President Museveni has said the people of West Nile are living testimonies of the relative peace enjoyed in Uganda.
“The people of West Nile are the best witnesses of peace that previously you could run up to DRC Congo and South Sudan(because of wars,” Museveni said.
The NRM presidential candidate was on Saturday addressing a rally at Namrwodho Primary School Playground in Nebbi Municipality.
He explained that when NRM came to empower, it preached against sectarianism of both tribes and religion.
“One reason you should vote for NRM is peace. The reason for peace in Uganda is because of our ideology. We don’t believe in tribalism. Sectarianism of tribe or religion is not good for the country. We were members of old political parties ourselves and by 1965 we had seen this danger and decided to join student groups. Our ideology of patriotism and pan Africanism has enabled us create institutions like the army which could guard the country,” Museveni said.
“I remember soldiers from Nebbi here killed because of their tribe during Amin’s time like Brigadier Hussein but since coming to power, we have been able to create unity.”
Museveni said because of the peace, NRM has been able to bring about development in Uganda.
“We now have economic infrastructure like roads, electricity, telephones, piped water but there are also social infrastructure like schools, and health centres. We didn’t have money initially since economy was down, however, we tarmacked the road from Karuma to Koboko in spite of not having enough money that time.”
“Then we extended electricity. I am glad finally, West Nile is linked to national grid all the way to Koboko.
He said roads like the Nebbi- Goli road are also in the pipeline for upgrade.
Giving more examples of development, he mentioned mobile phones that he said everyone now has one in their pocket.
“We used the policy strategy to get every Ugandan telephones. It wasn’t government to do the work but gave licence to private sector to do they work and now everyone has a phone in their pocket. By time NRM came into government there were only 23,000 phones in the whole of Uganda but now talking of 28 million telephones. This is not just by policy but also because of peace.”
In the education sector, Museveni said his government has been able to construct a number of secondary and primary schools, to add on the ones existing originally.
He gave an example of 1961 while he was at Ntare School in Western Uganda with students from other parts of the country, including West Nile since their areas had no A-level secondary schools.
Museveni said the entire country had only six A-level schools, but noted that currently, Nebbi district alone, 89 government primary schools and 18 private ones, seven government secondary schools one private one.
Nebbi Municipality has 12 government primary schools and 44 private schools, with one government secondary school and six private ones.
Wealth creation
Museveni said despite development achieved in Nebbi, there is need to focus on wealth creation.
He emphasised that development doesn’t not necessarily translate into wealth creation , noting that every Ugandan must participate in wealth creation.
“ Many leaders spend a lot of time talking about development and forgetting wealth creation. Many years ago we tarmacked the road from Karuma to Koboko . The road is tarmacked but can you go at night and sleep on it or sleep in health centre unless you are sick ? All those are development but you must create wealth. That’s why since the 1960s we have in our teachings differentiated between development and wealth. You must be involved in wealth creation to join the money economy.”
