Museveni celebrates 60 years of NRM, tips party leaders on wealth creation

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President Yoweri Museveni has marked 60 years of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) and offered guidance to party leaders on the importance of wealth creation.

Shortly after being nominated by the party’s electoral commission, Museveni expressed gratitude to God for enabling him to lead the NRM for over six decades through various phases. He said he believes God will guide Uganda through a qualitative transformation.

President Yoweri Museveni, NRM leaders, his seconders and nominators looking on as Dr. Tanga Odoi, the NRM electoral commission (EC) chairperson nominates him to run unopposed for party Presidential flagbearer and party chairman for 2026-2031. (Photo by Simon Peter Tumwine)

“One of the reasons for the NRM putting my name forward is to cause the qualitative leap of Uganda into a high upper-middle-income country in the next few years, preferably far ahead of 2040,” Museveni said, adding that he is ready to contribute over the next five-year phase.

“I am ready to make my contribution in the next five-year phase, both as President and as Chairman of the NRM,” Museveni said. He also congratulated the newly elected NRM leaders from grassroots to district level, noting it was pleasing to see many young people stepping up as the new generation of leaders.

President Museveni addressing NRM supporters shortly after being nominated by the NRM party. (Photo by Simon Peter Tumwine)

“It is now your chance to show that you can lead well. In order to manage politics successfully as we, your predecessors, managed to do, you need to know that productive politics is about ideology and not just about biology and careerism,” Museveni said.

He stated that the party has come this far because it has been guided by historical missions and ideological principles.

Museveni further congratulated the newly elected leaders and said the party would explore affordable ways to support them.

“My advice to you is to be wealth creators if you are not one already, so that you do not look at leadership as a means of living. Political leadership is about fighting for personal interests and not about being a shepherd that Jesus talked about in John 10:11–18.

“If you are not yet a wealth creator, you should see how additional government programmes such as the Parish Development Model (PDM) and Emyooga can help you to start becoming one,” Museveni said, adding that this would allow the party to offer operational support to specific categories.

President Yoweri Museveni (centre) sharing a light moment with Rebecca Kadaga, the second national vice chairperson (female), Moses Kigongo, the first national vice chairperson of the NRM party on his left as First lady Janet Museveni and former Prime minister Ruhakana Rugunda on his right look on. At the back are former Prime minister Amama Mbabazi, former foreign affairs minister Sam Kutesa and Jacqueline Mbabazi looking on shortly after nomination of President Museveni. (Photo by Simon Peter Tumwine)

Museveni challenged the party leaders to reflect on his own sacrifice of leaving well-paying government jobs to fight for Uganda’s liberation.

“You do not have to fight with your arms now, however, you should volunteer to serve Ugandans by defending their legitimate interests against corruption, fraud, criminality, land evictions,” Museveni said, adding that this is the role of principled political leadership.

Al Hajji Moses Kigongo, the party’s first national vice chairperson, applauded the electoral commission for successfully conducting nominations for MPs, LC5 and Central Executive Committee (CEC) members.

“We need to support our party chairman and President so that he can lead us well. But what we need to do now as members of the Movement is make sure that discipline is upheld. We need people to see the difference in discipline between the NRM and other parties,” Kigongo said.

Moses Kigongo, the first national vice chairperson of the NRM party, addressing the NRM supporters at the NRM electoral commission offices. (Photo by Simon Peter Tumwine)

He commended Museveni for his long-standing leadership of the NRM, stating that despite difficult times, he has kept the party together.

Richard Todwong, the NRM secretary general, noted that Museveni had been nominated unopposed but raised concerns about discipline in the party.

“We have realised that many of our candidates are spending a lot of money to convince voters to support them during the party primaries and general elections,” Todwong said. He warned that money should not be prioritised over quality and character.

He also reported to the party chairman that there has been a growing incidence of violence within the party.

Roadmap update

Dr Tanga Odoi, chairperson of the NRM electoral commission, revealed that only one person, President Museveni, expressed interest in the party’s presidential flag bearer position.

Dr Tanga Odoi, the NRM party electoral commission chairperson addressing NRM supporters at the NRM electoral commission offices. (Photo by Simon Peter Tumwine)

Odoi said another contender had picked nomination forms and paid the fees but failed to present a nominator and seconder and did not return the completed forms.

“The electoral commission is a theatre for drama, and we want to request that anyone who shows interest must meet the regulations,” Odoi said. He added that another individual who claimed to have paid sh20m “was playing around”.

The position of first national vice chairperson attracted three candidates. The second national vice chairperson, female, had two contenders. Vice chairperson–northern region attracted four candidates, eastern region nine, Central Region seven, western region eleven, Kampala five, and Karamoja seven.

For special interest groups, the Women’s League attracted 38 candidates, Youth League 71, PWD League 26, Elders League 12, Veterans League 22, Workers’ League 33, and Entrepreneurs League 39, bringing the total number of nominated candidates to 291.

President Yoweri Museveni and the First Lady Janet Museveni arriving at the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party electoral commission offices for nomination. (Photo by Simon Peter Tumwine)

Odoi said that campaigns for LC5 and MPs are ongoing but that elections in some districts have been suspended due to violence and failure to agree on joint campaigns.

In Sembabule, the party agreed that each candidate would conduct individual campaigns monitored by the commission.