By Godfrey Olukya 10-6-2013
President Yoweri Museveni has assured Ugandans of sustainable peace and security saying the war of guns is over and that nobody can destabilize Uganda again.
“Whoever tries to cause problems, we finish them. Besigye tried to disorganize Kampala and we gave him a little tear gas and he calmed down. He didn’t need a bullet, just a little gas,” he said urging Ugandans to jealously guard the peace and exploit it to promote development.
“A dog can look at gold and it won’t know its value but when you give it a bone, even if there is no meat on the bone, it can be very happy. We are at war to bring what is important to the people now. After the bush war, there were no factories. The only income for government was the tax from a few civil servants and consumer tax on goods. There was no money at first but because of the good way we handled the economy, most factories came back through a lot of difficulty and hard work. But some leaders don’t care that
we need these industries. They fight development. These factories give us jobs for our children, add value to our products and pay corporation tax to government. It is amazing to see some leaders fight them,” he said.
The President was last evening speaking as chief guest at the 24th Heroes day anniversary celebrations at Nakaseke District Headquarters at Butalangu.
The ceremonies were presided by a heroes and mourners parade at the monument in Wakyato were over 769 people killed during the bush war were buried in a mass grave. The ceremony which was attended by the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga, the Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki, the Minister for the Presidency Frank Tumwebaze and the Chief of Defence Forces General Katumba Wamala, the Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura, the Commissioner General of Prisons Johnson Byabasaija and the Dean of the
Diplomatic Corps also had a three gun salute in memory of the fallen Ugandans.
At the main celebrations, various Ugandans were awarded medals, some of them posthumously for their contribution to the struggle for peace and development under various categories including the Kagera medal, the Nalubale medal, the Luwero Medal and the 50th jubille medal given to the members of the UPDF.
The President who gave an in-depth history to the struggle for peace urged radio stations in the country to sensitize Ugandans about the road to recovery saying the people need to know why government priorities sectors like education and infrastructure before anything else.
“The way Uganda was moving, if we did not come out and make sacrifices, there would be no peace. The leaders who were there didn’t know anything except killing people. When we came in, we had to rehabilitate and restore our country. The coffers were empty. In 1986, we collected Shs 5 billion only for the whole country, now the country collects over Shs 8000 billion,” he said.
He criticized those wjo say that his government has so far done nothing for the country.
“We have moved but there is still malicious miscommunication. The people who know these things deliberately keep the information away from the people and keep them in the dark,” he said.
He urged families to focus more on improving household incomes by engaging in modern agro production and exploiting small acreages of land through enterprise selection and mix of enterprises such as fruits, poultry, piggery, coffee, bananas, tomatoes and onions.
The President also called upon Ugandans not to relax the HIV/AIDS fight saying there is still no cure.
“Let’s work hard and raise our children but we should not let them die of AIDS,” he said.
The ceremony was punctuated by light entertainment and was attended by thousands of Ugandans from around the country.
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