My association with Full Figure has made me recapture the ghetto, says Museveni

President Museveni has said his association with people who are seen by many as mediocre including Full Figure and Buchaman has paid off through his recapture of the ghetto.

Museveni has in the past few years  paid very close attention to people living in or originating from poor neighborhoods of Kampala City, popularly known as the ghetto by initiating several projects benefitting these people.

He has since appointed Full Figure and Buchaman as “presidential advisers”, a move that has been laughed off by many including experts.

Addressing party members after the conclusion of the Central Executive Committee(CEC) elections on Thursday evening, Museveni who is also the ruling party national chairman said the ghetto people existed way back during his school times and that he paid close attention to them.

“By then, the ghetto people were being called bawejjere and had been neglected by UPC. When I became a student leader, I looked for them and became part of our group so much that when I went to fight Iddi Amin, I went with four people in Dar es Salaam,” Museveni said.

“They were part of our group and in 1974 I handed them to our network.”

Museveni explained that after the 1985 bush war, many of the children of the ghetto people were educated by government but noted there was no systematic follow up on them and that many ended up being “taken” by some people.

“When I noticed it, I looked for them but I was being attacked by NRM structures. They were asking why I was ignoring the party structures but I had to defend myself. I ignored them and went on with the youth,” Museveni said.

“I started programs with(Lucy) Nakyobe(State House comptroller), I met Full figure, Buchaman and that is why in Kampala, the performance is good,” he said.

The President said whereas he was castigated by many including NRM leaders for meeting and starting several income generating projects for youths and other ghetto people especially in Kampala, his efforts have greatly paid off.

He insisted that fruits can be seen in the concluded National Youth elections in which NRM garnered 78% countrywide.

“NRM won exactly in this group(ghetto) they were trying to capture and use against NRM. I demand that NRM leaders avoid the politics of elitism. That is not our heritage. In Luweero we were with these ordinary people.”

Whereas Museveni says his love for the ghetto people dates way back during his time as a student leader, many people, including analysts say his new found love for this group of people is the emergence of Kyadondo East legislator Robert Kyagulanyi, the self –acclaimed ghetto president on the political scene.

Many experts insist that  Museveni sees these densely populated areas with many unemployed youths as key political constituencies that he cannot ignore.