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SPEECH
BY
HIS EXCELLENCY YOWERI KAGUTA MUSEVENI,
GENERAL (RTD) SSABALWANYI SSEMALUNGU
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA
AT THE
NOMINATION DAY
5
TH JULY, 2025
H.E. the Vice President
Rt. Hon Speaker
Chief Justice
The NRM Vice-Chairman,
All the other leaders and the supporters of the NRM
and all Ugandans.
Greetings. I want to thank the NRM Electoral
Commission for nominating me. I hope the whole
membership of the NRM and its structures, will
support my candidature as the Chairman of the
NRM for the 2025-2031 and also as flag-bearer for
the NRM in the Presidential contest for the
2026-2031. Why? It is because I stand here on
behalf of the very NRM that started as a student
movement in 1965. That nascent student movement,
emerged in a very fragmented landscape, where
polarization was following tribes and religious
denominations. That political fragmentation, made
governance impossible because no fragment could
muster a majority in an election. The fragmentation,
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also could not allow institutions to be built up. The
victim institutions included the
Army, the Judiciary, the Civil Service, etc. With the
two fragmentations — political and institutional —
came the constitutional collapse in the form of the
conflict between Mutesa and Obote in 1966 and the
Idi Amin Coup of 1971. The constitutional order, was
destroyed within the first 10 years of Independence.
The next casualty, was the small enclave economy
(island economy) of the 3Cs and 3Ts. The 3Cs and
3Ts, I have told you, repeatedly, were: coffee,
cotton and copper and the 3Ts were: tobacco, tea
and tourism. Cotton had disappeared, copper had
disappeared, tea had disappeared and so had
tourism. It is only coffee and tobacco, that were
still limping on. There was acute shortages (ebura)
of all “essential items” as they were being called —
meaning soap, salt, paraffin, textiles, sodas, beers
etc. Our alcohol drinkers, were being rescued by
“Primus beer” from Burundi and “Muniki” from
Congo.
Therefore, by 1986, the great Country of Uganda,
had 3 mega traumas: Political fragmentation
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caused by sectarianism leading to the collapse of
the democratic constitutional order; the collapse of
the institutions of State, such as the Army; and
the
collapse of the economy. Given all this and
standing where we are today in the year of our
Lord 2025, we can see that in the last 60 years, the
NRM has been a participant and, for most of the
time, a leader of the efforts to do the following in
the interests of Uganda:
(1) Liberation between 1965 and 1986;
(2) Stabilization between 1986-2025;
(3) Minimum Economic recovery by restoring the
3Cs and 3Tcs, as well as eliminating ebura
(shortages);
(4) Expanding the narrow enclave economy;
(5)Diversifying the economy by commercializing
products that were previously thought to be for only
subsistence, such as maize, milk, bananas, fruits,
beef, poultry, eggs, sugar-cane, cassava, etc;
(6) value addition to these raw-materials;
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(7)Introducing, through the intensified and expanded
education system, the knowledge economy of
automobiles, vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics,
electrical gadgets, computer assembling, etc.
What does this mean? It means that the NRM, its
cadres and the masses that have supported them
over
the years, have been participants in and, for most of
the time, leaders of, the efforts to liberate Uganda
from sectarian fragmentation and political collapse;
ensure its economic recovery; ensure the growth and
expansion of its economy; ensure that the start of
social-economic transformation of the society starts
so that Uganda becomes a modern Country; and
starts the struggle for the economic and political
integration of Uganda into Africa so that the Wealth
Creators of Africa have a reliable Market to absorb
their products.
What have been the consequences of this? The
consequences have been liberation, democratization,
peace and an economy that is now USD 61 billion by
the foreign Exchange method and USD 172.2 billion
by the PPP method. The economy has expanded 16
5
times since 1986 from USD 3.9 billion, according to
Finance. This means that Uganda is now a lower
middle income Country with a GDP per capita of
USD 1,263 for its population of 46 million People.
This means that Uganda is no longer a least
Developed Country (LDC). You can look at all the
other statistics. They are good if not excellent in
many cases. However,
we can do much better, especially if we eliminate
corruption.
What, then, is next and why am I coming forward to
respond to the millions of Ugandans who have been
ordering me with the slogan: “Tova ku main” — “Do
not leave the main electricity line”?
It is for two reasons.
Reason number one, is to work with the NRM
structures, to clarify the importance of the 6 aspects
that are very crucial in ensuring that Uganda and,
maybe by example other parts of Africa, do not,
again, miss the bus of history as happened in the
past when Europe transformed and Africa stagnated
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and was enslaved. In my recent speeches, I have
been answering the question that covers these
aspects. The question is: “where does prosperity
come from and what are the factors that facilitate it?
I have been identifying 6 aspects. These are: Peace
(no war and control of crime); development
(entunguuka, enkulakulana, dongo-lobo, apol);
wealth (obugaiga, obugagga, lonyo, abar, lonyi); jobs
(emirimo, tic, assuam); services (obuhereza,
obuwereza, aijanakin, such as health, education,
spirituality, etc); and
markets for our products through regional
integration. This understanding, helps us to, for
instance, understand where the majority of the jobs
in a developed Country, come from. It is from the
private sector — commercial farming, factories,
services (hotels, transport, etc) and ICT (such as
BPOs); not from the Government. Failure to
understand this by the Country and the families,
leads to futile efforts and wasted time. In the short
time of Uganda’s recovery, for instance, factories
have created 1.2 million jobs compared to only
480,000 jobs of the whole Public Service. Agriculture
3,610,064 jobs; and Services 5,042,188 jobs. The
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commercial farms, the factories, the service
companies (hotels, transport companies, private
schools, private hospitals, etc) or ICT companies, are
wealth of Private People, but they also create jobs for
other Ugandans. That nexus needs to be clear to all
of us. Wealth, creates jobs. Some of the wealth
companies can be Government — such as National
Water, Uganda Railways, Uganda Airlines, NEC, etc.
They will have the same nexus — wealth and jobs,
supported by peace and development
(infrastructure).
The second reason, is to have leaders and a party
that understands and is committed to the need for a
qualitative leap from the status of the lower middle
income Country of USD 66 billion by the end of June
2026 to a high middle income Country of USD 500
billion in the next few years. Some of our People talk
of 2040. That is too far for me. I do not see why we
cannot achieve it earlier if we are really aggressive in
the pursuit of the objective and eliminate corruption.
Why do I say this? It is because much of our USD
61 billion economy today, is raw-materials. Our
coffee, as de-husked coffee beans, brings in USD 2.5
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per kg. Yet, the one who roasts, grinds and packs
the coffee, earns from USD 25 – 40 per kg. That is
how all the coffee growing Countries of the World
earn USD 25 billion out of the total value of USD
460 billion and Germany, a non-coffee growing
Country, earns USD 65 billion from coffee. Since we
have a wide spectrum of raw-materials of
agriculture, raw-materials of minerals, fresh water
resources and forest products, we have a huge
potential if we add value to all of them or most of
them. By refining tin ore to 99.85% purity, we earn
USD 33.66 per kg instead of USD 13.6 – 16.4 for the
unprocessed tin ore.
When we purify gold to 99.90% purity instead of the
previous ……%, tin to 99.85% purity instead of the
previous 75% purity, copper to 99.99% purity
instead of the previous 95%, we do not only earn
more money from that commodity and create more
jobs for our children, we also attract the jewellery
makers to come to Uganda and make the jewellery
there, the factories that need to use tin will come as
will the factories that need to use pure copper such
as the cables industries, the ones making
transformers and the other electrical gadgets that
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use copper. This vertical and horizontal integrations
of the sectors, will greatly expand the economy.
Add to all this, the knowledge economy of
auto-mobiles, vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics,
electronics, using our highly educated manpower,
the transformation will be rapid. Therefore, the
second reason for the NRM putting forward my
name, is to cause the qualitative leap of Uganda into
a high upper middle income Country in the next few
years, preferably far ahead of 2040 — which is 15
years from now. Other Countries in Asia with less
natural resources, did it. We can do it. We have
already achieved the lower middle income status by
just
recovery, diversification and quantitative expansion
with limited value addition. With maximum value
addition to all the commercially viable raw-materials
and the knowledge economy, we shall achieve the
qualitative leap to high middle income status and,
eventually, a first World status. God has enabled me
to lead the NRM for the last 60 years through the
phases I have outlined above. I believe God will see
us through the qualitative leap. I am ready to make
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my contribution in the next five years phase, both as
President and as Chairman of the NRM.
As we celebrate the victories of the NRM in the last
60 years, we should not forget to acknowledge the
earlier struggles of the Bataka-bbu of the 1920s and
IK Musaazi and his colleagues between the 1930s
and the 1950s under the Farmers’ Movement and
the UNC. Their efforts, pushed Uganda towards
Independence. It is a pity that the later sectarian
politics, undermined their efforts.
I cannot end this short address, without
congratulating the millions of the newly elected NRM
structures’ leaders from the villages upwards. It is so
pleasing to see so many, mainly young People,
coming up as the new crop of the NRM leaders. It is
now your
chance to show that you can lead well. In order to
manage politics successfully as we, your
predecessors, managed to do, you need to know that
productive politics is about ideology (philosophy,
ideology and strategy) and not just about biology
(age, gender, etc) and “jobology” (careerism). We have
gone this far because of being guided by and
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working for, the three historical missions and the
four ideological principles. These are: prosperity for
the People of Africa; strategic security for Africa; and
Undugu (brotherhood) of the Africans; and, then, the
four ideological principles of patriotism,
Pan-Africanism, socio-economic transformation and
democracy. We agree or disagree with you over these
and not any other reason. If this is your compass,
things are easy because they are guided by
principles. That is how, for instance, we were able to
work with People, even when we were not fully
agreed with their overall position. That is how we
worked with Binaisa in 1980, Yusufu Lule between
1981-1985 when he died, etc. Even with Obote, we
could have worked together or the DP in 1979-1980,
if they had been as deliberate as we were, regarding
the minimum possible programmes. With us, what is
the starting point is not the who but the what.
“What is to be done and why?”
,
as Lenin wrote. The interpersonal frictions we
observe, are not healthy. It should be the
inter-ideological contestation that we should take
care of.
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I, again, congratulate the millions of the new NRM
leaders and we shall see how to support them
affordably. My immediate advice to you is to be
wealth creators if you are not one already, so that
you do not look at leadership as a means of living —
job (murimo). Political leadership is about
okwerwanako (the People electing you to fight for
their interests) and not about being a mupakasi
(omukozi ow’ empeera — the hired shepherd that
Jesus talked about in the Book of (John 10:11-18). If
you are not yet a wealth creator already, you should
see how additional Government programmes such as
PDM and Emyooga can help you to start becoming
one. Then, the party can see how to support some of
the categories with operational costs. If our
generation had had a jobist mentality, Uganda would
never have been rescued. All of us — Kategaya,
Rwaheeru, Mwesigwa-Black, Mwesiga Martin,
Ruzindana, Birihanze, Dennis Echou, Myself, etc,
had well-paying Government jobs. On account of
conviction, we left those jobs to fight for the
salvation of Uganda. Where would Uganda be,
if we had not done that? What do the younger
generations learn from that? You do not have to fight
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with arms now. However, you should volunteer to
serve your People by defending their legitimate
interests against corruption, fraud, criminality, land
evictions, etc. This is the role of principled political
leadership.
Long live the sixty years of victories and progress.
Long live the efforts of the Ugandan freedom fighters.
Long live the qualitative leap to a USD 500 billion
economy.
All glory to God our creator and sustainer.
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, General (Rtd) Ssabalwanyi
Ssamalungu
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA
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