File Photo/Somali Times
President Museveni has urged the people of Somalia to consider building a People’s National Army with the correct ideology of defending their country for peace to prevail. He said the country needs to stabilise so as to raise enough resources for self-sustenance. according to Daily Monitor reported.
This was during a meeting with the visiting President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud, who paid a courtesy call on his Ugandan counterpart at State House Entebbe on Sunday.
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According to President Museveni, like the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), an army should be built on voluntarism to protect the State so that in future, the country can raise resources to pay the soldiers.
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“This is a problem with many West African countries. The collapse of the security apparatus is caused by mixing defence with money. For us we say, you build a people’s liberation army based on voluntarism. That’s how we built our force,” President Museveni said.
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He added that this will enable Somalia, which is three times bigger than Uganda in size, to recruit enough manpower to defend and liberate the country so that it’s able to collect taxes and pay salaries.
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“Get peace first and money later. If the people are there, what you need to tell them is how a poor man can defend himself with or without money,” he said.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud, who finished his visit to Uganda yesterday, informed Mr Museveni that because of the peace ushered in by the UPDF and other peace-contributing countries, Somalia has been able to recruit a good number of community defence forces.