the seven ways of wealth and job creation. In this booklet, I made it clear that the 4-acres model was a rescue operation for the parts of the country that had already fragmented land. That is why I said that since you have very few acres, make sure that the “ekibaro” (calculation) is correct,” he noted.
Museveni said that on the four acres or less, seven activities should be conducted which include coffee-one acre, fruits-one acre, pasture for dairy one -acre, and another acre for food crops.
“In the backyard, you put poultry for eggs and piggery, then if you are near a wetland do fish farming. If you do that, you get millions of shillings even if you do it on a small scale. In this booklet, I called it intensive agriculture with high value enterprises. But even if you have more, there’s no harm, instead of having one acre of coffee, have four.” he advised.
President Museveni also advised those with massive land to undertake extensive agriculture to make money.
The President also called on the MPs and other politicians to support his position on free education in government schools.
“Push for free education in government schools but other people are pushing for charges. Many children are street children because they didn’t go to school because of charges. So, the political class and all the elite, please if you say you care about your people, support my position on free education in government schools. If you don’t want to support it, then keep quiet and let the children suffer, don’t just talk,” he said.
Museveni also wore smiles towards legislators for passing a motion recognizing the work of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) and the NRM government in pacifying Northern Uganda and the whole country.
According to the President, the UPDF has been able to succeed in its operations because of ideology, discipline and effective planning.
“The insecurity of Karamoja is not new at all, it was there even in colonial times, it only got worse after 1979 when the Matheniko, one of the tribes of Karamoja, looted the arms in Moroto barracks when the Amin soldiers had ran away. Uganda was number four in exporting refugees, it was competing with Ethiopia, Afghanistan and I think Sudan. And what had the West Nilers run away from? From ideological bankruptcy because remember, I was part of fighting Idi Amin, nobody can say they fought Idi Amin more than I did but as we were fighting Idi Amin, we always told our people that look here, don’t blame the mistakes of Idi Amin on all the West Nilers because all these things that Amin is doing, he doesn’t consult the people in West Nile,” he said.
He said even when his NRA/M was fighting UPC, the cadres were asked not to demonize northerners for the mistakes of Obote.
“Distinguish between the misleaders and the misled, this is the line of the NRM. Always make a distinction between the misleaders who are few and the misled who are many. Most of the cases, the masses are not involved at all, it is just a small group of people.” He noted.
Meanwhile, speaker Among informed the President that the sitting is covering the issues, challenges and opportunities that are from West Nile, Acholi, Lango and Karamoja.
“Your Excellency the sitting of parliament in Gulu, Northern region is a milestone in the legislative history of Uganda as it is the first of its kind that we are having at regional level. The 11th parliament appreciates your immense support for the decision to take the parliament to the people at regional sitting,” she said.
