Intake 06/23 of newly commissioned Junior officers have completed a one-month intensive Post Cadet Ideological Orientation training course at the Oliver Reginald Tambo School of Leadership, Kaweweta in Nakaseke District.
Officiating at the pass-out ceremony, the Commandant Military Police, Maj Gen Don Nabaasa, who represented the Commander Land Force, Lt Gen Kayanja Muhanga, noted that the security of Uganda is still calm only that terrorism, cattle rustling, general criminality and effects of bad weather continue to threaten national security.
He added that ADF and Al-Shabaab elements still pose security threats in Eastern DRC and Somalia, respectively.
He also noted that the situation in the Karamoja subregion under 3Div and 5 Div is normalising as cattle rustling is reducing and a number of rustlers have been demobilized and others arraigned in courts of law.
He congratulated the UPDF/FARDC under Operation Shujaa in Eastern DRC and ATMIS in Somalia for a job well done. He called upon all graduands to vouch for Pan-African integration for improved security and economic status.
“We have a lot of hope in you young officers who will soon take over leadership responsibilities of the UPDF so as to move the country forward. Defending the sovereignty of a country is a do or die and requires solid ideological grounding,” Maj Gen Nabaasa emphasized.
Speaking at the same function, Col Okei Rukogota representing Maj Gen Henry Matsiko, the Chief Political Commissar (CPC)
noted that participants were being trained to take over the reins of the UPDF as the current leaders gradually retire.
“This achievement is yet another great milestone in the growth of this centre of leadership training,” he said.
Quoting the Japanese kaizen principle, Col Rukogota encouraged graduands never to settle in self-complacence but rather seek greater and greater ideological glory to be able to acquire the capacity they require to undertake greater tasks excellently.
He called on everyone in their various capacities to engage in ideological training and defeat the enemies of peace and development.
The Deputy Director General Internal Security Organisation, Lt Col Immy Katabaazi, advised graduands to always put ideology at the forefront of whatever they undertake to do.
“To an officer of the army the guiding element is ideology, without ideology any force would be a disaster,” noted Lt Col Katabaaazi.
“The aim of the course was to impart ideological knowledge to enable the freshly commissioned junior officers to be change agents in their respective units and formations.
According to the Commandant of the Leadership School, Col Justus K Rukundo, the group of 485 participants, 47 of them female, started the training course on 21st March 2023.
He encouraged the graduating participants to always aim for the greater good of self and society, beginning the change they wish to have in society by changing themselves first.
Participants were taken through a number of training programmes that included skill at arms, body physical fitness training, ideological clarity and consciousness training at the individual, institutional and national levels and Kiswahili language, among others.
Earlier, Maj Gen Nabaasa planted a tree in recognition of the UPDF leadership call to save the environment.
A number of UPDF Senior and Junior officers graced the function with their presence.
