IGANGA, UGANDA: The member of parliament for Kigulu South constituency, Hon Milton Muwuma has urged Ugandans to always maintain the patriotic spirit to everyone without segregation as the only method of promoting development in the country and emphasizing love for one another.
Hon Muwuma was on Monday presiding as the chief guest at Ibun Baz Boys’ Secondary School in Nakigo Sub-county, Iganga district where 141 students graduated in patriotism after a one-week training at the school.
“As a patriot, you should always think about your neighbour, that if I’m alive then my neighbour also need to live. As you’re stealing public resources just know that what you’re stealing is meant to benefit the country,”
“I know you had that component of environmental conservation and as we move on, we need to leave the environment as green as we found it. That’s the essence of advising you to love your environment,” Hon Muwuma said before reminding the Patriots to preserve their environment jealously.
He urged the students to live patriotic lives by doing the right things at the right time and as well balance both secular and religious education. Hon Muwuma condemned some behaviors by some students who decide to riot and end up causing losses to their school and country as a whole.
“The type of lifestyle you live will determine whether you’re a patriot or not, I advise you to always do the right things at the right time by balancing between secular and religious studies, for example, there is time to be in the mosque and time to be in class. You find some people rioting and burning tarmac which is too expensive to install but they don’t mind because they’re not patriots,”Hon Muwuma added.
The function where the patriotic students received certificates after exhibiting a number of tricks obtained from the training, was attended by a number of dignitaries and parents of the school who emphasized love for the country and consistency with patriotic behaviors.
Iganga Deputy Resident District Commissioner (DRDC), Mr Mwanje Eddy commended the school for being loyal to the government saying they will continue supporting them in return. He urged the students to be united and utilize the spirit of patriotism wherever they go.
“Always be united and it’s very difficult for anyone to penetrate you given the training you have gone through. I urge you to exhibit change for the better such that people don’t regret why you were trained, have that spirit of unity and patriotism exhibited everywhere you go and people will admire instead of leaving patriotism here and going away without it,” Mr Mwanje said.
Mr Mwanje also advised people to embrace government development programs like Parish Development Model (PDM), and Emyooga, among others to fight poverty. He adds that patriotism polishes people to go away from primitive behaviors of tribalism, racial discrimination, sectarianism and habits of undermining other people like those with disabilities.
On behalf of the directors, Mr Waiswa Ogera Faham reported to the guests that the school is Moslem founded with mostly Christian friends as a way of portraying that Islam is all about peace without any discrimination. He said Islam was blackmailed and many looked at it as a religion for terrorists which is not the case.
“This is a Moslem-founded school but most of our friends are Christians, we want to portray that image. You know Islam was blackmailed and people looked at it as a den of terrorists which is not true. Islam is an Arabic word meaning peace, and our official greeting is ‘Asalam aleikum’ meaning peace be upon you,” Mr. Ogera said before saying that when the government came up with the patriotism program, they embraced it because they want to maintain peace.
The headteacher of the school Mr. Waikasi Musitafa said they passed out 141 students after training in patriotism for a week and that 114 were from senior one while the others were from A-level. He urged the students to love their Nation and have positive thinking in their societies.
“You find some people don’t want their clans, religions, families, or country, yet it’s mandatory to love your country given that you’re its citizen. We call upon the patriotic graduates to use the learned skills in transforming their lives and changing their minds to have a positive thinking by wishing well to other people, their families and their country as a whole,” Mr Waikasi said.
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