Africa shouldn’t depend on West for protection, says Museveni as Uganda’s National Defence College graduates pioneer class

President Museveni has said African countries should not wait for  Western powers to provide for them security of their persons.

 “Security of each country must be provided by its own people not by all these groups running around because the people are the ones who know what hurts them. If you are a good friend, you should always insist on self- sufficiency in security not dependency,” Museveni said.

“That is why Uganda is peaceful and I would like to really advise other third-world people to stop dependency because there is nobody who can know more than you how you can defend yourself. It is a big mistake. You may not have all the resources but the concept should be there and you have the nucleus.”

The president was on Wednesday as the pioneer class of officers graduated from the country’s National Defence College, located in Buikwe district.

The first cohort of officers who graduated at the newly opened National Defence College included nine brigadiers and nine colonels.

Museveni explained that  for a country to be peaceful, it needs to have a national army with capable leadership.

“Now part of the instability which Uganda had after Independence was due to that problem of having no capable army leaders. A fellow like Idi Amin didn’t know anything. He was totally ignorant. So, they didn’t know the idea of loyalty to the constitution; then they could not understand anything about running a country even when they took power. So that was part of the problem. Therefore, right from our student days, we resolved that we must build an army of a new type and that is what we started doing.”

The commander in chief of the UPDF said the National Defence College is a big achievement towards achieving of security goals for the country.

“This college, therefore, is an apex training centre where we shall be training our senior people mainly from the army but also from other sectors because here as a National Defence College, you are training people to be conversant with national defence and security holistically and strategically for the whole country and ot just the army but also other sectors like the economy, politics that make the army strong. Therefore, what we have achieved here is a result of our long journey of consciously building our capacity as Uganda.”

The president however urged the officers to help in the fight  against corruption.

He said, the senior army officers should make sure that corruption which has been a problem in the civilian sector does not penetrate the armed forces.

“The army is moving well but I think you should emphasize the issue of corruption once you happen to be deployed. Make sure corruption which has been a problem in the civilian sector does not come to the army. We have had some cases of corruption. Corruption is very dangerous. If you steal fuel of the army, you steal supplies, you steal money, you are an enemy of the army. Corruption is not the future,” Museveni said.

He also urged the senior officers to train people under their command, pointing it out as a crucial area as far as capacity building is concerned.

“Train the people under your command because the army is first and foremost for fighting. Everybody in the army must be a fighter and a leader of fighters or support the fighter. We don’t want half- baked people anywhere. Training makes people brave. If I am confident of my weapons and my skills, there is  nothing that I will fear.  Always check on the welfare of your soldiers to ensure that they have what they need,” he said.

The Minister of Defence , Vincent  Ssempijja applauded President Museveni for his vision and unwavering zeal to continue developing Uganda by providing a secure and conducive environment for socio-economic transformation.

“There are many things that you have made to happen that have got significant impact to society, but your effort goes un-applauded usually . People may take peace and security as a natural given and fail to recognise that its being in place takes a lot of nurturing like any other important development infrastructural asset like transport network and  electricity, among others,”Ssempijja noted.

“Security is another important pillar of development which must be continually serviced and maintained. “

The UPDF Chief of Defence Forces, Gen Wilson Mbadi congratulated the senior officers for having concluded the journey they started a year ago.

“Even a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

He reiterated that the college comes now to cap the most top tier of the joint military education requirements with added advantages such as reduced cost of training outside the country, the ability to impart Uganda’s  own historical experiences in the officers.

“We have now learnt to make our own strategic thought fishing nets. Thus, we don’t need to ask for fish daily from somewhere else; we are our own strategic thought fishermen now. However, this does notmean that the journey is over. This college now offers to us salient opportunities like ensuring the true homing of the college and securing the environment. This means expansion of the infrastructure and also numbers of people training here. It will also give us the opportunity of pushing for additional programs for the college. It also gives us opportunity to enhance defence diplomacy especially when we shall be having students from the region or even from outside the region coming to attend this course,” Gen Mbadi  said.

“It also gives us an opportunity of benchmarking to transform from National Defence College to National Defence University, the way others in other countries have successfully done it to make their colleges degree awarding institutions and semi-autonomous to ensure uninterrupted funding.”

According to the commandant of the national defence college, Maj Gen Francis Okello, during the year’s course, the UPDF senior officers covered areas on national security, policy formulation, implementation and review, strategic management and research.

Some of the officers who graduated on Wednesday included the former head of the State House Anti-Corruption Unit, Col Edith Nakalema , former UPDF spokesperson, Brig Flavia Byekwaso and former SFC commander, Brig Peter Candia.

The college

Affiliated to Makerere University, the National Defence College  is a national security and strategic studies training and educational institution, premised at producing graduates in strategic leadership to government on national and international security matters.