By Dean Lubowa Saava
Deep State Political Desk
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has once again called on Uganda’s political actors to embrace peaceful dialogue and reject violence as the country prepares for the 2026 general elections.
Addressing leaders of six political parties during the Inter-Party Organisation for Dialogue (IPOD) Summit at the Kololo Ceremonial Grounds on September 18, 2025, President Museveni said Uganda’s progress depends on leaders correctly diagnosing societal challenges and applying peaceful solutions rather than resorting to subversion, violence, and divisive politics.
The summit, convened under the theme “Together for a Peaceful and Sustainable Uganda,” brought together presidents and secretaries general of the National Resistance Movement (NRM), Democratic Party (DP), Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Justice Forum (JEEMA), and the People’s Progressive Party (PPP).
In his keynote address, President Museveni, speaking in his dual capacity as NRM National Chairman and IPOD Summit Chair, urged opposition leaders to adopt peaceful methods of engagement, emphasizing that mistakes in governance can be corrected over time if the country remains stable. “As we have seen in the last 40 years, the NRM has revived Uganda’s economy.
Although we still face challenges, we are much stronger than ever before. Even if one has a wrong understanding, as long as they are not violent, the country will remain stable, and in the future, mistakes can be corrected,” President Museveni said. He argued that Africa’s biggest tragedy stems from both wrong diagnoses of societal problems and the use of violent methods.
“That is how chaos arises in many African countries. Even when you make mistakes, if there is peace, there is room for correction. But when you combine wrong ideas with violence, you get a total breakdown,” he added.
Reflecting on his long political career, President Museveni reminded party leaders that he had been involved in politics for 65 years, beginning as a Democratic Party youth leader in 1960 before joining UPC briefly in 1970. “Politics must be like medicine. A political leader should be like a doctor—able to correctly diagnose the problems of society.
If the diagnosis and prescription are wrong, the patient dies. If leaders misdiagnose societal issues, their countries collapse,” he explained. He reiterated the NRM’s four principles—patriotism, Pan-Africanism, socio-economic transformation, and democracy—urging that these values remain key to securing Uganda’s future.
President Museveni also weighed in on the recent teachers’ strike, which UPC President Jimmy Akena had raised during discussions. He stressed the importance of prioritizing limited national resources, citing the case of the Soroti Flying School, where pilots and engineers were prioritized over other staff to prevent the school’s collapse.
“In Soroti Flying School, we needed most pilots and engineers of the aircraft, but they didn’t have the money to pay all of them well. They were not prioritizing, saying, ‘We must all get equal; either we all get or nobody gets.’ That logic is not correct. We, freedom fighters, always prioritize. I advised them, and they agreed to pay the pilots well,” President Museveni explained.
At the same ceremony, President Museveni handed over the IPOD chairmanship to Democratic Party Chairman Hon. Norbert Mao. “Thank you for having trusted us, NRM, for the last five years with the leadership I now peacefully hand over,” President Museveni said. NRM Secretary General Rt. Hon. Richard Todwong, also chair of the IPOD Council of Secretaries General, applauded President Museveni for sustaining IPOD after international donors withdrew funding.
“We were orphaned as IPOD when donors left, but as a father, you picked us up and have nurtured IPOD. You have shown that homegrown solutions can address African challenges,” Rt. Hon. Todwong said.
Hon. Mao, taking over IPOD leadership, emphasized consensus-building as the foundation of national unity and committed to a peaceful election in 2026. “So today, I, on behalf of the DP, take the leadership of IPOD.
I want to announce that we shall leave the door of IPOD open. Our agenda will be to ensure that we have a peaceful election, a free and fair process, and that we shall continue to talk honestly about the problems we face, that we shall attack the problems that face Uganda, rather than attacking each other for God and my country,” he said.
