President’s speech on the Occasion to mark

32nd NRM/NRA Anniversary

I greet you all and congratulate you upon this day.

Our significant and impressive achievements have been made over the
years. We have had noticeable dividends in the last 32 years. The years
of neglect, apathy, mismanagement and institutional inefficiency that
had eroded the country’s image are now behind us.
The NRM evolved, quite early, two principles: Patriotism and Pan-
Africanism. Patriotism meant unity within Uganda so as to ensure our
prosperity and security. Pan-Africanism was so as to promote unity in
East Africa and Africa in order to guarantee the same prosperity and
security even better. The unity of Uganda, the market of Uganda, is not
enough to guarantee our prosperity (buying what we produce) and
strategic security (to defend our sovereignty against the imperialists).
The unity of East Africa, the unity of Africa can do these two better than
the mere unity of Uganda.
Therefore, the two first principles of NRM became patriotism and Pan-
Africanism. However, to benefit from Pan-Africanism and from
Uganda’s unity, the society had to undergo a group metamorphosis ─ a
socio-economic transformation.
One cause of parochialism and sectarianism of ideology is a stunted
society in terms of socio-economic transformation. The absence of a
productive middle class, national bourgeoisie, compounds the problem
of ideological bankruptcy.
The National bourgeoisie will, however, not grow by itself. This is where
our third principle comes in. This is the principle of Socio-economic
transformation.
The NRM and other reformers before it had to trigger socio-economic
transformation that would see our mainly peasant society, with a heavy
dose of a petty bourgeois class (civil servants, teachers, etc),
metamorphose into a middle-class and skilled working class society.
The middle-class should have a high proportion of the National
bourgeoisie (the manufacturers, the farmers, the service providers, the
infrastructure developers) and not just traders ─ especially not
importers of goods and services that can, more economically, be made
here. This is, indeed, the difference between Europe and Africa.
Therefore, principle number three of the NRM that enables us to
understand the anatomy of the society so that we know the elements
that are able to strengthen us and those that can weaken us, the need
to understand the proportions of social-economic transformation, is
very crucial and unique. It is unique because it is only the NRM that
understands the importance of this.
What stimuli did we use to encourage this process? Apart from peace,
we used four other stimuli. These were: education for all (UPE, USE),
liberalization of the economy, improved health (especially
immunization) and improved infrastructure (roads, electricity,
telephone, the ICT backbone, piped water, safe water in the villages etc).
As a consequence of these steps, the literacy rate is now 75%, up from
43% in 1986. The social base for socio-economic transformation has,
therefore, been laid.
We are going to use it to transform the society permanently. We need
correct policy stimuli to do so and I will bring those out later.
Liberalization helped the creation of the middle-class by removing the
State (Government) from doing business. The State used to monopolize
the business of hotels, transport, imports, etc. These sectors are now
being manned by the private sector. This creates efficiency and spreads
wealth.
The fourth principle of the NRM is the democracy. Democracy is clear
enough. Ugandan’s democracy, the democracy pushed by the NRM, is
much richer than anything, anybody, has attempted to do in the world,
other than the ancient Greeks who produced direct democracy, in the
City States.
We have empowered women, the youth, the workers, the disabled, the
soldiers, etc. The NRM democracy must be kukyenuura-based through
production of wealth and jobs creation. Kukyenuura means to solve a
solvable need.
Over the last 50 years, the NRM has identified 10 strategic bottlenecks.
Here below, they are restated.
(i) ideological disorientation;
(ii) a weak state, especially the army, that needed restructuring;

(iii) the suppression of the private sector;

(iv) the underdevelopment of the human resource (lack of education
and poor health);
(v) the underdevelopment of the infrastructure (the railways, the
roads, the electricity, the telephones, piped water, etc);
(vi) a small internal market;
(vii) lack of industrialization;
(viii) the underdevelopment of the services sector (hotels, banking,
transport, insurance, etc.);
(ix) the underdevelopment of agriculture; and
(x) the attack on democracy.
As you can see, we have been handling many of the strategic
bottlenecks: ideological disorientation, a weak State, emancipating the
private sector, the human resource development (education and
health), modernizing the infrastructure, integrating the fragmented
markets, etc, etc. Hence, we have got a better base than ever before.
We are, therefore, in a position to tackle, step by step, the residual
problems and convert Uganda into a middle-income country by 2020
and an upper middle-income country by 2040.
I am a veteran of fighting poverty and working for socio-economic
transformation in Uganda. I started this struggle, in earnest, in the
Christmas of 1966 in the Butaka area (Rwakitura, Rushere, Naama,
etc). That effort succeeded and, since 1995, I have been drawing the
attention of the political class to that living example. Like the parable of
the sower goes, much of the seeds fell on rocky ground and did not
germinate.
In the Government Research stations and also working with some
farmers, we also worked out a packaging for the crop areas. We worked
out the four acres plan. Have one acre of clonal coffee, one acre of
fruits, one acre of pasture for six zero grazing cows and one acre of food
crops (bananas, cassava or Irish potatoes). Add to these, back yard
activities of poultry for eggs, pigs, rabbits, etc. and fish farming where
there are wetlands nearby. It is now 20 years plus when the NRM has
been telling you about how to get 68% of our households out of poverty
through commercial agriculture as far as those families with land are
concerned. Those with smaller pieces of land than the 4 acres, can also
earn good incomes from onions, from tomatoes, vegetables,
mushrooms, etc.
Agriculture, however, will not be the only path for socio-economic
transformation although it will provide raw-materials for a wide
spectrum of industries ─ dairy, beef, textiles, fruits, grain milling, coffee,
tea, cocoa, sugar, wood products, tobacco, medicinal herbs, etc., etc.
The other industries will be based on minerals.
Apart from industries based on agriculture and those based on
minerals, there are also those based on human skills such as the Kiira
electric car, the Kayoola electric bus, the multiple computer
applications developed by our computer scientists, etc.

The services sectors are already providing important stimuli for

modernization ─ tourism, transport, banking, trading, insurance,
professional services, etc., etc.
The five wealth and job creation funds will assist those who cannot
raise their own capital. These funds are: the NAADS Fund, the Youth
Fund, the Women Fund, the Micro-Finance Fund and the Innovation
Fund. These should be interest free or low-interest loans to those who
cannot borrow from banks. These funds will do three things: First, help
us to eliminate the 68% “baroreezi” (spectators) of the homesteads that
were identified by the 2002 census as being outside the money
economy. Wealth creation is one area where we do not welcome
“abaroreezi” (spectators).
Through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and the activities of the bigger
investors, we shall create bigger units ─ factories for sugar, steel,
fertilizers, etc. As already pointed out above, the sky is now the limit.
There is, however, one problem that must be dealt with. This is the
corruption of public servants ─ judicial staff, medical personnel, staff
dealing with licensing projects, etc. as well as some elements of the
political class. This corruption will be eliminated. There will be no
equivocation on this issue. “Enjokyi, ihakuurwa omuriro” (you use fire
to tame aggressive bees). The way we defeated the indiscipline of the
army, is the way we are going to defeat corruption.

I thank you.

26th January, 2018 - Arua

Date:
Friday, January 26, 2018