For the love and determination to empower her people, former Central Youth Member of Parliament contestant, Naava Masitulah Nakibuule has courageously given up the luxury associated with serving President Museveni directly in favor of embracing a legislative agenda.
Naava, also current representative of the President (Deputy Resident City Commissioner) for Nyendo Mukungwe in Masaka city and also Chairperson Women’s League, Gomba District, has declared intention to uproot National Unity Platform ( NUP)’s Saazi Godfery from Gomba East in the next general election.
Yet what is even more intriguing is her approach and the approach that h left many within and without, talking in murmurs. In the politically diverse Gomba, Naava is embracing an all inclusive strategy,openly vowing to leave no one behind in efforts to transform the area she says has largely been neglected by its previous and current leaders.
While addressing a fully packed audience in Ngeribalya, Mpenja Sub County recently, she appeared to call upon the population to embrace government programs intended to redeem them from poverty without minding about their political and religious stratification.
Naava, having unsuccessfully vied for the Youth MP seat in 2021, has had to vigorously explain to her voters why she is seeking to be elected in ” a position of men,” yet she is not bothered, rather noting that there is need to embrace complete cohesion in district characterised by rifts along religious, political and ethnic lines which have the years been identified as Gomba’s main problem.
Our reporter sought to know who exactly this attention pulling soft spoken ‘daughter of the president ‘ as she is commonly referred to I Gomba, her aspirations and inspiration. Below are excerpts from a long conversation with the president’s woman alongside our private investigations.
Who is Masitulah Naava Nakibuule?
She is a wife, a mother, a businessman and a natural born leader. Her unchangeable loyalty to the ruling party, and proximity to the National Chairman has deservedly earned her a name she prides in as “Museveni’s daughter” in Gomba. But what more is there to write about this amazing daughter of the country’s most revered leader?
Naava was born in the mid 1990s to moderately endowed parents who committedly valued education. Amid relative scarcity, they endured to send her to good schools, aware that education would elevate her in status and also send a strong message to other parents to prioritize education for girl children in a predominantly male dominated society.
Naava attended St Mary Kevin Primary school Kajjansi for her Primary Leaving before joining St Mary’s Kitende for both O and A levels. She then enrolled at Kampala International University for a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. As an astute sportswoman, she traded comfort for resilience throughout her school days, where she once represented Uganda in the East and Central Africa netball tournament in Zanzibar.
The birth of a politician in her
Having tried job hunting for some time with little or no success at all, Naava came face to face with the plight of unemployment for young graduates. She would later realise it was time to put her business knowledge acquired in school into practice as it started appearing obvious that the rolling chair jobs she dreamed of in a fully air conditioned room had evaporated.
With the limited savings from her odd hustles, along with support from friends and family, she ventured into the beauty industry, establishing a simple air and beauty shop in Mengo, a major Kampala suburb. With a place to call home, attention shifted to empowering fellow youth in situations similar to hers. She started a Skilling program to equip those who wanted to find jobs but had no practical skills.
Daily encounter with jobless, hopeless young men and women influenced her to dream of a more comprehensive intervention Avenue- the race to Parliament.
Feeling better placed to represent the issues of the youth with practical experience, she entered the fray seeking to represent fellow youths from Central Uganda but lost narrowly, coming out as first runners up.
Invaluable lessons
Despite the disappointment that came with her defeat, Naava doesn’t feel this move ended in vain. ” I learned a lot of things that makes me feel I am a better leader than I was. I met many people along the way, gained first hand insight into the daily life of our people and acquired a more broad range understanding of issues from a national perspective,” she reminisces.
Ideally, the above experience explains why the idea and determination to serve her people can not be compromised.
Focus on Gomba East
On her aspirations for Gomba East, Naava who is characteristically outspoken changes to a more vibrant, swagerific and thunderous tone while explaining her choice to twist arms with men for what most people in her constituency had come to believe was a men only electoral area.
” There is an urgent need to give our people an opportunity to choose from a variety after years of burren representation for Gomba under male leaders. We also need to give hope and inspiration to our girl children who have felt neglected by society as far as leadership is concerned, especially at a time when we all believe equality should e prevailing in every sphere of society.
She reflects on internal weaknesses in the last general election that could have led to the ruling party losing its decades of monopoly in Gomba district, which she confidently asserts is ready and the right fit to address. Gomba East is currently represented in Parliament by NUP’s Saazi Godfrey who beat veteran NRM politician, Kalule Ssengo to clinch the accolade. There has been a challenge of Stansted growth in Gomba which Naava partly blamed on leaders who have been sleeping on the job, thereby failing to remind the president of the key issues affecting the area which she says she comes in handy to resolve.
” There is obviously malwa in the pot but the tubes to pass it on to the people have been blocked. We need a new tube, one with the best connection with the source [ President Museveni],” she passionately pledges.
Her focus, she notes, will be on improving the welfare of the population through promoting social economic transformation. The message and a wide range of time tested gospel by the President to rid the population out of poverty will form the background of her poverty eradication drive, through vehicles such as PDM, Emyooga, Youth livelihood program, among others.
She also intends to prioritize education, especially ensuring school going children keep in school, especially girls. Through partnerships and lobbying, Naava is rooting for the attraction of investors into the district to make use of the available chunks of land, both public and private to further spur growth.
Even though she concurs that there is a lot to be desired as far as developing Gomb is concerned, there are still key milestones achieved that should give hope to the people that even more can be achieved with good representation. She points out the rural electrification program which has brought electricity to the district which has been in the dark for decades.
This, she says, with strategic planning, will extend power to every household if there is good will and commitment from leaders. She also promises to lobby for feeder roads which will in turn facilitate seamless transportation of people’s agricultural produce to markets, thereby financially empowering the people.
She thanks the government for building seed schools but highlights the need for consistent supervision to ensure efficiency and strengthening the link between a parent and teachers which she argues will be monumental in improving the quality of education.
In our next episode of this story, we shall focus of the general profile of Gomba district and what needs to be done to address its issues.
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