National dev’t is not personal wealth – Museveni

President Yoweri Museveni Friday urged Ugandans to exploit government infrastructure like roads and electricity facilitate personal wealth in their homes, cautioning that national development may be wealth owned by all Ugandans but it does not improve their incomes if they cannot use it.

President Yoweri Museveni

“When people speak of development and wealth they mix issues. The leaders can demand for roads, electricity, schools and hospitals but this is not personal wealth. What is the benefit of having a tarmac road when you can’t use it to transform your lives?” he said.
“It may rain and you get a lot of water but if you do not harvest it, you can’t have water in your house – it goes to waste with the floods.”
The President, who is on a working tour of all former NRA operational zones, was addressing veterans of Mwanga unit, at Nama sub-county in Mukono district on governments’ reinforcement of the poverty eradication campaign among veterans.
He said he had to seek alternative ways of reinforcing the campaign after he was ambushed by several veterans and individuals seeking personal support.
Museveni pointed out that it is the NRM policy to ensure that there is standardized development in the country as opposed to individual development.
He made pointed references to the past, saying that during the war their targets included winning the war against dictatorship and bringing peace and good governance, consolidating peace and making sure wrong groups don’t return, bringing relief to those affected by the war, rehabilitating major infrastructure and initiating development of new projects.
“After independence there was a lot of discrimination by some leaders. They did not have the spectacles to know that women, for example, were also important.
“The politics of the NRM is nationalistic politics; we don’t accept discrimination and selfishness. The people of Mukono sacrificed a lot and supported us. Many people were affected by the brutality of the UPC [Uganda People’s Congress party] but because of their nationalism, they remained firm and we won this war,” he said.
The NRM leader called on veterans in Mukono to evaluate how much projects such as UPE and mass immunization have transformed peoples’ lives, and urged them to have a list of infrastructure which have been developed, rehabilitated and those which are yet to be worked on.
Under the new campaign, senior army officers led by Gen Caleb Akandwanaho (Salim Saleh) who is deputized by Brig. Proscovia Nalweyiso will do the overall monitoring of projects in all former operational zones.
In Mwanga unit in Mukono, the Museveni appointed several zonal leaders, including Lt. Col. David Mpanga, Maj. Kibirige and Maj. Moses Seguja, who will work alongside local leaders to ensure that projects are implemented.
He later held another rally at Namugongo Church of Uganda grounds in Kiira sub-county in Wakiso district during which he thanked the people for supporting the freedom fighters during the liberation struggle.
He made it clear that the NRM succeeded not by accident but by the solid foundation laid down in political and social services.
President Museveni also thanked the Mayor of Kiira Town Council Mamerito Mugerwa for being developmental by constructing a good road at the Namugongo Martyrs shrine junction.
For the veterans who died in the struggle, the president paid them glowing tribute and said that their sacrifice and the efforts of the freedom fighters gave Uganda a new chance because Uganda had become a failed state.
And for those still alive, Museveni told them to focus on cost-effective projects like rearing of exotic dairy milk production, promotion of livestock breeding centers and multiplication of quality seeds and planting materials.
Those in the Peri-urban areas can engage in mushroom growing, poultry, hand-looms and juice extraction, he advised, adding that senior military officers will help the veterans access farm implements, seedlings for fruits and coffee as well as improved livestock for zero grazing.
He promised that their SACCOs will receive a financial boost and the housing problem for veterans sorted, before pledging further to create a robust unit dedicated to only veterans.