BY PPU REPORTER
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has appealed to the youths to desist from embracing a wrong Ideology of sectarianism based on, religion, tribes and working for foreign interests.
“If you take that line, you will fail because I have been watching all these years many of the people who came in power at Independence who were young people but because they did not address the issue of wrong ideology, we have had so many problems in Uganda,” President Museveni said.
The President made the remarks during the International Youth Day celebrations held at Kigezi High School lower grounds in Kabale District. The celebrations ran under the theme: “Accelerating Recovery from Covid-19 And full Implementation of 2030 Agenda: The role of the youth”.
International Youth Day is an awareness day designated by the United Nations. The purpose of the day is to draw attention to a given set of cultural and legal issues surrounding youth. The first IYD was observed on 12 August 2000.
H.E Museveni explained that Tanzania has been stable for all this time because the country's former leader, Mwalimu Nyerere managed to address the issue of ideology.
“Mwalimu started with a good ideology of Uzalendo of National Patriotism that is why Tanzania has been peaceful all this time.”
The President also urged the youth to observe discipline “You must reject the temptations of youth because they will add nothing to you.”
He also advised them to concentrate on their studies so that they get knowledge and qualifications.
“So, the three words for the youth are discipline, knowledge/skills and ideology. If you take those three seriously, I can assure you, you will go far. After that, you should ensure that you lead a productive life; don't lead a life of parasitism by depending on others. Be sure that you can do something,” the President stated.
“As we have told you, the sectors here in Uganda are four. There's commercial agriculture and we have told you what to do. Manufacturing is the second sector and I'm glad when I was touring the kiosks there, I saw some of you processing honey, juice from sugar cane. There were others processing meat, sanitary pads and paper. Then there's services, some of you are already active in this field. Then ICT, we have jobs in this sector known as Business Process Outsourcing but we also have electronic innovations. We are going to support all these with government funds.”
The President also tipped the youth to join the knowledge economy, saying that this new sector is going to propel the country's economy further.
“I was having a meeting with our scientists in NARO who have discovered a vaccine against the ticks, we are going to roll it out. Our scientists they know what to do and they are already doing it. They are making electric vehicles, working on electric batteries and a pathogenic economy. For those ones, the debt is on the side of the government to give them enough money promptly.”
On the other hand, President Museveni rallied the youth to take part in wealth creation to develop the country.
“We should have a population of wealth creators. This is very crucial for you to understand because you could have a population of leisure seekers. The biggest economy is the USA followed by China and Japan. Japan is a small country with very hardworking people, that is how their country came from defeat in the second world war and is now among the biggest economies in the world.”
“The economy is doing well but the main problem is corruption among the civil servants and politicians. You should fight it because the youth movement should see those people and expose them. That will be part of your work because you are in the society and see what is happening.”
President Museveni was also happy to note that they have succeeded in getting an investor who will add value to Uganda's iron ore thus overcoming the problem of exporting the natural mineral unprocessed.
“We have got the best iron ore in the world. The second best is in Peru. For a long time, we have been looking for an investor to build an integrated steel industry to process our iron ore, we have now succeeded. Those who are trying to export unprocessed iron ore should stop because they are making us lose money and jobs,” he said.
“Also, we are now going to develop a bamboo project in the hills of Rwampara and Isingiro because to make good paper we can use bamboo. We are now importing paper, but we shall soon make all paper here and people can grow bamboo and we process it.”
On the issue of the student loan scheme, President Museveni said, “We support it, but the money was not renewed this time because of the temporary problems of Corona and the war in Ukraine but that scheme will be reinstated.”
The President also ordered that the National Youth Council's budget that was halted, be reinstated.
President Museveni also commended the United Nations (UN) for their continued support towards some programs in Uganda.
