President Museveni has expressed his gratitude for the warm birthday wishes he received as he celebrated his 80th birthday on Sunday, September 15, 2024.
“Fellow Ugandans, especially the Bazzukulu, greetings! Thank you to all the Ugandans who wished me well and congratulated me on my 80th birthday two days ago, and to those who came to Kijaguzo and Kawumu to celebrate with my family. Praised be the Lord for life, protection, and blessings.”
He extended his congratulations to the NRM resistance fighters over the decades, as well as to other freedom fighters, including those who founded the UNC in 1952.
“However, yesterday, my Bazzukulu, Hellen Seku, reminded me that as a birthday celebrant, I had not shared my birthday wish with my well-wishers. Since I have not been accustomed to celebrating birthdays, I was unaware of that tradition. To rectify this, I ask for the forgiveness of my fellow Ugandans and Africans. Here is my birthday wish:
‘Fellow Ugandans and fellow Africans, pray and work hard for the realization of the dream of the Pan-Africanists for the creation of the East African Political Federation and the consolidation of the Continental Free Trade Area. This is essential to achieve three historical missions: ensuring prosperity for wealth creators and all Africans by creating a large market for our products; ensuring our strategic security against all threats—on land, in the air, at sea, and in space—by establishing powerful integrated defense systems within the Political Federations where feasible; and utilizing the brotherhood of the African peoples to achieve these two goals: prosperity and strategic security.’
This concludes my birthday wish. I have others, but Seku informed me that only one is allowed. This is what our elders—Wazee, Mwalimu Nyerere, Nkrumah, Modibo Keita, Sekou Touré, Jomo Kenyatta, Tom Mboya, Grace Ibingira, Mwai Kibaki, Arap Moi, Jaramogi Odinga, Ngombale-Mwiru, Joseph Nyerere, Joe Murumbi, Abeid Karume, and others—alongside us, the younger generation, have been striving for all these years.
Mwalimu Nyerere offered to delay the independence of Tanganyika so that Uganda and Kenya could gain independence simultaneously and become one country. It was a mistake not to accept this offer. Otherwise, Africa risks becoming a version of Latin America rather than a United States of Africa.
God bless us all.
Signed: YOWERI K. MUSEVENI SSAABALWANYI, OMUGURUSI.
