Tuesday 15th, 2020, Presidential Candidate Mugisha Muntu and his team extended the campaign to the districts of Butebo, Kibuku, and Pallisa. While here, Mugisha Muntu officiated a coordination office opening in the Kibuku district. He told the people in Butebo, Kibuku, and Pallisa that education will be a key priority under the ANT government. Education is a fundamental pillar for development as it enriches people's skills, innovativeness, and creativity which are key dimensions for sustainable development. To achieve this, Mugisha Muntu promised the people that under the new ANT government, there will be a paradigm shift from the number of years one sits in a school, to the quality of skills one obtains through the training he/she gets. This will be achieved by eliminating all existing gaps and challenges in UPE and USE on top of bridging the rural-urban divide in terms of access to quality education. “The Alliance for National Transformation will work towards raising standards in UPE and USE schools so that the child who studies in a government school upcountry receives the same education as the one in a private school in the cities,” Muntu said.
The presidential candidate further talked of leadership and governance gaps that have compromised the socioeconomic progress of the nation. He said that this came because of self-centered people who diverted the country from the right path of democracy and resorted to self-aggrandizement. He cited the case of the removal of “Presidential term limits,” in 2004 and the more recent 2017 “Presidential age limit removal,” from the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda. He emphasized that the perpetrators of these cases plotted against the future of this great nation. These mistakes orchestrated by a few greedy leaders robbed the country’s smooth progress towards democratization and institutional governance. Mugisha Muntu reassured the people that not all hope is lost, as the next ANT government will re-write history by restoring these safety valves and redirect the nation on the right path.
Mugisha Muntu also spoke about the need to ensure balanced and inclusive socio-economic development. He said that this can be done through investigating activities that employ majority of people like agriculture, tourism, and the service sector. He added that it makes no sense to have developed infrastructure when people in rural communities are locked up in abject poverty, with nothing to eat. The next ANT government will focus on inclusive development through the enhancement of health care, agricultural modernization, and human capital development. He emphasized that this would eliminate all forms of socioeconomic inequalities like unemployment, social class, lack of safety nets, poor housing, and food insecurity, among others.
He asked the people to overwhelmingly participate in the January 14th polls and elect ANT flag bearers, from the local council level to the presidency, and give the country new hope for the future.