President Yoweri Museveni has called on the people of Somalia to defend themselves against rebel forces by building a People’s National Army .
President Museveni said this while meeting with the visiting President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, His Excellency, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud at State House Entebbe before returning to Somalia.
According to President Museveni, like the Uganda People’s Defense Forces, an army should be built on voluntarism to protect the state so that in future the country can raise resources to pay the soldiers.”
Museveni added “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,”
He added that this will enable Somalia, which is three times bigger than Uganda to recruit enough manpower to defend and liberate the country so that it’s able to collect taxes and pay salaries.
“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.
While in Uganda, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud alongside his Ugandan counterpart on Sunday witnessed the passing out of 2,900 trainees for the Somali National Army who successfully concluded their 4-month special Basic Military Training at the Special Mission Training Centre in Butiaba –Bulisa district.
In attendance were among others; Ministers for Defense of both countries; Uganda’s Vincent Baamulangaki Ssempijja and Somalia’s Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur respectively.
President Museveni thanked the visiting president for coming to Uganda and later bid him farewell back home.