Museveni lists seven priority areas to secure your future 

President Museveni (right) arrives at Mbale Senior Secondary School where he addressed NRM party youth leaders in Bukedi Sub-region on December 3, 2020. PHOTO/KELVIN ATUHAIRE.

What you need to know:

  • The youth leaders in their joint memo read by Mr Benard Onen Odoi, the NRM flag bearer for youth MP for Eastern region, asked Mr Museveni to give them start-up capital to enable them to set up businesses and fight poverty. 

President Museveni has listed seven priorities to tackle under his securing the future campaign, if re-elected in the forthcoming presidential elections scheduled to take place on January 14, 2021. 

While addressing the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party youth leaders from Bukedi Sub-region at Mbale Secondary School in Mbale City yesterday, President Museveni said the priorities include defence and security, roads and railway, electricity, health, education, increment of salaries for scientists, and provision of capital.
“I want government scientists to be well paid so that they can solve our problems and also to make capital available to help our people to work for the stomach and pocket,” Mr Museveni said. 

The NRM party presidential flag bearer, who concluded his campaign trail in Bukedi Sub-region, also urged the youth leaders to mobilise people to work hard and defeat poverty in their communities. 
“In Europe, they harvest once a year but you find that people who are harvesting once are better than people here, who harvest two times in a year,”Mr Museveni said. 
He also castigated Members of Parliament for doing less to solve the problems facing the youth in the country, saying he has solely been fighting for the youth’s welfare. 

“These guys, who are telling lies like Robert Kyagulanyi. They have been in the Parliament like other Opposition groups. They have never spoken about the youth fund. I have been the one fighting for them as if I am a youth. That is where the problem is. The NRM has done its work,”Mr Museveni said. 

Mr Museveni also revealed that he would deploy a section of youth, who have undergone a military training at the National Leadership Institute in Kyankwanzi to fight corruption. 
“There is so much corruption in the country but I am going to deploy some of the youth, who have undergone training in Kyankwanzi to fight corruption,”Mr Museveni. 

Youth react
The youth leaders in their joint memo read by Mr Benard Onen Odoi, the NRM flag bearer for youth MP for Eastern region, asked Mr Museveni to give them start-up capital to enable them to set up businesses and fight poverty. 
“We request for start-up capital because there is a lot of potential in agriculture and trade to exploit but we lack capital,” Mr Odoi said. 

He added: “We as young NRM people, we are ready to counter the Opposition whose campaign strategy is intimidation and scaring away our party’s vulnerable members like the elderly, women, people with disabilities,”Mr Odoi said.