ENTEBBE – President Yoweri Museveni has re-emphasized the need for Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) officers to be patriotic and internalize fully the meaning of patriotism.
The President who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces,was interfacing with Special Forces Command (SFC) at 10 Marines Battalion Headquarters in Entebbe Municipality, Wakiso District.
“An officer must be a priest who knows the gospel of the Army. You are not a follower but a leader. The Army means thinking critically, having the conviction and understanding the mission and foundation for which the UPDF was founded, he said adding that the kind of love you must have for Uganda should not be an emotional love.”
Mr. Museveni who had earlier toured and inspected SFC’s facilities as well as the houses that are being constructed at the Marines’ Headquarters, told SFC officers that while the old traditional Army was filled with tribal arrogance, ignorance, witchcraft, anti-people sentiments and later became the colonial Army serving the interests of the colonialists, the UPDF, is a liberation Army that should embrace patriotism, Pan-Africanism, socio-economic transformation and democracy.
“Colonial Army came with a mission to govern us. If you didn’t listen to the Governor, the colonial Army comes for you. The second mission was to economically exploit, politically marginalize and socially govern us. In the 1960s, Uganda as a British colony was the second biggest producer of cotton but the factories were in Manchester,” he said.
He explained that the processing of cotton produced in Uganda outside the country meant donation of jobs and value.
Mr. Museveni said the people of Uganda should work to ensure reversal of the colonial trend and establish industries in the country to process raw materials into finished products locally.
This, he said will fight unemployment and modern slavery of selling the country’s products without adding value to them.
