Africa-Press – Uganda. President Museveni has told Ugandans to stop associating him with poverty as he seeks to extend his leadership because he is not poor.
Speaking on July 5, 2025, to supporters in Kampala shortly after being nominated to carry the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party’s flag in the forthcoming elections, Mr Museveni said it’s high time for every Ugandan household to build wealth and liberate themselves from poverty.
“Poverty is yours….tonteka mubwavu bwo, nze sili mwavu (loosely translated as ‘Don’t put me in your poverty because I am not’). That’s why we tell all families to make wealth,” Mr Museveni, who has been in power for nearly four decades, told charged supporters at the party’s EC offices in Kampala.
He further added, “Every home must have wealth which is personal and private so that poverty is eliminated. People talk about roads, but they forget to talk about wealth. Roads are for all of us but wealth is for the family, the company, the Division. If you have got roads, electricity, but no wealth at home, the country will not move,” Mr Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, said.
The president, who was also nominated to contest for the NRM party National Chairperson position again, pledged that wealth creation will be a core of his mandate once re-elected in office.
“If the homes don’t have wealth, how will the economy grow? We need roads, but what will families put on the roads? Those roads are built with borrowed money, but the families, companies, and individuals are not producing wealth. This is what we don’t agree with. The ghetto kids have been in poverty despite development being all around them. That’s why we must stop this diversion,” he added.
READ: Museveni’s official speech at NRM nomination
Mr Museveni has, however, been accused of using patronage and corruption at the expense of taxpayers’ money to maintain his grip on power. He has denied the accusations.
Between 1986 and 1996, Mr Museveni ruled uninterrupted, where he, among others, reportedly stabilised the economy and brought in relative peace which the country had not witnessed since independence.
Mr Museveni later sought election in 1996, which he won with a landslide victory against Paul Ssemogerere. He subsequently sought re-election in 2001, 2006, after legislators who subscribe to the ruling NRM party eliminated the term limits, in 2011, 2016, 2021, after the elimination of the age limit, and is now seeking another term to extend his rule beyond 40 years.
He faced his fellow Bush war comrade and personal doctor, Dr Kizza Besigye in 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016 races, and popstar turned politician Robert Kyagulanyi in the 2021 polls, all of which he was declared the winner amid opposition protests and accusations of ballot stuffing.
Following the unsuccessful previous poverty eradication programmes, including the Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) currently headed by his younger brother Gen Caleb Akandwanaho, alias Salim Saleh, Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP), among others, the President in the current term, rolled out the Parish Development Model (PDM), which he has occasionally reported to be a success, marred with arrests over corruption.
Speaking at the State of the Nation Address (SONA) last month, Mr Museveni said that the programme that has so far received Shs3.6 trillion, had given 400,000 Ugandans direct access to money.
Speaking to his supporters after being nominated to carry the party flag, Mr Museveni once again outlined six priority areas which he would tackle once re-elected.
These, he said are: Peace, where he will ensure that there is no war and control of crime, development by construction of roads, electricity and other infrastructure, wealth, where all people will be eradicated from poverty.
However, his critics say the peace for the country and security of the citizens which was once the cornerstone and selling point of his government, is fast melting away like glaciers on the approach of the summer heat.
With another electioneering season around the corner, many fear the worst is yet to happen, with threats of violence frequently issued from security circles. Such extreme state-sponsored violence is the new normal, usually justified and defended or accompanied by winding promises of investigations and accountability or by silence by those in charge.
The others priorities are promotion of services in health, education, and spirituality, markets for the produced goods and services, and jobs.
“We want to create jobs from wealth, for example, the wealth of private people. The wealth is mine, whether it is a farm, a factory, a hotel, transport company; they are mine, but in the process, they create wealth to Ugandans…The government can also have wealth like National Water, Uganda Airlines, National Enterprise Corporation,” he said.
But with public debt at around 52 per cent of the country’s GDP, many economists say the economy needs fixing before it is too late.
However, Mr Museveni argues, and rightly so, that there’s linkage between wealth and job.
“We are now letting our people show that we should make sure that we educate everybody. Many families think the government should provide jobs so that their children can come to Kampala and waste a lot of time looking for jobs which are not there. We need to court investors.”
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