The NRM party Secretary-General Rt. Hon. Richard Todwong has called on the NRM party leaders of Kisoro district to prioritize the interests of the people they serve who are the backbone of the party’s survival and longevity.
“Our party leaders right from the village level should at all times have a deep understanding of the major issues affecting people they lead. People have different issues, especially high poverty levels and yet the government has been running many intervention programs to eradicate poverty.”
Todwong made a call while meeting Kisoro district NRM leaders at the district headquarters. He expressed concern of leaders who lack enough knowledge about government programs meant for the people they lead, a challenge he said has crippled service delivery in some areas.
“There are very many government development intervention programs well-articulated in our manifesto that the party leaders in the districts must explain to our people,” he said, adding, “Given that we are the party in power, every leader should work towards implementing our manifesto. Even that money budgeted for in parliament is meant to implement our manifesto since NRM party produces the government in power,” he said urging leaders to keenly monitor the manifesto implementation process.
He blamed the party’s poor performance in some areas on lack of unity and cohesion among leaders, as is the case for Kisoro district council speaker and councillors, calling for total reconciliation and amicable settlement of disputes.
“The success of a party is premised on total unity and coherence among its leaders. A political party is strong because of its people, policies and unity among its members. When we get differences, we sit as a family and reconcile. When we go through our party internal elections and we don't reconcile after tearing each other apart, we tend to create an environment that our opponents take advantage of,” the youthful Secretary-General emphasized, urging district administrative secretaries together with the district party chairpersons to work towards maintaining the party support in the areas.
He however called on the party leaders to interest themselves in understanding the party ideological values to enable them to explain to the people they lead what NRM stands for.
The State Minister for Youth and Children Hon. Sarah Mateke thanked the NRM government led by President Museveni for ushering peace to this country that the people of Kisoro are now enjoying. She said that what is now remaining is eradicating poverty among Ugandans, citing the government flagship program of the Parish Development Model as a magic bullet to poverty eradication among Ugandans.
The senior NRM cadre and Kisoro district NRM chairman, Mr Philemon Mateke also urged the party leaders in Kisoro to always reconcile when there are misunderstandings among them. “When there's an election and one party loses, the loser should always give way to the winner to serve, lest it undermines party coherence,” Mateke said.
The veteran politician who served in several cabinet positions thanked the government for constructing roads that have eased transportation of imports and exports across borders of the neighbouring countries like Rwanda and Tanzania.
“Kisoro used to be a UPC stronghold but we all shifted to NRM. We still pledge our continued support for the ruling government,” he promised.
Other NRM secretariat senior directors present were; the Deputy National Treasurer, Hon. Kyatuhaire Jaqueline, NRM party Electoral Commission Chairman, Dr Tanga Odoi, Director for Mobilization, Hon. Seninde Rosemary and Director for Communication and PR, Hon. Emmanuel Lumala Dombo.
The Secretary-General and his team will be heading to Kanungu on Thursday to address similar meetings as they wind up the Kigezi sub-region working tour.