President Museveni has said the issue is not really about who is chosen to lead Uganda but what the people (Ugandans) need and care about.
The president was speaking to KTN News journalist Sophia Wanuna in an interview aired on Sunday, October 16, 2022.
“We are not after ‘who’ but ‘what’ first. The ‘what’ will determine the ‘who’ we pick as choice of a leader,” he explained.
Pres. Yoweri Museveni: We are not after ‘who’ but ‘what’ first. The ‘what’ will determine the ‘who’ we pick as choice of a leader
Click on the link to watch the full interview: https://t.co/EVqtOPxy4K#MuseveniOnKTN pic.twitter.com/sIOmLMf2nr
— KTN News (@KTNNewsKE) October 16, 2022
“We were part of the old political parties but in 1965, I moved out of the catholic party. Other boys moved from the other part of the protestants and we formed a new line: we don’t care who you are, what we care about is what you need.”
Museveni said Uganda has got owners—the population. “Those people, they are here, and they are increasing in number. Really the issue is not the “who”, who leads, who leads…as I told you in the beginning, it is the “what”. What should be done?”
He went on: “When you see the issues we have been dealing with since 1986…because I have been a student leader…they are the same problems…different phases of the same problems. Now, we are in an easier phase where we are running a country and the question is…at every stage, we sit down and say what is to be done?”
The president explained why presidential term limits were removed from the constitution of Uganda.
“Those term limits you are talking about, we talked about them. We had put them but then when we got to some point, we said, ‘what is needed’? And we debated. The whole country debated and said we need all hands on deck. You know that expression in the navy when everybody is needed. So, that is really the issue, the issue is not the “who”. For us, the issue is the what.”
According to Museveni, the problem in Uganda before was not poverty or anything but poor leadership.
He said the problem was that leaders were bringing the traditional system, where people just worked to eat. “It was more of a subsistence economy, and not a money economy.”
He said out of the 60 years that Uganda has been independent, only 36 years have been progressive.
Pres. Yoweri Museveni: The years of progress in Uganda are only 36 because the initial 24 years we regressed. As you can see, Uganda is a very rich country
Click on the link to watch the full interview: https://t.co/EVqtOPPHiS#MuseveniOnKTN pic.twitter.com/AgQPmv44zR
— KTN News (@KTNNewsKE) October 16, 2022
“In the initial 24 years [post-independence], we regressed. When I took control as president in 1986, our vision was clear on the issues of philosophy, ideology and strategy. If it were not for the opposition by the external forces, the imperialists and the local people, we would have been very far as a country,” he noted.
“When you fellows say history, history, I say ‘what you people call History?’. I call it current affairs because I was there. I was 18 years old in secondary school and I was following your people there in Kenya. They were all young people; the only old person was Jomo Kenyatta (founding Kenyan President). That is what really we have sort of marked time.”
Pres. Yoweri Museveni: What you people call History; I call current affairs because I was there
Click on the link to watch the full interview: https://t.co/P6YsPGEPii#MuseveniOnKTN pic.twitter.com/sB7xRb2sVM
— KTN News (@KTNNewsKE) October 16, 2022