The President of Uganda and Commander In Chief of the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces, His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has today officiated at the International Labour Day celebrations at Kololo Independence grounds.
The day was marked under the theme; “Mitigating the Impact of COVID 19; Enhancing productive employment for improved livelihoods through the Parish Development Model.”
Speaking at the function, President Museveni applauded and thanked the theme developers of the Labour Day celebrations for making the Parish Development Model as the main theme. “If you don’t die, you will see good things with time” he noted.
He added that under-development was brought about by the differences in opinions with the elites like the politicians, church leaders and cultural leaders who thought that it was in order for a few people to be rich as the majority remained backward. He named the five elements of the Parish Development Model as:
- Use of land to get out of poverty.
- Food security and income.
- Being calculative and
- Government aid.
In his speech, he also highlighted the tendency of Africans that always want to devour the properties of the deceased. He cautioned Ugandans to wake up and start earning money and leave backward inheritance practices. In addition, he urged Ugandans to get involved in not only working for the stomach but the pocket as well, encouraging them to practice indigenous farming and getting involved in crop production that make money on a big scale.
On government initiatives like NAADs, Operations Wealth Creation (OWC), Entandikwa, Prosperity for All and the Parish Development Model.
He said that they are purposely put in place to involve and benefit everybody but unfortunately, it is the elites that eventually end up benefiting from them.” We want everybody to be involved in getting out of poverty” he emphasized.
He cautioned against Ugandans that show lack of enthusiasm against investors from abroad urging that they should stop the language of indigenous manufacturers against the other and embrace Gross Domestic Product for economic growth.
In his concluding remarks, President Museveni congratulated all workers of the world and of Uganda saying that Uganda still needs a workforce of many more numbers, however, for this to work there should be peace in the country.
President Museveni also launched the master plan for the construction of Mutukula Regional Market.
The minister of Gender, Labour and social development Hon. Among Betty Ongom in her speech said that Uganda has made strides in the direction of decent work for decent income, workers welfare at work, occupational safety and health, legal framework that protects the rights of workers and its enforcement, mechanism and measures to stimulate employment in key sectors and setting standards on issues affecting workers to stimulate employment.
On Ugandans working abroad, she said that there has been introduction of an External Employment Management Information System (EEMIS) that captures the data of all migrant workers leaving Uganda and travelling abroad and yet to institute a 24-hour help desk under the same system so that the government is able to rescue its own people.
Speaking at the same function Eng. Dr Silver Mugisha, the Chairperson of the Federation of Ugandan Employers Association appreciated the Government of Uganda for setting the right priorities industrial growth and services. He thanked the President for initiating the Parish Development Model as a great strategy that will see more Ugandans. He advocated for the introduction of University, technical and vocational training for students to capacitate, train and sharpen them in classical skills to avoid half-baked students.
The Chairperson of the Workers Union, Usher Wilson Owere requested President Museveni to task the responsible authorities to identify indigenous local producers and manufacturers like METU and support them to create jobs for the local Ugandans.
International Labour Day also known as International Workers day is a celebration of laborers and the working class that is promoted by the International Labour Movement and occurs every first day of May.