{UAH} COMPULSORY NATIONAL SERVICE - MUSEVENI"S FINAL BLOW TO THE YOUTH
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COMPULSORY NATIONAL SERVICE - MUSEVENI"S FINAL BLOW TO THE YOUTH
"In the case of countries like Uganda and Nigeria, it is very unforgivable how people mismanage our human resources by using sectarian and chavunistic ideologies;.........If any person promises friction in society, then that fellow is the biggest enemy. Indoctrination of youths by ideologically confused actors should be rejected"
Museveni's address during the lecture on "Education and National Development; An African Perspective" at the National Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in Abuja Nigeria - 4th Dec 2013.
MUSEVENI AND THE YOUTHS IN 1970S and 80s
Right from the inception of his treacherous journey to the Presidency, Museveni has used and abused the youths. During the 1970s he destroyed the lives of many youths whom he lured into fighting the Iddi
Amin regime using very shrewd methods for his personal gain. During the busg war (1981-86) thousands of youths either perished or their lives were destroyed beyond repair. From the male child soldiers commonly known as Kadogos and the female teenage sex slaves to the unwilling school drop outs who composed the bulk of his original NRA, lives of youths were destroyed.
THE YOUTH AND THE NORTHERN INSURGENCY
Throughout the insurgency in the northern and north eastern regions of Uganda, it is the youths who bore the brunt of that conflict. Both the rebels and the government targeted the youths to swell their ranks. While the rebels would either lure or kidnap youths into rebellion, the government took advantage of the social and economic breakdown to recruit the youths from the insurgency affected regions first directly into the army and later into militia groups to fight off the insurgents in return for a small pay. Museveni's mlitary expeditions into the Congo, CAR, Sudan, Somalia etc had the youths from the insurgency affected areas at hand to fill in the required numerical strength. This is how the northern region has once again had to dominate the army though for strategic reasons this time round Museveni has restricted their access to top command positions.
MUSEVENI'S ECONOMIC MISMANAGEMENT AND THE YOUTHS
Under Museveni economic emancipation is a privilege of the few who access opportunities through patronage and sectarian avenues. With high levels of institutionalized nepotism and corruption, the majority of the youths are left with no means of livelihood. Uganda has the world's youngest population where over 78% of this population is below 30 years and about 12 million are aged between 15 - 30 years. The country also boosts of having one of the highest youth unemployment rate South of the Sahara yet its population is growing at an ALARMING
rate annually.
In 1993 the government enacted a National Youth Council Act 1993 that gave rise to the National Youth Council as an autonomous and leading organisation in empowering youths and to act as an umbrella for the young people and all youth organisations in Uganda. It was charged with mobilising and engaging youths in development activities. The 1995 constitution Article 78 (1) (c) recognises the youths as part of the SPECIAL interest groups under affirmative action framework to have representation in Parliament. Currently there are four youth members of parliament representing the youth from the four regions of Uganda. That constitutional provision was reinforced by the Children's Act 1997 and in 2001 a National Youth Policy was put in place as a strategic policy guideline for youth engagement in governance and development process. It defines the youth as young persons male or female aged between 12 - 30 years. It represented a declaration and commitment of the priorities and support the country was to provide for the youth development in order to put them at the center of national development and governance.
Under the Ministry of Labour and social Development there is a department of Children and Youth Affairs headed by a Minister of State for Children and Youth Affairs. The department is charged with ensuring care, protection and empowerment of children and youths. Uganda a has a good number of community based organisations that provide training, counseling, support programmes to the young people. Because of political conflicts, AIDS, social and economic enequalities many young people have been out of school, internally displaced, orphaned, and lack job skills. Therefore, poverty, gender based inequalities and location based disparities have become an accepted way of life. Rural to urban migration due to high levels of unemployment has bread extreme poverty amongst the youth who are the majority amongst Uganda's population. Consequently, the situation leads to increased organised crime, lawlessness, political and social conflict.
There has been a number of cosmetic government interventions aimed at addressing the plight of youths but due to lack of political will to empower the youths coupled by high levels of institutionalized corruption, patronage, nepotism, abuse of office, outright theft of public resources etc nothing much has been achieved. Under the peace, recovery and development plans for northern Uganda, the youth had been planned for as core beneficiaries inspecific actions through Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF) and others but they were deliberately mismanaged by the regime. Other previous intervention schemes like Entandikwa, Enterprise scheme, Skying Uganda, Youth Venture Capital Fund etc were all mismanaged by government due to lack of political will because Museveni prefers reigning over an impoverished society.
In another gamble, the government hastily put in place an Employment and Recruitment of Ugandan Migrant Workers Abroad Regulations 2005 using statutory instrument No. 62 of 2005. The scheme aimed at promoting full and equality EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES for Ugandan migrant workers abroad. Government was to regulate by overseeing deployment of migrant workers to countries that had labor and securing better terms and conditions of service for them. At the time opportunities were available in Iraq for civilian security guards and its mostly youths from certain regions who dominantly benefited because the pioneer recruitment companies were owned by powerful politically connected individuals from the same region. Since then the government has registered over 24 private recruitment companies who export migrant workers to mainly the Middle East and Asia. The level of abuse and unfair exploitation of these migrant workers especially the female youths has been alarming. At one time 79 youths irregularly destined for Syria were intercepted at Nairobi Airport. Organised international criminal syndicates have taken advantage of their disparity by luring them into human and drug trafficking whereby some have been arrested, convicted and killed while others are on death row in those countries.
IMPACT OF ARAB SPRING ON YOUTHS IN UGANDA
Despite all the above discussed cosmetic intervention measures by government, Museveni who prefers to reign over an impoverished society always had one message for the educated unemployed youths: "Join the security forces". But since the advent of his son and other cadres on the security arena, even the job SLOTS in the security forces have been ring fenced for certain categories of Ugandans. In an effort to personalise the security forces as a custodian of his life presidency project, it is his son and close military cadres who have taken the center stage in forging 'an army (SFC) within the army'. It is this SFC that is the custodian of his life presidency project.
For the uneducated youths who had been left to forge their own destiny, the advent of the Arab Spring was handy. Following the 2011 rigged elections, the opposition attempted to rally these youths for street demonstrations thus drawing Museveni's attention to their potential to challenge his dictatorship. Much earlier even before the Arab Spring, former Kampala Mayor Nasser Ssebagala had threatened to rally unemployed urban youth to storm Museveni's palace and force him out only to be averted by the last minute intervention that was coordinated by Gen Ssejusa. The traditional DP youth platform under the Uganda Young Democrats (UYD) had been neutralised by branding them Baganda subversives and were subjected to intimidation, harassment, arrests, detentions and outright bribery. Since then Museveni embarked on hoodwinking the urban youthsand that is why most of the cosmetic interventions have been urban focused.
Security motivated measures to secure Kampala city involved the taking over of its running by denying the opposition Lord Mayor from accessing his office. More to that removal of youths from the central business district who are engaged in public transport, market vending, street vending, bodabodas, etc in order to make it suffocate ease of mobility in case the oppositions plans to rally them for an Arab Spring type of scenario. Further city law enforcement was taken over by state security operatives who maintain a 24/7 surveillance on each and every corner of the city for a possible uprising thus the idea behind violent conduct by these purported city law enforcement personnel.
To counter the growing pressure from youths, Museveni embarked on promoting his party's NRM Youth League which has structures up to the grass root level. It is under the National Chairperson Mr. Denis Namara who also doubles as Museveni's Senior Presidential Adviser on Children and Youth Affairs. Parallel to the Chairman of the NRM Youth League there is the Minister of Children and Youth Affairs Ronald Kibuule. At each regional level there are powerful NRM Youth League executives. Out of the four youth representatives in parliament, three of them belong to Museveni's pary. Its the youth MP for northern Uganda Miss Anitte who knelt down during a retreat to present a petition to Museveni for his life presidency project dubbed Sole Candidacy. Therefore, by taking the center stage the NRM Youth League overshadows the earlier formed National Youth Council.
Following the power struggle between Museveni and his former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi over the later's perceived intentions to vie for the party leadership position, the NRM Youth league took a center stage but was split. Initially it was clear that the youths were for Amama Mbabazi and opposed to Museveni's sole candidature. Museveni embarked on dishing out millions of tax payer's money to individual youth leaders and groups to buy their loyalty. Consequently, a splinter group of the NRM Youth League calling itself the NRM Poor Youth and allied to Amama Mbabazi came up thus increasing the bargain price. The two camps within the NRM Youth league (Museveni and Amama) have used their financial muscles to further exploit the youth. The opposition allied National Association for Unemployed Youths (NAUY) has also been pushing for its recognition through demonstrations.
It is in the midst of this panic that Museveni rolled out a fully fledged cash bonanza for youths by throwing out money to them any how without sustainably addressing their challenges. In early 2014 he personally carried and delivered 250 million shilling sack of cash, a truck, van and 15 motorcycles to a youth group in Busoga region. It had to take the police intervention to entangle the youths who immediately after started fighting over this bounty. In September 2014 Minister Namayanja ordered for the recovery of 12 of the 16 heifers that had been given to them by Museveni as part of the 126 billion shillings 438 heifers that were meant for youth groups of central Uganda. You can guess the supply chain and beneficiaries of these billions of shillings for procuring heifers because they are not imported from Denmark. Currently the youths in Lango subregion are at each others throats over unfair distribution of 290 million shillings donated by Museveni to a youth group called NRM Moblisers for NRM all the time. The list of uncoordinated and unaccounted for dishing out of public money to youth groups by Museveni is endless. By implication every youth is presupposed to belong to the the NRM under the NRM Youth League.
YOUTH LIVELIHOOD PROGRAM (YLP)
In 2003 Museveni came up with a a five years 265 billion shilling anti poverty project targeting the jobless youths. Under the Labor Ministry, the scheme is meant to purchase assets and provide capital to youth groups whose membership is 10 - 15. Each interest group will access 12.5million shillings interest free LOANS that require no collateral and each year 53 billion shillings will be budgeted for. No doubt, the scheme is another of the Museveni tricks to hoodwink the youth and a campaign tool for 2016 against a background of growing discontent in the country.
PATRIOTISM AND COMPULSORY NATIONAL SERVICE
Previous attempts to brainwash and indoctrinate the youths by Museveni through quash military/political EDUCATION PROGRAMS could not take root. Later he came up with patriotism clubs in schools under the the office of the President where unsuspecting youths are compelled to undergo political and military indoctrination. Students in institutions of higher learning are hoarded into police and military camps for quash military training and ideological indoctrination. Some other youths in general are being conscripted into quash paramilitary training and political indoctrinations under the guise of Crime Preventers. Recently the Inspector General of Police announced a plan to recruit another two million Crime Preventers ahead of the 2016 general elections. These youths are being lured into the equivalency of Gestapo - NAZI's secret Police.
To further cement the ideological indoctrination along the Chinese, Russia, North Korea, Cuba and other communist states, Museveni has now announced a compulsory National Service as a component of the National Development Plan. Senior Six leavers will be required to undergo nine months of military training and another twelve months of practical skills in military farms, factories, industries, and workshops that will have been commenced by the army officers under the current NAADS scheme. The spirit in which the National Service scheme is being introduced is suspect and no doubt its the final blow to disaster against the youth and future of Uganda. Announcing the scheme, the government issued this statement: "National Service will be a massive program to overhaul our CIVIL service through inculcating national values,practical skills and patriotism to young people.................... It will also mean the country can have a small full time national army with majority being members in the reserve force."
The scheme is a ploy by Museveni to conscript all the educated youth into the movement ideology such that in the near future even access to a public service job will require the presentation of having successfully attended National Service as the old guards will be phased out. By the time Museveni's son takes over from him, the public service sector will be dominated by these national service cadres and the country will have gone back to a one party state. Donning a military fatigue and undergoing quash paramilitary drill can be exciting to young men but the intellectual and ideological damage will have generational lasting consequences.
INFORMATION IS POWER
Museveni's address during the lecture on "Education and National Development; An African Perspective" at the National Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in Abuja Nigeria - 4th Dec 2013.
MUSEVENI AND THE YOUTHS IN 1970S and 80s
Right from the inception of his treacherous journey to the Presidency, Museveni has used and abused the youths. During the 1970s he destroyed the lives of many youths whom he lured into fighting the Iddi
Amin regime using very shrewd methods for his personal gain. During the busg war (1981-86) thousands of youths either perished or their lives were destroyed beyond repair. From the male child soldiers commonly known as Kadogos and the female teenage sex slaves to the unwilling school drop outs who composed the bulk of his original NRA, lives of youths were destroyed.
THE YOUTH AND THE NORTHERN INSURGENCY
Throughout the insurgency in the northern and north eastern regions of Uganda, it is the youths who bore the brunt of that conflict. Both the rebels and the government targeted the youths to swell their ranks. While the rebels would either lure or kidnap youths into rebellion, the government took advantage of the social and economic breakdown to recruit the youths from the insurgency affected regions first directly into the army and later into militia groups to fight off the insurgents in return for a small pay. Museveni's mlitary expeditions into the Congo, CAR, Sudan, Somalia etc had the youths from the insurgency affected areas at hand to fill in the required numerical strength. This is how the northern region has once again had to dominate the army though for strategic reasons this time round Museveni has restricted their access to top command positions.
MUSEVENI'S ECONOMIC MISMANAGEMENT AND THE YOUTHS
Under Museveni economic emancipation is a privilege of the few who access opportunities through patronage and sectarian avenues. With high levels of institutionalized nepotism and corruption, the majority of the youths are left with no means of livelihood. Uganda has the world's youngest population where over 78% of this population is below 30 years and about 12 million are aged between 15 - 30 years. The country also boosts of having one of the highest youth unemployment rate South of the Sahara yet its population is growing at an ALARMING
rate annually.In 1993 the government enacted a National Youth Council Act 1993 that gave rise to the National Youth Council as an autonomous and leading organisation in empowering youths and to act as an umbrella for the young people and all youth organisations in Uganda. It was charged with mobilising and engaging youths in development activities. The 1995 constitution Article 78 (1) (c) recognises the youths as part of the SPECIAL
interest groups under affirmative action framework to have representation in Parliament. Currently there are four youth members of parliament representing the youth from the four regions of Uganda. That constitutional provision was reinforced by the Children's Act 1997 and in 2001 a National Youth Policy was put in place as a strategic policy guideline for youth engagement in governance and development process. It defines the youth as young persons male or female aged between 12 - 30 years. It represented a declaration and commitment of the priorities and support the country was to provide for the youth development in order to put them at the center of national development and governance. Under the Ministry of Labour and social Development there is a department of Children and Youth Affairs headed by a Minister of State for Children and Youth Affairs. The department is charged with ensuring care, protection and empowerment of children and youths. Uganda a has a good number of community based organisations that provide training, counseling, support programmes to the young people. Because of political conflicts, AIDS, social and economic enequalities many young people have been out of school, internally displaced, orphaned, and lack job skills. Therefore, poverty, gender based inequalities and location based disparities have become an accepted way of life. Rural to urban migration due to high levels of unemployment has bread extreme poverty amongst the youth who are the majority amongst Uganda's population. Consequently, the situation leads to increased organised crime, lawlessness, political and social conflict.
There has been a number of cosmetic government interventions aimed at addressing the plight of youths but due to lack of political will to empower the youths coupled by high levels of institutionalized corruption, patronage, nepotism, abuse of office, outright theft of public resources etc nothing much has been achieved. Under the peace, recovery and development plans for northern Uganda, the youth had been planned for as core beneficiaries inspecific actions through Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF) and others but they were deliberately mismanaged by the regime. Other previous intervention schemes like Entandikwa, Enterprise scheme, Skying Uganda, Youth Venture Capital Fund etc were all mismanaged by government due to lack of political will because Museveni prefers reigning over an impoverished society.
In another gamble, the government hastily put in place an Employment and Recruitment of Ugandan Migrant Workers Abroad Regulations 2005 using statutory instrument No. 62 of 2005. The scheme aimed at promoting full and equality EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
for Ugandan migrant workers abroad. Government was to regulate by overseeing deployment of migrant workers to countries that had labor and securing better terms and conditions of service for them. At the time opportunities were available in Iraq for civilian security guards and its mostly youths from certain regions who dominantly benefited because the pioneer recruitment companies were owned by powerful politically connected individuals from the same region. Since then the government has registered over 24 private recruitment companies who export migrant workers to mainly the Middle East and Asia. The level of abuse and unfair exploitation of these migrant workers especially the female youths has been alarming. At one time 79 youths irregularly destined for Syria were intercepted at Nairobi Airport. Organised international criminal syndicates have taken advantage of their disparity by luring them into human and drug trafficking whereby some have been arrested, convicted and killed while others are on death row in those countries.IMPACT OF ARAB SPRING ON YOUTHS IN UGANDA
Despite all the above discussed cosmetic intervention measures by government, Museveni who prefers to reign over an impoverished society always had one message for the educated unemployed youths: "Join the security forces". But since the advent of his son and other cadres on the security arena, even the job SLOTS
in the security forces have been ring fenced for certain categories of Ugandans. In an effort to personalise the security forces as a custodian of his life presidency project, it is his son and close military cadres who have taken the center stage in forging 'an army (SFC) within the army'. It is this SFC that is the custodian of his life presidency project.For the uneducated youths who had been left to forge their own destiny, the advent of the Arab Spring was handy. Following the 2011 rigged elections, the opposition attempted to rally these youths for street demonstrations thus drawing Museveni's attention to their potential to challenge his dictatorship. Much earlier even before the Arab Spring, former Kampala Mayor Nasser Ssebagala had threatened to rally unemployed urban youth to storm Museveni's palace and force him out only to be averted by the last minute intervention that was coordinated by Gen Ssejusa. The traditional DP youth platform under the Uganda Young Democrats (UYD) had been neutralised by branding them Baganda subversives and were subjected to intimidation, harassment, arrests, detentions and outright bribery. Since then Museveni embarked on hoodwinking the urban youthsand that is why most of the cosmetic interventions have been urban focused.
Security motivated measures to secure Kampala city involved the taking over of its running by denying the opposition Lord Mayor from accessing his office. More to that removal of youths from the central business district who are engaged in public transport, market vending, street vending, bodabodas, etc in order to make it suffocate ease of mobility in case the oppositions plans to rally them for an Arab Spring type of scenario. Further city law enforcement was taken over by state security operatives who maintain a 24/7 surveillance on each and every corner of the city for a possible uprising thus the idea behind violent conduct by these purported city law enforcement personnel.
To counter the growing pressure from youths, Museveni embarked on promoting his party's NRM Youth League which has structures up to the grass root level. It is under the National Chairperson Mr. Denis Namara who also doubles as Museveni's Senior Presidential Adviser on Children and Youth Affairs. Parallel to the Chairman of the NRM Youth League there is the Minister of Children and Youth Affairs Ronald Kibuule. At each regional level there are powerful NRM Youth League executives. Out of the four youth representatives in parliament, three of them belong to Museveni's pary. Its the youth MP for northern Uganda Miss Anitte who knelt down during a retreat to present a petition to Museveni for his life presidency project dubbed Sole Candidacy. Therefore, by taking the center stage the NRM Youth League overshadows the earlier formed National Youth Council.
Following the power struggle between Museveni and his former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi over the later's perceived intentions to vie for the party leadership position, the NRM Youth league took a center stage but was split. Initially it was clear that the youths were for Amama Mbabazi and opposed to Museveni's sole candidature. Museveni embarked on dishing out millions of tax payer's money to individual youth leaders and groups to buy their loyalty. Consequently, a splinter group of the NRM Youth League calling itself the NRM Poor Youth and allied to Amama Mbabazi came up thus increasing the bargain price. The two camps within the NRM Youth league (Museveni and Amama) have used their financial muscles to further exploit the youth. The opposition allied National Association for Unemployed Youths (NAUY) has also been pushing for its recognition through demonstrations.
It is in the midst of this panic that Museveni rolled out a fully fledged cash bonanza for youths by throwing out money to them any how without sustainably addressing their challenges. In early 2014 he personally carried and delivered 250 million shilling sack of cash, a truck, van and 15 motorcycles to a youth group in Busoga region. It had to take the police intervention to entangle the youths who immediately after started fighting over this bounty. In September 2014 Minister Namayanja ordered for the recovery of 12 of the 16 heifers that had been given to them by Museveni as part of the 126 billion shillings 438 heifers that were meant for youth groups of central Uganda. You can guess the supply chain and beneficiaries of these billions of shillings for procuring heifers because they are not imported from Denmark. Currently the youths in Lango subregion are at each others throats over unfair distribution of 290 million shillings donated by Museveni to a youth group called NRM Moblisers for NRM all the time. The list of uncoordinated and unaccounted for dishing out of public money to youth groups by Museveni is endless. By implication every youth is presupposed to belong to the the NRM under the NRM Youth League.
YOUTH LIVELIHOOD PROGRAM (YLP)
In 2003 Museveni came up with a a five years 265 billion shilling anti poverty project targeting the jobless youths. Under the Labor Ministry, the scheme is meant to purchase assets and provide capital to youth groups whose membership is 10 - 15. Each interest group will access 12.5million shillings interest free LOANS
that require no collateral and each year 53 billion shillings will be budgeted for. No doubt, the scheme is another of the Museveni tricks to hoodwink the youth and a campaign tool for 2016 against a background of growing discontent in the country. PATRIOTISM AND COMPULSORY NATIONAL SERVICE
Previous attempts to brainwash and indoctrinate the youths by Museveni through quash military/political EDUCATION PROGRAMS
could not take root. Later he came up with patriotism clubs in schools under the the office of the President where unsuspecting youths are compelled to undergo political and military indoctrination. Students in institutions of higher learning are hoarded into police and military camps for quash military training and ideological indoctrination. Some other youths in general are being conscripted into quash paramilitary training and political indoctrinations under the guise of Crime Preventers. Recently the Inspector General of Police announced a plan to recruit another two million Crime Preventers ahead of the 2016 general elections. These youths are being lured into the equivalency of Gestapo - NAZI's secret Police.To further cement the ideological indoctrination along the Chinese, Russia, North Korea, Cuba and other communist states, Museveni has now announced a compulsory National Service as a component of the National Development Plan. Senior Six leavers will be required to undergo nine months of military training and another twelve months of practical skills in military farms, factories, industries, and workshops that will have been commenced by the army officers under the current NAADS scheme. The spirit in which the National Service scheme is being introduced is suspect and no doubt its the final blow to disaster against the youth and future of Uganda. Announcing the scheme, the government issued this statement: "National Service will be a massive program to overhaul our CIVIL
service through inculcating national values,practical skills and patriotism to young people.................... It will also mean the country can have a small full time national army with majority being members in the reserve force."The scheme is a ploy by Museveni to conscript all the educated youth into the movement ideology such that in the near future even access to a public service job will require the presentation of having successfully attended National Service as the old guards will be phased out. By the time Museveni's son takes over from him, the public service sector will be dominated by these national service cadres and the country will have gone back to a one party state. Donning a military fatigue and undergoing quash paramilitary drill can be exciting to young men but the intellectual and ideological damage will have generational lasting consequences.
INFORMATION
IS POWERPosted by Uganda - A Change of Guards! a
Viele GruBe
Robukui
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