By David Serumaga
It is just one month and a few days to the polling day. As we speak, our candidate, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is still the most popular candidate even when we do not have public rallies as it used to be. This information today serves to detail to you the gains that the NRM continues to make in this campaign and the reasons why we are sure to win again in the upcoming polls.
First and foremost, NRM has had a track record of successes since assuming leadership of the country 35years ago. The foundation of this success is based on NRM capacity of ensuring Peace, Security and Stability to all parts of the country.
This has been achieved by NRM because it has fought and won wars against rebels like; the Uganda People’s Army, Uganda People’s Democratic Army, Holy Spirit Movement of Alice Lakwena, Uganda Nile Bank Front of Colonel Juma Oris Abdallah, Lord Resistance Army of Joseph Kony and the Allied Democratic Forces of Jamil Mukulu and other small uprisings.
Another success story is to do with Economic Growth; Uganda under the NRM government has achieved economic growth in all sectors of the economy. Uganda for the last 25 years had the 11th fastest growing economy in the whole world and 4th in Africa according to economic growth data from the IMF for 189 countries.
Through a liberalized economic policy, Uganda has been able to nurture a vibrant private sector that has largely contributed to the tax base. The same liberalized policy has made it possible for foreign direct investment to be attracted to the Ugandan economy.
The real economic growth averaging 6.1% since 1986. As a result, the economy has expanded nearly nine times to Ush128.5 trillion (US$34.7b) in 2019 from Ush14.4 trillion (US$3.9b) in 1986. Domestic revenue collection increased from Ush5b in FY1985/86 to Ush17, 589b in FY2019/20. A number of multinational companies have setup shops in Kampala and other urban centers
On the governance side, Uganda is enjoying a high degree of empowerment that has enabled either too marginalized groups such as women, youth, disabled, workers and elderly to participate in the leadership and decision making. The 1995 constitution which was made after thorough consultation from the population, returned power to the people as stated in Chapter one of the constitution (1) “All power belongs to the people who shall exercise their sovereignty in accordance with this Constitution”.
NRM has enhanced Democracy which was enshrined in that constitution through provisions that makes it possible for free and fair regular elections for people to choose their leaders.
NRM has organized free and fair elections in 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016 which were all successfully won by President Museveni under the NRM party.
The most surprising one is that this time around, through President Museveni’s leadership, we are having a presidential candidate by the names of Katumba John 24ys who is a fresh graduate from Makerere University. This indicates that the NRM government has created space for every adult citizen with the required qualifications to contest any political position
In the infrastructure development, from 2016 to 2020, 1,162.0kms of new roads have been tarmacked; 449.2kms of old tarmac roads have been repaired and the ongoing construction is at 1,375.0km. 12 new ferries are now operating which has made water transport network to be prioritized serving 3.5million Ugandans. The innovation of creating a road fund has made it possible for the government to fund a sustainable and predictable basis. Given that the funding is internally generated, investment in the road infrastructure is more predictable in terms of implementation.
Service Delivery is also a strong success story due to the introduction of UPE and USE that has revolutionized the education sector. Because of UPE, which started in 1997, and USE in 2007, the literacy rate has improved from 43% to 75%. Enrollment in primary and secondary schools is now at 10.7 million pupils and 3 million students, respectively.
The 2021 NRM manifestly provides a Primary school per parish, Secondary school per sub-county, and Technical school per constituency.
Besides, there more classrooms, laboratories and teachers houses which are going to be constructed. The welfare of the teachers is being addressed through the salary increment and sending money in the teachers SACCOs that has enabled them to be creative and innovative.
The expansion of university education from one university in 1986 to 39 universities today, which has increased the enrollment of students from 5,390 in 1986 to 195,238 and above.
Affirmative action of the girl child of 1.5 points has helped to increase access to education by the girl child. The University loan scheme has been beneficial to children from poor families that have not done so well to attract government sponsorship. All those opportunities have enabled Ugandans to access university education.
This involves aspects like immunization, hygiene, nutrition, vector-control, treatment and maternal health. In order to do all this, NRM built 1,079 HCIIIs, 182 HCIVs, 53 district hospitals, 14 regional referral hospitals, five national referral hospitals and five super specialized hospitals. Building this capacity is both an opportunity and a challenge.
Most of the medical supplies, vaccines, and scholastic materials must be made in Uganda so that importing stops. During this period of COVID-19 pandemic, our candidate Yoweri Museveni has been at the forefront of cubing this virus, he has continuously advised Ugandans to follow the Ministry of Health Standard Operating Procedures and deliberately refused to participate in mass rallies like other opposition leaders which put the lives of Ugandans at a high risk of acquiring and spreading COVID-19 pandemic.
Secondly the Organization Strength has made NRM party to remain powerful in Uganda’s political arena. Further to the above record, organizational strength in terms of the party infrastructure is another factor that guarantees NRM a sure win in the upcoming polls. The NRM’s structures are deeply extensive and encompassing, with party leaders from the village to the national level.
Internal party electoral processes also play a significant contribution to our success as a party. These party processes alone have generated 2,508,060 leaders as detailed below.
a. Party structure
i) Branches: 70,626 village X 30 leaders =2,118,780
ii) Parish: 10,595 parish X 30 leaders =317,850
iii) Sub-county: 2,184 sub-counties X 30 leaders =65520
iv) District: 146 districts for NRM X 40 leaders = 5,840
v) National league: 70 members
The above breakdown gives a total number 2, 508,060 of structural leaders/NRM voters. With this kind of distribution, an NRM member has to mobilize 10 people and the entire country will be done. Apart from NRM, there is no record of any other party who is having unopposed flag bearers in the recently concluded parliamentary nominations, NRM has seven unopposed Members of Parliament who are just waiting to take oath next year.
b) Part membership
As you all know, NRM is no doubt the largest party in the country. The party has a total membership of 11.3 million people countrywide. Being one a well-organized party in Uganda, it is a remarkable achievement that the party has been able to grow to such an impressive size in such a short time. This massive growth has been a result of good leadership from the party’s officials, an ideology that resonates well among the citizens, among other important factors.
c) Representation in all elective offices
NRM is the only party which has had the preparation and organization to manage to field candidates in all elective offices. This goodwill has not only been extended to the President, as the party chairman, but also to the NRM party as evidenced by our internal survey which indicates that NRM will win this election by 75%.
Candidate strength is our third point of success in this coming election. The NRM Presidential candidate, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has many qualities that are admired over his opponents. The candidate is highly respected nationally and as well as internationally.
During this period of Covid-19, he is the only presidential candidate who has not held a public rally but rather opted for meeting a few party members who maintain the Ministry of Health Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
This proves that with President Museveni, the health of Ugandans comes as a first priority. He is a strong leader, decisive, confident, experienced, and knowledgeable and grass root based. He is the personification of the peace enjoyed by Ugandans and an embodiment of the Steady Progress our country has experienced over time.
Lastly, Mobilization technique is another reason we always win and why we are sure to win again in this election. Our door-to-door and scientific campaign which is based on the district to village model has enabled our candidate to reach out to majority of the party and influential leaders who will deliver his message to the voters without making mass rallies and following COVID-19 SOPs.
The district to village model has made our campaigns highly organized, focused and predictable. Mobilization based on the village conferences or branches has been very effective. The National Task Force has been able to deploy teams to all the districts in the country.
At the districts, further deployment are made to go down up to the branch level where a campaign message from the Chairman of the party is shared with the village conferences not exceeding the requested well-spaced and masked participants.
With the above seven reasons, it is certain that NRM destined to win this election based on its focused leadership and mass support as illustrated with the relevant statistic.
It is important to note that candidate Museveni’s popularity goes beyond the NRM party and there many other Ugandans out there who prefer him for the presidency on the basis of his individual merit.
For that matter, it should not come as a surprise to anyone at all when candidate Museveni registers a landslide victory on 14th January 2021, despite of the distortion, lies and negative propaganda.
One thing is certain that Ugandans want peace, security and stability, healthy Ugandans as a basis for Securing Our Future and the person to guarantee that is Yoweri Kaguta Museveni the presidential candidate for the NRM party. I call upon all Ugandans to give him overwhelming support for He is the only one who deserves it.
By David Serumaga
@david_serumaga