The Minister of Internal Affairs, Rtd Major General Kahinda Otafiire, stressed the importance of security as a fundamental need. He urged future leaders to prioritize unity, democracy, and productivity, highlighting that insecurity poses a significant threat to human life and well-being.
The general made these remarks while delivering a lecture to the second-course members at the NDC, on April 26, 2024, where he emphasized that providing security for Uganda requires a collaborative effort from all stakeholders.
“Security is a basic necessity, providing it to our people as upcoming leaders; we must ensure unity, democracy, production, fair share in determining destiny and satisfying people’s needs because insecurity is a threat to life,” General Otafiire said.
He added that insecurity in many African countries is due to the lack of interest in ideological bankruptcy, misinformation, backward culture, sectarianism, and the inability to understand the laws of nature.
“Sometimes in Africa, insecurity is state-inspired by the misuses of power, where individuals’ interests become state policy,” he added.
Otafiire urged the members of intake June 2023, to engage in advancing unity through the integration technology by eliminating artificial colonial boundaries. Adding that, he proposed the creation of a viable East African State with purchasing power to build an economic muscle as a strategy to defend territorial integrity.
“When NRM took over power in 1986, they introduced local council one system as the first line measure of insecurity, so it is everyone’s role to fight the vice of insecurity,” Otafiire noted.
The NDC is the highest institution of military learning in Uganda and since its commissioning by the President of the Republic of Uganda in January 2022, it is holding its second-course intake in June 2023 with 21 members, among which a public servant at the level of commissioner.