38th anniversary: Museveni hails Busoga for supporting liberation struggle

“I want to thank the people of Busoga because they took part in our struggle. In 1972, I was with Eng. Sam Kasadha. First of all, we went to Busesa, we turned to the left and went inside where we had a group," Museveni said.

"We also had William Nkoko, Rashid Ntale, and James Mbigit, who drove a tipper for us, then in Jinja town here, we had Badru Lubanga, the photographer. In the second round, we had the likes of Mzee Kivejinja and they supported us all the time, and after the victory you have been supporting the NRM.”

The President, who was in the company of the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Janet Museveni, made the remarks while officiating at the 38th NRM victory anniversary celebrations held in Jinja City at St. John S.S.S. Wakitaka Playgrounds in Jinja Northern Division.

The commemoration ran under the theme 'building a country we all cherish'.

President Museveni noted that he was happy that Ugandans were celebrating this year’s victory day in Jinja, attributing the decision to the support the people of Busoga have been giving to the ruling government.

He however urged wanainchi to listen carefully to the NRM message if they were to overcome poverty and create wealth for their homesteads. He emphasized the need to embrace the four-acre model with calculation to enhance their livelihoods.

“When I came here in 2018, I told you what you should do. You never heard me talking about sugarcanes because to recommend sugarcanes to someone with four acres or less is to condemn him to poverty; sugarcane and cotton are not crops for a person with small land. We need them but they should be grown by people with medium or large pieces of land,” the President noted.

“For the small pieces of land we recommended coffee, fruits, zero grazing for dairy cattle, food crops, then in the backyard you put pigs if you are not a Muslim, chicken for eggs,  then finally fish farming, you can have fish farming in a friendly environment.”

President Museveni also cautioned the people against encroaching on swamps in the name of rice growing. He advised that swamps should be preserved so that the water from them is pumped to dry land for irrigation.

President Museveni rallied the people of Busoga to support his renewed fight against the saboteurs of the Universal Primary Education (UPE).

On the issue of missing drugs in government health facilities, the President assured the people of Busoga that the government is going to check and deal with the matter.

President Museveni assured the people of Busoga that the government plans to work on the major roads in the subregion.

“There are many roads we want to do but we shall start with the major ones like the Jinja Bridge- Budondo- Butagaya-Matumu road, Kamuli to Bukungu, Iganga through Luuka to Kamuli and Kaliro,” he said.

President Museveni also noted that the government was aware of the opposition that uses some Ugandans for their ill and selfish motives.

This was after an accident victim Moses Ssimbwa was paraded before the President during the celebrations and confessed that he was used by the opposition to falsely accuse the government of torture.