By Frank Kamuntu
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has reiterated his call to wetland encroachers to vacate the natural resource peacefully.
According to the President, the government cannot look on as some people destroy the environment.
He made the remarks on Saturday, 20th July, 2024 while addressing the nation on wealth creation and other issues of national importance at State Lodge, Nakasero.
“Blaming NEMA on why they allowed people to settle in the wetlands and come later to evict them is of course a good point, however, it does not exonerate encroachers and their backers. Who doesn’t know what a wetland is? Are you a Ugandan or you’re from Europe? It’s a duty of everybody to defend Uganda’s survival. In any case, in the matter of the environment, we have no choice, Uganda cannot be destroyed, and we simply watch,” he said.
“Hence, all people in the wetlands should leave peacefully, you have done enough damage, we are not prosecuting you; it’s an amnesty, simply leave. We cannot compensate you for breaking the law, it’s common sense. If we say that we compensate, it’s another way of encouraging that indiscipline to continue. We have already compensated you by not prosecuting you, so you just go.”
He explained that the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government sometimes uses soft methods to solve problems even when people are wrong,however, when it is a matter of life and death or the destiny of Africa is at stake, they take a decisive and uncompromising stand.
“When it comes to the environment, especially the wetlands, water bodies and the natural forces, it is a matter that is even greater than life and death, it is a threat of extinction,” he said.
“60 percent of our rainfall comes from the oceans and 40 percent of our rain comes from local water and forest bodies. Anybody to invade the lake shore, the river, the wetlands and the natural forests is working so hard to turn the whole of Uganda into a Karamoja in terms of rain. Some people whether they know it or don’t know it are not happy that we are getting so much rain, they want the whole Uganda to be like Karamoja that is what they are working for. They want to dry our source of rain.”
On the issue of wealth creation, President Museveni revealed that since their transformative days of the students movement in the 1960s, their strategic long-term goal was to achieve a total socio-economic transformation in Uganda by building a modern society of the middle class and a skilled working class as it had happened in Europe.
“In order to achieve this and given Uganda’s natural resources base, we developed a plan for a modern economy based on four money-making sectors. These are commercial agriculture with “ekibaro”, manufacturing, services and ICT,” he said.
The President further disclosed that the NRM government’s strategic goal is to make every adult Ugandan of working age join one of these sectors either as an owner or as an employee.
“We have successfully attained four phases, these are the minimum economic recovery and reformalisethe economy that had become informal, expand the enclave of the 3Ts (Tea, Tobacco and Tourism) and 3Cs (Coffee, Copper and Cotton) by making them bigger, diversifying the enclave products by bringing in new products like milk, beef into the money economy, start the knowledge economy of using science to create products such as vaccines, automobile, electronics, etc,” he noted.
“However, all this could not happen if we did not work on some elements of the infrastructure like the roads, electricity, ICT backbone, etc. This is how you hear now that our economy has expanded from USD1.5 billion in 1986 to now USD 55 billion; a raw material producing economy. This is why you alwayshear me insisting that this economy will jump to USD 500 billion by simply adding value to most of our raw materials.”
On the other hand, President Museveni was happy to note that some Ugandans have been listening to the NRM message of socio-economic transformation that has enabled them to create wealth.
“Those who listen to our advice are moving,” he said.
Furthermore, President Museveni said that the manufacturing sector is moving on well, exporting goods worth USD 2.5 billion per annum and employing 922,000 people.
“This is a new sector already earning more than coffee.”
The President also re-emphasized the need for the economic and political integration of East Africa and the Economic Integration for the whole of Africa to provide a market for Ugandan goods and for those of other African countries.
“Milk production is 5.3 billion litres but the internal consumption is only 800 million litres. Maize production is 5 million tonnes but our internal consumption is only 1 million tonnes, etc. It is a disaster for the future of Africa to hear the young people talking only about football of the clubs in Europe. The future of Africa mainly belongs here,”he said.
“The big number of jobs are mainly found in the four sectors of the economy. It is a mistake for our young people to expect very many job opportunities in administration. If you qualify with a university degree, go into farming because there’s no political science that stops you from farming or starting a business. All the young people who have got social science degrees should straight away link up with the programs because there are endless jobs in the private sector.”
President Museveni also cautioned some people whom he described as wrong elements against fomenting chaos in Uganda.
“While we the wealth creators are busy creating wealth for Uganda, some elements, some of which are from the opposition are working with foreigners to foment chaos in Uganda in terms of riots, illegal demonstrations, illegal and inconsiderate processions etc.,” he stressed.
“These people are unfair, and they should check themselves or we shall have no alternative but to check them. Don’t be tempted to bring chaos and step on people’s products on the road.”
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