President Yoweri Museveni who is also the NRM presidential flag bearer has rallied party youth leaders from Bukedi sub-region to get engaged in wealth creation activities that will help them fight poverty.
Museveni, who was meeting NRM youth leaders from Pallisa, Butebo, Budaka, Kibuku, Butaleja, Tororo district, Tororo municipality , Busia district and Busia municipality as he concluded his scientific campaigns in Bukedi sub-region emphasized that people can only get out of the wallowing poverty if they engage in activities to boost their wealth but starting from their own homes.
“What I want to emphasize is that if you want to help your people, the starting point is homestead incomes. Concentrate on home. If homes change, everything will change,” Museveni told the NRM leaders.
Citing examples in some of the local dialects to drive home his points amid cheers from the youth leaders at Mbale Secondary School grounds, the NRM presidential flag bearer said he started on the journey of increasing household incomes for the people of Ankole sub-region in the 1960s and that it has borne some fruits.
“That was the problem of the Banyankole that I saw in 1959 by comparing what was happening at the government farm and what we were doing in villages.
The 1969 census confirmed what I had seen that 96% of homesteads in Uganda were working for only the stomach. I went out seriously beyond my family to ask people to work for the stomach and pocket but also to do so with calculation,” he said.
The President said that by working for both the stomach and pockets but with calculation, also known as wealth creation, Ugandans can ably get out of what he termed as self-induced poverty that many are currently living in.
He insisted that the NRM leaders should lead the way by practicing wealth creation but also preaching its gospel to the population they lead.
“Why don’t you talk about this? Why do you have to have a poverty conservation program? This is not correct. The NRM has been talking about this problem since 1995 but because of multiple voices from different people, our message has not been listened to. If you want to be useful to your people, start with incomes of the homes.”
President Museveni also emphasized the need for the East African integration so as to provide a market for the surplus goods produced locally.
The Bukedi NRM youth leaders who were grateful to the President for the achievements in the past 34 years presented him with an art piece but also promised to ensure they canvass votes for all party flag bearers in the forthcoming election.
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